Ryan West sat on a bench on the sidelines, crossed his legs, a pen in his mouth, and watched intently as the more than two dozen players on the court worked hard to show themselves.

He has a surname that is well-known in the NBA.

His father is none other than the famous Lakers legend and the prototype of the legendary NBA-LOGO portrait, Jerry West.

However, judging from the appearance, people who are not very familiar with the two are difficult to recognize that this is the son of old Jerry.

Ryan West was born to Jerry West and his second wife, and his appearance is more inherited from his mother, only with high eyebrow bones and deep eyes, especially like his father.

Ryan was recruited by the Memphis Grizzlies as a scout for the team in 2002.

He spent eight years in that role before coming to the Lakers in the '09-10 season, also as a scout.

This season, after the team owner's son, Jace Buss, served as director of scouting, the former scouting team was purged and two rookie scouts were dropped.

Ryan West, as the son of a celebrity, was certainly not purged, he stayed.

The Lakers' scouting is mainly divided into two parts.

One is a college scout, who is mainly responsible for discovering new college talents.

One is an international scout, who is responsible for intelligence on newcomers overseas.

These two parts are managed by the Lakers' veteran scout Irving Thomas.

He has been a college scout for the Lakers since the 01-02 season.

And Ryan West doesn't belong to either of the two parts.

He is directly accountable to Jace Buss and scouts any potential rookies.

Of course, for the Los Angeles Lakers, since trading Divac to Kobe Bryant in 1996, they have never received a high-pick draft pick and a heavyweight rookie.

After all, the Lakers, who have Kobe Bryant and O'Neal, have been championship contenders for a long time, so what's the use of draft picks?

This season, the Lakers have already sold away both their 2012 first-round and second-round picks in two trades.

They only have a 2012 second-round pick left in their hands that they traded from the New Jersey Nets for 10 years.

It was a three-way deal between the Nets, the Rockets and the Lakers, who cleared Vujasic's contract and took two second-round picks along the way.

This second-round pick for 12 years was acquired from the Bucks when the Nets cleaned up Chris Douglas Roberts.

As for the Bucks' 12-year second-round pick, it is not the Bucks' own, it is one of the licks that the Bucks got from the Bulls when they traded Salmons with the Bulls in 10 years.

As a result, the second-round pick actually belonged to the Chicago Bulls, who came to the Lakers after three rounds.

The second-round show has an inverse relationship between the signing and the record, and the higher the record, the lower the signing.

Unfortunately, in the 2011-2012 regular season, the Chicago Bulls had the best record in the league.

So the pick for this pick is the 30th place in the second round and the 60th place overall.

That is, the last position of the draft!

Then choose Nima?

By the sixtieth place, the daylilies were all picked up.

This also means that the Lakers will have to do nothing again in the draft.

But whatever you can see, others will also take a fancy to him, and then choose him away.

If it's something you don't like...... If you can't even look at it, then don't look at it.

All in all, the pick is too awkward, and it doesn't have any trade value.

The so-called chicken ribs, it is a pity to abandon the tasteless food, and the last signing of the second round is difficult to even eat tasteless.

You can't eat it at all!

Especially for a giant like the Lakers, there are countless champion shows, top eye shows, and tanhua shows in history, and one is the last in the second round......

Of course, scouts are busier because of this.

Because the Lakers don't have a top pick, they need to go to this kind of training camp in the middle and lower reaches to find a treasure.

First, to determine who the 60 will choose, and second, to examine this group of newcomers.

Someone will definitely lose the election, and when the time comes, they will be able to get a few short-term contracts, and maybe they will be able to find treasures.

However, Ryan West doesn't have much hope for that, which obviously has something to do with the Lakers' tradition.

As a wealthy family, located in Hollywood, the center of the West Coast, the Lakers have never lacked starlight, and naturally there is no habit of digging gold in dung pits.

Dick teams like the Spurs, Rockets, and Thunder are not afraid of being dirty or tired, so they like to do this kind of work.

Lakers? Sorry, not necessarily.

Before coming, Ryan West already had his main target, which was Darius Johnson-Odom of Marquette University.

NBA teams don't wait until training camp to start scouting players, as early as college, NCAA games were scouts' battlegrounds.

Johnson Odom is the typical type of older rookie who has strength in college but struggles to survive in the NBA.

Height, weight, age, these are all shackles that players like Odom can't break through, so they can only hover around the goal line in the NBA.

The Lakers mainly fancy his vitality on the defensive end and his relatively strong immediate combat power.

The position of the Lakers point guard has been a big problem in the past two years, and they just traded away the old point guard "Old Fish" Fisher in March.

And the guard Darius Morris, who was selected in last year's 11 draft, was not used as well as he should.

A short guard like Odom is indeed more in line with the Lakers' employment needs and strategies.

It was only natural that West would come to inspect him.

And he had just defended for the first time, and the performance did not please West.

The opponent uses his body to press directly to the inside and score on the head.

He's playing with the 6-foot-3 Marcus Damon, and there are countless point guards in the NBA who are taller and stronger than Damon.

In the past two years, it has been a period of blowouts of high-quality point guards, Rose, Curry, Wall, and Irving have become more ferocious than the other.

Odom this...

When West thought that the Lakers only had the No. 60 pick, he knew he couldn't ask too much.

A 6-foot-6 defender like Fournier, with excellent physical measurements, first-class ball control and projection, is not to even think about it.

Immediately afterward, he saw that Ratliff was deflated under Li Liang's defense.

Quite tough, quite perfect defense, didn't give Ratliff a chance.

After Ratliff's ball came out, Damon caught the ball and shook it, and Odom's center of gravity floated.

Odom was in too much of a hurry to prove himself.

Damon dribbled directly from the middle and cut into the three-second zone, like a hot knife cutting butter, extremely smooth.

Just as Damon was about to make a layup, a strong force came from his hand.

"Bang", the ball in Damon's hand was smashed!

It was Li Liang who came from the right side to make up for it.

Damon didn't expect Li Liang to start so quickly, and he didn't do a good job of protecting the ball, and he was exposed to Li Liang's eyes.

Of course, Li Liang will not be soft.

James, Durant, Jordan's balls have all been cut off, just one Damon, just holding the ball like a watermelon and wanting to go to the basket?

Dream on!

Li Liang, who successfully broke the ball, took the ball into his arms, and then passed it to Fournier on the outside.

"This kid, it's kind of interesting."

Seeing Li Liang's two successful defenses in a row, West began to shift his attention to Li Liang.

West flipped through Li Liang's physical test report and glanced at it, it was relatively mediocre, but there were no big shortcomings.

Especially considering that this is a Chinese student player, it is good to have such physical qualities.

Looking at his school profile again, it turned out to be Kentucky, this year's champion.

West remembered, he watched that game, the kid who came on the free throw at the last minute.

It's a water cooler through and through, it's good for nothing but free throws, how does it feel good to defend?

West decided to keep watching and see if those two goals were luck.

And Li Liang quickly proved with practical actions that luck? Can you transport one to me?

There is no such thing as luck in defense.

Fournier also felt a little surprised, this Bruce Lee, good defense.

After getting the ball, he wanted to cooperate with Li Liang, but found that Li Liang didn't come to answer at all.

He ran to the three-point line and stopped there, and then he did nothing.

So, Fournier took the ball himself.

He has excellent ball control, agility and excellent shooting.

Kim Inglish is no match for him, and Fournier doesn't use his body, relying purely on technical change of direction and turning to the inside.

Throw, hit.

In the next round, the ball was in Li Liang's hands, and Fournier and Odom both pulled away to see how Li Liang would play.

As a result, Li Liang didn't fight himself at all.

He tosses the ball to Odom and lets Odom handle it.

"This guy, don't want to attack, or won't attack?" Ryan West wondered.

He flipped through the information again and saw that in the trial with the ball, Li Liang's overall evaluation was not high.

It seems that this kid knows what to do, and he plays to his strengths and avoids his weaknesses.

Sure enough, Li Liang was concentrating on defense next.

Attacking with the ball?

I'm not good at it, I don't feel it, I won't.

The two sides played back and forth, and Fournier and Odom were both good.

And the three Missouri brothers have an excellent tacit understanding and cooperate seamlessly.

As they fought, the three brothers discovered that this Bruce-Lee was not a soft persimmon at all.

He is the hardest stubble of the three opposite, and he has almost no chance in one-on-one singles!

A three-on-three game is different from a full-court game, there is no quick transition between offense and defense, and there is no such thing as a fast break.

In addition, there are fewer people and more space, so there is less cooperation and more one-on-one opportunities.

Everyone is taking this opportunity to try to show their individual singles ability.

Only Li Liang keeps sabotaging, and his defense is really good.

Although in the system, his [basic outside defense] is only 60, but this is the standard of the NBA.

This group of mid- and lower-level rookies hasn't really experienced NBA-level defense yet.

Li Liang is different, he has played many NBA games in his dreams, defended super newcomers throughout the whole process, and even went head-to-head with Jordan.

His defensive progress comes not only from the direct bonuses of the system, but also from the experience and confidence he has accumulated in virtual real confrontations.

The two complement each other, and it can even be said that without the sweat and energy he put into the confrontation, the system would not have given him a bonus!

The increase in the system score is just a simple number, but Li Liang's gains in the virtual reality confrontation are far more than that.

"Foul! Foul, you're foul! ”

When Ratliff was holding the ball to attack the basket, he was slapped off by Li Liang.

This ball Li Liang's hand touched Ratliff's forearm, which was not particularly obvious, but Ratliff shouted a foul.

No way, if he doesn't shout fouls, will he still have a chance to perform?

Li Liang raised his hand and didn't say anything, if it is a foul, it will be a foul.

The Missouri trio served quickly from the baseline, and Ratliffe retreated to near the three-point line, receiving the ball and shooting directly!

He could only jump shot, and didn't dare to rush Li Liang one-on-one again.

"Huh!"

After hitting a mid-range shot, Ratliff was relieved and finally scored!

It's so TM hard!

Why is this Kentucky water cooler defense so good?

Is it any wonder that the University of Kentucky won the national championship this season, it turns out that their benches are so deep and the water coolers are so strong?

The three Missouri brothers felt that they seemed to have a new understanding of the strength of the NCAA.

No wonder they were eliminated in the second round, it turns out that there are people outside the world, and there are heavens outside the sky.

Ratliff scored, but this kind of unprepared mid-range jumper had no value in the eyes of scouts.

Li Liang has not scored so far, because no one has passed the ball to him, he has been squatting in the bottom corner to grow mushrooms.

It was originally a patchwork team of three, everyone was both teammates and opponents, and the ball was not kept in their hands to play.

In another round, Odom successfully intercepted the ball from Damon's hand.

His defensive strength is still very strong, and he is familiar with Damon's routine, and he can always defend once.

Odom himself holds the ball outside the three-point line, and then holds the ball and swoops it out!

Today, he was caught off by Damon several times, so he had to find some ground.

When it came to the inside, Damon stuck to Odom, because there was no referee, and the two sides moved bigger.

Ratliff let Li Liang come over to help defend him.

Odom makes a forced pull-out, jumper with a little step back!

No.

West on the sidelines shook his head, 188 tall, but not known for speed.

In an NBA-level confrontation, such explosiveness and speed can't tear apart the defense at all.

The ball bounces off the basket and the three grab a piece.

No one grabbed it, and the ball flew straight out.

flew outside the three-point line and landed in the hands of Li Liang.

This is Li Liang's chance, and he hasn't scored so far.

45-degree angle on the right.

Li Liang took the ball, didn't have much preparation, didn't aim at all, just threw it!

The ball flew out of a high arc and then through the net.

Hit.

An easy-to-use three-pointer is still the standard distance in the NBA.

After scoring the goal, Li Liang touched his nose and didn't feel sweaty.

It's really comfortable to play like this, defense + squatting for three points, easy + happy.

Li Liang is relaxed and happy, but Ryan West is on pins and needles.

Because he felt that after Li Liang hit this three-pointer, the other scouts around him were focusing their eyes on Li Liang.

"Oops, this guy is good, huh? If we had to choose, we wouldn't be able to snatch anyone, so we had to make some moves. ”

Ryan West developed a keen interest in Li Liang.

But the Lakers' signing is determined that if other teams are interested in him, they can't steal anyone.

You have to start first!

Although Ryan West did not inherit his father Jerry West's playing talent, he has a heredity in his decisiveness in doing things, which is quite fatherly.

He already had an idea in his mind, and he had to give it a try, no matter what.