Downtown Minneapolis.

Target Center Arena.

Two two-metre players were in a heads-up battle, with a black youth player on one side and a rare yellow-skinned Asian player on the defensive side.

After the black man used his body to open a little space, he was ready to make a layup in three steps.

"Smack"

Unexpectedly, the yellow-skinned player who was two meters tall rushed in with explosiveness and speed that did not match his skin tone, and ruined the attack.

"Zheng, your defense has become stronger again!" Gossman said depressedly.

"Oh, it's you Lane, your body is stronger than before, and this hit hurts me." Zheng Ke rubbed his chest and bared his teeth and grinned.

"Come again!" Gossman said with high spirits after hearing Zheng Ke's encouragement

In fact, Gossman didn't feel wrong, and suddenly increased his ball-holding defense by 15 points, plus Zheng Ke's arm span, liliang and speed, Zheng Ke's defense changed dramatically overnight! With Gosmán now tightly at 70, his dribble ability value is not so easy to shake off Zheng Ke

The NBA's 2007-2008 preseason season is in full swing, and the offseason has been strengthened by all parties who are ready to make a big move. The Minnesota Timberwolves, who lost their interior pillar Garnett, could only lick their wounds and raise a group of young guards.

Although there are still veteran players like Ratliffe and Anthony Walker in the team, the Timberwolves are too young in general, basically the players are under the age of 25, like the interior core Jefferson is only 22 years old, and Gomez is 25 years old, McCantz is 23 years old, Telfil is 25 years old, Corey Brewer is 24 years old, and Zheng Ke is 18 years old. In this case, although the Timberwolves are full of vitality, they will inevitably make various mistakes.

So it's not hard to understand that all preseason losses are in this situation.

Yes, in all 7 preseason games, the Timberwolves lost, whether they were as strong as the Mavericks or as weak as the Bobcats, the Timberwolves were inevitably defeated. In 7 games, the Timberwolves' most popular performance is still Al Jefferson, who averaged 19 points, 12 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game, but the team's all-lost record has made him questioned by the outside world, and people are worried that he will become the next data brush, his own data is good and the team's record is bad. Zheng Ke's stats are also not good, averaging 15 minutes per game, cutting 3.2 points and 1.3 rebounds, and the poor stats have made the Chinese media ignore his existence even more, and they now trumpet Milwaukee's Yi every day, and compare him to various celebrities, all kinds of celebrities who are contemporaneous or surpassing their contemporaries.

Xiao Zheng himself has already figured it out, except for the depression of feeling powerless about the team's 7 consecutive defeats, he does not want to live or die. However, Zheng's father and Zheng's mother are quite anxious when they can't see the detailed news of their son in the media every day, but this is not a big problem under Xiao Zheng's diligent phone call to report the situation.

The only regret is that he did not successfully complete 10 training tasks, after all, there are only ten times in a season, Zheng Ke in addition to the first time to complete the S-level speed training, the next nine times have only reached the A level, although it is also a little faster, but the imperfection is entanglement after all.

However, after painful speed training, Xiao Zheng's speed reached an outrageous 88, and his speed in the small forward is estimated to be in the top five! Coupled with the improvement of various GS points to the ball-holding defense, Zheng Ke's ball-holding defense actually reached 75, which instantly became the highest attribute in addition to speed, ball control and ball protection, with a defensive rating of 71 and an overall rating of 64.

Although the team played unfavorably, head coach Randy Whitman was pleased to find Zheng Ke's improvement, so in Zuihou's preseason game against the Bobcats, he let Zheng Ke play for 24 minutes, which can be regarded as an affirmation of the kid's hard training and improved strength. "If he keeps improving, Zheng Ke will definitely be able to enter the rotation lineup, become an important piece of the team's puzzle, and even further become the team's starting force!" Whitman thought.

The team's preseason campaign was unfavorable, and the Minneapolis media had mixed reviews of the Timberwolves.

The famous Minneapolis Chronicle believes that the team's offseason operations have been tested from these games, and with Garnett determined to go, the Timberwolves are really happy to be able to trade for a high-quality potential interior player like Al Jefferson. However, as soon as they turned their heads, they believed that the Timberwolves had no other moves other than to trade Al Jefferson, resulting in the team not finding a potential outside line or a powerful outside line to echo Jefferson on the inside. The most unforgivable thing is that although the team has selected the rookie No. 3 and No. 4 swingman Cory Brewer in the draft, as well as the swingman Zheng Ke at the guard, the team's perimeter defense problems are still very serious. Zuihou has played a few preseason games, and actually relied on Zheng Ke's second-round pick to put out the fire, and we can't help but ask our senior management, how do we defend more and more top outside defenders on the outside in the new season?

Zheng Ke is not a person who loves excitement, he keeps his life and rest very regular. Today is October 28, and the NBA regular season begins on October 30. However, there was no scene of the dim-starred Timberwolves in the opening game, and there was no Timberwolves game until November 2, so the team had two days off. Even though there was no training, no competition, but there was a lack of recreational activities, and Zheng Ke, who lacked family and friends, still went to the target center early to train. This time he didn't meet Gossman, only Uncle Henry, the still amiable doorman.

It is very lonely to be unaccompanied, Zheng Ke is alone in a foreign country, without his parents, and all he looks is a blonde or black foreigner. Only he could experience it.

Sometimes he would think of the words of Mencius that he had learned in high school: Heaven will descend on the people, and they must first work their muscles and bones and starve their bodies and skin

After lunch, Zheng Ke sat leisurely on the sofa in the living room of the apartment.

He took a copy of the "Minneapolis Chronicle" and read it with relish, and when he saw his own evaluation, he would always experience it over and over again, whether it was pertinent or not, but the eyes of others in the outside world always had something unique, which was also the so-called fascination of the authorities and the clearing of bystanders. Therefore, Zheng Ke believes that listening to the advice of others will help him improve his own strength and help him better understand the game.

"Whew" Zheng Ke let out a sigh of relief, and finally finished reading it, he personally thinks that articles like the "Minneapolis Chronicle" are still okay, and the comments and opinions in it are also very insightful, and now the Timberwolves lack defensive giants on the outside, as long as he puts the defense up, he definitely has a chance to show his ambitions