Chapter 40: He is the Future
The number 44 in Yu Fei's hand is one of the most unlucky numbers in NBA history, Jerry West's unfortunate childhood (domestic violence), Pete Maravich's cursed life (control freak father created a twisted personality and successfully predicted that he would die of a heart attack), David Thompson's fall (drug abuse), and Drasa Petrovic's unexpected tragedy (death in a car accident).
That's what Celtic's gear manager wants to say, and the bad luck that this number represents is pretty much the same as everything that has befallen Celtic since 1986.
Len Baias, who was regarded by Reed Auerbach as Bird's successor, died of smoking, less than two days after being selected by the Celtics, and Reggie Lewis, another Bird successor who was awarded four hot pot games to Jordan in a single game, died suddenly on the court due to heart problems. Pierce nearly stabbed to death in a nightclub last year...
Yu Fei is not interested in the history of Celtic's suffering since the mid-80s.
If he knew the details, as a half-Seattle native, he would have said that Green Kai was a good death.
As the saying goes, many injustices will kill themselves, Auerbach exhausted his efforts, and in 1986 he signed back from the supersonics, and chose Len Baias to die, which has been a curse for the Celtics ever since.
Changing into the white team's jersey, Yu Fei began to run in with his teammates.
Since there is no point guard on the team, Yu Fei decided to take turns with Roy as a cameo point guard, with Joe Johnson playing the No. 3 position, Gerald Wallace playing the No. 4 position, and Jack Dawson playing the No. 5 position.
Through the pre-match test, Yu Fei found that Gerard Wallace had no independent offensive ability at all.
Although Wallace claims that he is shooting nearly 30 percent from three-point range in college.
But Yu Fei didn't believe it, because even if it was a normal shooting practice, his shooting rate was less than fifty percent.
The practice is all this kind of accuracy, and the actual combat can throw a hit rate close to 30%?
Yu Fei has no data to verify his judgment, but he is right.
Gerard Wallace made 1.8 three-pointers per game and hit 0.3 of them in his freshman season, shooting a terrifying 17 percent, which is almost the NBA average if multiplied by two.
With this accuracy, it would be a dream to expect him to open up the space.
Fortunately, the white team has Roy and Johnson, two shooters with peripheral projection ability, and Yu Fei can also shoot himself, although the accuracy is not as good, it is much better than Wallace.
After the warm-up, the confrontation begins.
The black and white team stood around the center circle, and the black team looked more imposing as they had three potential lotto shows.
Eddie Griffin, Kadric Brown (SG/SF) and Rodney White (SF).
Judging from the major draft simulations, these three are all stable top 10 candidates.
Griffin, in particular, was selected in the top five of the mock draft in multiple lists.
The news that Griffin turned down an offer for a Rockets tryout came as a surprise to many, as he was extremely confident in his draft prospects.
Therefore, it was a surprise to many that he could accept the Celtic's invitation to tryout.
Because although the Celtics have two lottos, they are not much better than the Rockets, which are 10th in the first round and 11th in the first round.
"You don't jump ball?"
Seeing Yu Fei standing on the side like a defender, Griffin was surprised.
"Would you love to jump with me?" Yu Fei could see Griffin's hostility.
To be honest, he was even more hostile to Griffin.
Since Yu Fei was elected MVP of the ABCD training camp, there have been people who have constantly compared him to Griffin, and those people have been compared with the position of "Griffin is better".
Who wants to be compared to others all day long, and then insist that he can't compare?
The two of them have never fought each other, so why do you say that he can't compare?
Today can be regarded as an opportunity for Yu Fei.
In fact, this is also the reason why Eddie Griffin "deigned" to come to Boston for a trial, he wanted to touch Yu Fei, and by the way, he told everyone with his actions, don't compare him with Yu Fei, Yu Fei is not worthy.
Griffin heard that Yu Fei played center in high school, but now he doesn't dare to jump with him, isn't this a sign of weakness?
"Hmph, you can run away, when I dunk on your head, I hope you can find a proper angle to dodge!"
The person in charge of jumping on Yu Fei's side is Wallace, and the regular center Jack Dawson is not only short in stature, but also not good at bouncing.
In his words, he's good at positioning, pick-and-roll, mid-range shooting, and low-post single defense.
Yu Fei initially thought he might be Hayes' type of player, but when he heard that Dorson was from D2, he came to the conclusion that this was at most a Hayes who had shots but was otherwise bankrupt.
As expected, Griffin won possession for the Blacks and made a tough choice in the low post.
Dawson's defensive posture looked okay, but after Griffin got the ball, he stepped back and shot overhand.
2 to 0
There was nothing Dawson could do, and his talent was crushed.
"After this fight, I won't hear anyone say you're the yellow version of me." Griffin arrogantly said, "I've heard enough of that shit!" ”
What is this victim guilt theory?
Yu Fei is the one who is deeply troubled, what does Griffin have? He is still the top five picks in the eyes of many people, whether he has Yu Fei or not, he is the market in this position.
It's Yu Fei, because Griffin's existence is constantly underestimated, why? Just because this bastard with a problem character brushed up 18 points and 11 rebounds on 42 percent shooting from the field at a mediocre college with a 50 percent win rate?
It's really infuriating!
Yu Fei dribbled the ball over half the court, and before anyone arrived, he beckoned Dawson to come out to block the demolition.
The biggest difference between Griffin and Yu Fei's previous military training is that his athleticism and agility are enough for him to come out and change outside players.
Just as Griffin used a change of defense to deal with Yu Fei and wanted to start a one-on-one in advance, Yu Fei made a pass without looking at people and gave the ball to Dawson at the free throw line.
Yu Fei has confidence in Dawson's shooting, and he didn't miss a shot at the free throw line when he warmed up before.
Now, he's at the free-throw line.
Dawson closes the ball and shoots.
"Huh!"
"Do you guess this defense will make the Celtics coaches doubt your defensive IQ?" Yu Fei teased.
Griffin scolded, "A soft egg who can only pass the ball!" ”
"In a hurry? Don't worry, we're just getting started. Yu Fei smiled and retreated to defend.
Then, Yu Fei suddenly pulled out of his position and let go of Rodney White, who was opposite him.
This time, it was Yu Fei's lack of understanding of White's technical characteristics.
As soon as Griffin saw that Yu Fei wanted to wrap up, he passed the ball out.
White takes the ball on the outside, gets up and shoots, and hits it hollow.
White is considered a safe stock in this draft, and he basically can't get into the top five or fall out of the top 10, so he actively participates in tryouts for all teams and has no problems as long as he is consistent.
At the current level of play, White can play inside, shoot outside, have long arms and have a significant defensive impact.
Yu Fei decided to switch defenses with Dawson in the game before the game began.
But now, if Dawson is allowed to defend against White, can he prevent it?
If you don't do it, it will explode even worse.
Unless they can identify some of White's technical weaknesses on the court for Dawson to target, this defensive alignment will be really difficult to replace.
Therefore, Yu Fei chose to play more off-ball duels with White, and possession was also handed over to Roy.
As the most underrated player on the court, Roy's skilful left-handed dribble made the Celtics coaching staff mistake him for a left-hander, and it wasn't until he shook off a defender with a deft back-to-back shift and scored with a right-handed jumper that everyone realized.
It turned out that he was not left-handed, but that his left hand was so skilled that it was almost indistinguishable from his dominant hand.
"Frye Yu and Eddie Griffin are both hard-to-reach players, but," Jim O'Brien stared at Roy, "how's that young man doing?" ”
The scout shook his head and said, "There is no market, he is a high school student from Washington state, and there is no mainstream list that ranks him in the top 100 in the country before graduation." ”
O'Brien couldn't help but ask himself, was it just a flash of inspiration for him?
Then, another player from the black team started to make a difference.
Kaedrick Brown singled Joe Johnson, both of whom were players favored by the Celtics, and now they faced off directly on the court, with Brown using his physical advantage to blast Johnson's defense and rush to the basket to score.
This was followed by Yu Fei's second shining point since the opening.
Call Joe Johnson's pick-and-roll first, then slow down the break-through tempo to lure the opponent into the trap.
The moment before the pinch was formed, the ball had flown away from Yu Fei's fingertips and rolled into Joe Johnson's palm.
Joe Johnson hit the ball and returned the favor with an open three-pointer.
"That teenager made me feel completely different from Lamar Odom." "Lamar is like a bust of a magician, about 30 percent of a magician, and Frye, he doesn't have the feeling of a magician," O'Brien said. ”
The assistant coaches and scouts didn't say a word, and they all knew that O'Brien was such a god-like chatter.
When Yu Fei blocked Kadric Brown's breakaway layup 11 seconds later, O'Brien said, "This kid is so special, I don't think there's a template in the history of the NBA that fits him." ”
"He's the future."
(1) Pitino's infamous "That Door" speech: Larry Bird won't walk out of that door again (referring to the locker room door), fans. Kevin McHale won't walk out that door again, and Robert Parish won't walk out that door again. And, even if they come back, they will be old men. We're young, passionate, hard-working (Celtic were 24-35 at the time) and we're going to get better. People don't realize it. Once you realize that these three people will not be coming back, the city will be fine.