Chapter Ten: Rapid Progress

  Gavaris Crittenton, height 196CM, weight 90KG. He is not an unknown person, he was a high school teammate of "Magic" Howard, later Howard joined the NBA, in his fourth year of high school, he led the team alone, averaging 29 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists per game, leading Southwest Atlanta High School to win the championship, and was selected into the McDonald's All-American Team.

  After entering Georgia Institute of Technology, he was also cultivated as the core of the team. After playing a season, he participated in the NBA draft and was selected by the Lakers with the 19th pick in the first round.

  Such a campus ace, but was defended by a rookie who had played basketball for three months and started training camp a week later, unable to break through the inside line to score, with few opportunities, and could only jump outside.

  With the help of Brian Shaw, Ye Feng's perimeter defense made significant progress next year. His speed advantage was fully utilized and the coach arranged for him to defend directly on the outside line. Under Ye Feng's close "body hair level" defense, even Kobe would feel uncomfortable. Without relying on blocks, it was almost impossible to receive the ball.

  Outside defense is good, and the inside line's Gongfu Ye Feng hasn't let it down. Divac taught him a lot of inside skills, including snatching rebounds, blocking positions, responding to passes, and small movements.

  Ye Feng respects Divats and is very serious when learning.

  Many players have enviable talents, genius halos on their heads, and carry many expectations, but after entering the league, they perform poorly, and as time passes, their state declines, their performance is mediocre, and even become a burden to the team. For example, Eddie Griffin, Darko Milicic, and Kwame Brown of the Lakers. On the other hand, many floor generals can become All-Stars, Divac is one of them.

  In NBA history, if interior players are compared in terms of physical quality, Divac would definitely be at the bottom, but in terms of intelligence, he should be in the Hall of Fame. The most important quality for rebounding is not jumping ability, but strength. As long as you can keep your opponent outside and occupy a favorable position, you have a high chance of getting the rebound. Divac had several seasons where he averaged over 10 rebounds per game, which shows how clever his playing style was.

  He is a pure floor general, the synonym for tactical center forward. The main task of this type of center forward is not to score, but to initiate or assist in offense. This type of center forward does not require superhuman physical ability, nor do they need to average 20+ points per game. Their value may never be reflected in statistics, but when they join the team, the offense becomes more fluid and players feel that scoring is easy. Top-level tactical center forwards are harder to find than top-level power center forwards because they need to use their brains to play basketball, have excellent court vision, perfect blocking technique, good attacking skills, and passing ability comparable to that of a guard.

  Apart from passing, Divac's fake falling technique was also a strong killer. Some people commented on Divac, "He is like a dead fish being caught by the tail and thrown to the ground." Divac used falls, flies, and rolls with ease, and his expressions were rich and never dragged. He was like a leaf in the giant heap, floating around. His falls on the court were almost perfect, for example, if O'Neal wanted to dunk, Divac could fall realistically no matter where he was relative to O'Neal.

  Players who play with their brains will peak much later than those who rely on talent, this is what Ye Feng needs to learn the most. What he can learn determines how high he can reach, otherwise he's just a springy guy who can run and jump, and his downfall might be as miserable as Swift's.

  Apart from teaching techniques, Diwakar also points out some minor flaws to Ye Feng every day, as subtle as the height of his center of gravity when defending, the lightness and heaviness of his footsteps when moving, the changes in his central foot, especially likes to mention that he wastes too much jumping force.

  Yue Feng sometimes gets stuck in position, easily getting the rebound, but still has to jump with all his might. Divac thinks this extra movement is prone to injury. As long as he lands and kicks someone's leg or steps on someone's foot, he will sprain his ankle and regret it.

  Dywane Wade said that in his era, every team had a few guys who were like enforcers, they would do dirty things and when necessary, use fouls to take out the opponent's core players. Although this kind of thing is less common now, you still can't be careless. Once you get hurt a few times, there will be psychological shadows, and you won't be able to run and jump like before.

  Ye Feng remembers that in the Lakers' playoff series against the Rockets last season, there were seven games with dirty actions by players coming out one after another. This made many fans say that the Lakers lacked a championship temperament, and it's likely that those small actions were taught by Divac, this great master.

  Diaw gave Ye Feng several tasks on the court, and he had to play like this in the preseason. First, on offense, he didn't need to pull up high to cover for his teammates, and if he couldn't make a mid-range shot, coming out to cover would give the opponent an opportunity to double-team him. He needed to be active under the basket on both sides, waiting for opportunities to grab second-chance points and cut to receive passes. Second, on defense, he had to hold his own against the opponent's strongest player. If the opponent was not good at shooting, he needed to observe the situation and provide defensive support by covering the opponent's players who were driving into the paint. Third, protect the backcourt rebounding ball. Grabbing rebounds was last on the list; he didn't necessarily need to get the rebound himself, as long as he could keep his man outside and make it convenient for his teammates to fight for the rebound, that would be completing his task.

  This way of playing is very difficult to get data, it's a typical blue-collar worker who does all the dirty work for the team. In his previous life, he liked Kobe, Wade, James and other super scorers, often fantasizing that one day he could become a scoring master, using scores to solve problems, but now he has to obey the coach's arrangement and start from defense.

  Ye Feng's daily training is very regular. When the opponent's inside line attacks, he is responsible for defending against them. When the opponent shoots from outside and strengthens their breakthrough, he is responsible for supplementary defense. His explosive power makes up for his lack of experience, and he has become one of the best defensive players in the league. One day, after defending Kobe to 7-21 shooting, he started practicing his own shooting after the game.

  This is not to say that Ye Feng became the Kobe killer, no one in the league can completely limit Kobe, and even Batiel, who claims to be a defensive expert, has been blown up by Kobe countless times. How to defend against Kobe is a topic of study for every team. If you get too close to him, he'll break through, and if you're too far away, he'll shoot from outside. Kobe's biggest weakness is his stubbornness. When he can't find the feeling of shooting, he rarely changes his playing style, usually choosing to continue shooting to find his rhythm, and when he finds it, he explodes, but when he doesn't, he becomes a bricklayer for the whole game. He is not a stable scorer, sometimes scoring 40 points with ease, with a high shooting percentage of over 70%, but other times, he's just an ironworker, making the opposing coach laugh all night.

  Unfortunately, the progress on defense cannot make up for the offense's trash. After training every day, Ye Feng would be the last to leave the stadium, practicing basic skills and shooting. He was not satisfied with his performance, and in the entire training camp, he only made 8 shots, except for one high-altitude jump shot that went in, all the others were empty cuts or dunks after grabbing rebounds from the front court, and his free throw percentage was still pitifully low.

  Yue Feng felt that it would be difficult to get signed if things continued like this, but little did he know that the Lakers' uniform group was preparing to sign him as the only trial player who could stir up Kobe's emotions.

  On October 6th, the Lakers completed their last preseason training session before the start of the season, with the coaching staff arranging for several fringe players to participate in a competitive matchup.

  Ye Feng achieved a complete victory over Elton Brown. Brown's offense was mainly in the low position, relying on his strong body to eat hard inside. Ye Feng was slightly inferior in weight, but he didn't lose any strength. He and Bynum practiced for a summer and were very familiar with the fake movements of the low position. Brown's slow speed couldn't get past him, and he could only turn around and make a difficult shot after being squeezed out. As a result, he scored no points and was blocked twice.

  It's easier to deal with Lari. Turner, Turner's playing style is too soft, not only can't he attack Ye Feng, but also can't defend against Ye Feng's half-baked offense. With just one turn, Ye Feng can get past Turner and attack the basket. Turner is definitely going to be cut, he has nothing except his height.

  In addition, several inside players, Cook and Turiav, also found it difficult to score under Ye Feng's defense, and the outside players also suffered at his hands.

  His ability and the performance of the first two days of training camp were like two different people, and everyone thought it was unbelievable. After the training ended, General Manager Kupchak called all the coaches into the office to inquire about the player's situation and decide on the final stay or leave.

  "Jackson reported: I suggest cutting off Brown, Turner and Karl. The potential of these three people is limited, the ability is also lacking, and they cannot bring too much help to the team."

  Several assistant coaches have the same view. After cutting off these three people, the 15-man lineup of the Lakers was determined.

  Kupchak watched Ye's poor performance in the first public training session, and fans who attended that day even posted online to mock Ye's amateurishness. In online lineup predictions, no fan thought he could sign with the Lakers. But now the coaching staff all think he has the ability to stay. For this reason, Kupchak felt puzzled and asked: "I watched the training a few days ago, wasn't Ye very bad? How do you all think he should be kept?"

  Jackson smiled and said, "He is a player who must be kept. I have never seen anyone with such strong learning ability. He has made rapid progress and has begun to adapt to the team's offense and defense system. His offense is very poor, but his defensive ability can rank among the top in the league. He has great potential to tap into, and maybe a few years later, he will become a pillar player for the Lakers!"

  Dywane, who spent the most time with Ye Junjian, also said: "His learning ability is really strong. I think he's better than our first-round rookie, and he was just a guy who only knew how to foul a few days ago, it's a miracle."

  Brian Shaw and Jabari agreed, the crowd's voice was unanimous, Kupchak no longer had doubts, he was ready to sign with Ye Feng.