Rebirth of Hayes Cyclone

Chapter 5 [Accepted a younger brother]

In the first training game of the Rockets, McGrady's red side won a small victory.The most outstanding player is Chuck Hayes of the blue side.He scored 30 points, easily beat Juwan Howard, and established himself in the team in one fell swoop.

No one feels sorry for Howard, including Howard himself. He knows that he is old and will be surpassed by young people sooner or later.This kind of competition within the team is benign, and he is happy to see Hayes and other newcomers grow.The Rockets lack offensive points now. Only when young people become stronger can the Rockets go further in the playoffs.

The training sessions in the afternoon ended soon, and Hayes did not practice any more.One is because he is in a state of excitement now, and the other is that he has other things to do today, helping a poor guy who is about to be laid off.

"Corunna, are you free tonight?" Hayes stopped Azubuike with a smile.

Azubuike played poorly today, and was a little depressed. Seeing that the person calling him was his old friend Hayes who broke up with Mai Dibiao just now, he immediately changed his smile and said, "I'm free. What can I do?"

"Let's have dinner together. Talk about basketball." Hayes laughed.

"Okay, I just have a lot of things I want to ask you, Chuck, let's have a barbecue together, I'll treat you." Azubuike said excitedly.

Hayes is also welcome.They are very familiar with each other, they are teammates in college, participated in the draft together, lost together, and played summer league for the Rockets together in July.

Azubuike knows exactly what Hayes' offense looks like.Azubuike has always regarded Hayes as a marginal man of the Rockets, one of the main competitors for the 15-man roster.As a result, it has only been more than two months, and the progress Hayes has made has already shocked him.Even if he broke his head, he couldn't think that this Hayes in front of him was no longer the former Hayes.

Seeing that Hayes was so fierce in the training game, Azubuike knew that Hayes would start the new season in all likelihood.More importantly, he saw with his own eyes that Hayes had a very speculative chat with the head coach.If the opponent can say a few good words for him in front of the coach, his chances of staying in the Rockets will definitely increase greatly.

Hayes is determined to let Azubuike stay, not because of the friendship in the university, but because he knows Azubuike's future technical characteristics very well.Agile, whether it is a breakthrough or a fixed-point three-pointer, his hit rate is reliable enough, and he also works hard when defending.Even if it doesn't work this season, it will be of great use next season.Keeping him and cultivating him means that the fat and water will not flow to outsiders. It is better to let him sit on the bench than it is cheaper for the Warriors to turn around and deal with the Rockets.

In the barbecue restaurant.The waitress asked: "Gentlemen, what would you like to drink?"

"Have a glass of whiskey." Azubuike looked at Hayes questioningly.

"A glass of orange juice, thank you," Hayes said.

The waitress looked at Hayes, was taken aback for a moment, and burst out laughing.Provoking Azubuike to laugh. "Haha, Chuck, why don't you drink anymore?"

"Don't laugh. I'm going to give up drinking in order to maintain my condition." Hayes blushed.Hayes used to drink alcohol, but Xuan Feng didn't like it. After considering the end of Wen Baker (Sonics star), he decided to quit directly.In the NBA league, drinking and taking drugs is very common. A quasi-nerd like him who doesn't smoke, drink or go clubbing is almost like a dinosaur.

In less than a minute, two large grilled steaks were served.As soon as Hayes smelled it, his appetite increased, and he planned to visit this store frequently in the future.

Hayes picked up a knife and fork, cut a piece of beef, tasted it in his mouth, took another sip of orange juice, opened the conversation, and said straight to the point: "Corunna, we are old friends. When we were off the court just now I've been paying attention to you too, how do you think you're playing?"

Azubuike sighed and said: "My shooting feels bad today. But it's just a bad state, and my shooting percentage will definitely be much higher next time."

Hayes stuffed meat into his mouth again, chewed for a while and said, "Hehe, to be honest, I am very optimistic about you. You are quick in action, sharp in breakthrough, and able to create shooting opportunities. You played too hastily today."

As soon as he heard the other party praise himself, Azubuike was full of confidence in tomorrow's training.

Hayes looked into Azubuike's eyes, and he could see from his eyes that he was a serious person.The tone became a little more serious, and he said: "We are good friends, I really hope you can stay in the Rockets and continue to be teammates, so I must remind you that you are taking the wrong route now, do you know where you are wrong? "

"Please speak up." Azubuike's attitude was very respectful, and the food in front of him didn't even move.

"Defense. You should focus on that. Our head coach Jeff Van Gundy has always put the most emphasis on defense and instilled in the players the most defensive concepts. Maybe your offense will be much better tomorrow and score a lot of points .But if you don’t change it, you’ll end up giving the coaching staff the impression that you’re strong on offense and weak on defense. I bet you’ll be cut by the Rockets after the preseason.”

Azubuike was a little moved, these words were very straightforward, he clearly felt that Hayes was thinking of him, and asked: "Then tell me, how should I change?"

Hayes smiled and said: "I know Jeff Van Gundy very well, and you can see that we have a very good relationship now. It is because I train hard and play hard. If you can work harder on defense, even if you can't defend You also have to do your best. You only need to ensure your shooting percentage in the offense. It’s not about taking as few shots as possible when there are open opportunities. After you break through, you can score more goals and create opportunities for your teammates. I can assure you that as long as you can do these things well, you will definitely stay. Stay here, don't worry about not having a chance in the future."

After hearing this, Azubuike had tears in his eyes, and said, "Chuck, thank you for telling me this. When you were in college, you took care of me like a brother. But just this morning, actually... I still Thinking of you as a major competitor...trying to squeeze you out of the Rockets...sorry."

Seeing Azubuike's expression, Hayes was taken aback.It is said that Americans are more straightforward than Chinese people, and they are less good at playing tricks, so he was a little skeptical.Looking at it now, this guy is really real.Hayes lowered his head, embarrassed to look at Azubuike again, and slowly said: "There is nothing wrong with your thinking, there are competitions everywhere, even if you really push me out of the Rockets, I will not hate you. Hehe, didn’t we both experience the failure of the draft in 2005? I understand how you feel. Therefore, we must work together to let those outside know that they chose the wrong person at that time!”

"Yes. They chose the wrong person!" Azubuike slapped the table.Said loudly, Hayes' words completely inspired his fighting spirit.

"Eat it quickly, the meat is cold," said Hayes, putting another piece of meat into his mouth.

Azubuike smiled and finally started.

"Chuck, can you tell me, how do you exercise? Why are you so strong after only two months." Azubuike asked, this is what he was most curious about .

"Kobe's 6-6-6 routine. I'm doing it too, with a slight twist on his routine. I'm throwing until I can't lift my arms up almost every day. Thousands of balls a day. Still. There's strength training, running, stuff..." Hayes finally got a chance to brag.In fact, his training volume is much lower than Kobe's legendary training volume, and only shooting can be completed.Others such as push-ups, box jumps, etc., if a person of Hayes' size is allowed to "suicide training" like Kobe, he will probably commit suicide successfully.

Azubuike's eyes showed admiration again, and said: "Even so, your progress is too fast, your shooting seems to be more accurate than mine."

"I feel good today, but I may not be so good tomorrow. If you are not afraid of being tired, we will start training together tomorrow. Practice 1-on-1 with me, and your defense will definitely improve. You can also train a lot." Hai Jess raised his eyebrows and smiled.He also wants to find himself an opponent for solo training, and Azubuike is a good choice.

"Okay. I'll listen to you. You are older than me, and you will be my big brother from now on." Azubuike agreed without hesitation.He had a premonition that following Hayes would definitely succeed.

"Well. Don't think too much, just focus on playing well. Defense is the top priority. The Rockets now have Yao Ming and McGrady, so don't expect to get too many shots. What we have to do is to be their best Help. If you take too many shots, it will arouse the disgust of the coaching staff. I shot so many shots today and the head coach acquiesced. He is the only person in the team who knows that I practice shooting wildly." Hayes said.

Hayes now has a very good impression of Jeff Van Gundy. He hopes that he can change Jeff Van Gundy and make him a truly successful coach. Keeping Azubuike is the first opportunity to help him coach. step.

Azubuike is still uneasy about his prospects.Hayes gave him an analysis of the current form of the Rockets.

"Those who will definitely stay include Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Howard, Alston, Battier, Hyde, Wells, Spanoulis, Mutombo, and me. That's 10 people. Novak will stay, and the team chose him because of his three-pointers. John Lucas III will stay based on his performance in the summer league. Kirk Snyder has amazing physical fitness and should also Stay. The last two places, exactly one place, Sura is a player the coach likes, he will be on the injured list at the beginning of the season, and one person will be squeezed out after his comeback. In the end, it should be you and Ryan Bowen, Kay West-Jacobson, Padgett, and Hayaz are here to compete. Bowen averages 1.5 points per game and is too old. He is directly excluded. Hayaz will not be a qualified substitute for Yao Ming. He has height. Your main opponent is Par Jeter and Jacobson. Jacobson has nothing special...Padgett can only make three-pointers except for his height advantage. Besides you, you can shoot suddenly, defend desperately, and I blow in the coach's ear, and Are you afraid you won’t be able to compete with them?”

Azubuike showed a knowing smile, completely relieved.

On the second day, Azubuike gave a new look in the practice game.He shot less and took the initiative to distribute the ball to teammates with better opportunities after breaking through.Only shoot when open.Defensively, Azubuike also thrived as if he had taken Viagra.No matter who is facing up, they are all clinging to each other, preventing the opponent from receiving the ball comfortably.He had nothing to do with Tracy McGrady, but he defended Hyde, another shooting guard of the Rockets, very uncomfortable. As long as the two of them faced each other, Hyde never got an easy shot.

Jeff Van Gundy yelled at Hyde from the sidelines, acknowledging Azubuike in a way.Just relying on the momentum of defense alone, the future Warriors will stay in Houston.

In yesterday's training match, Hayes fully demonstrated his scoring ability.Today, Jeff - Van Gundy let him replace Howard into the red side, and McGrady points in a team with.The work of the pick and roll was handed over to Mutombo, and McGrady had unlimited firepower in the offense.Although Hayes really wanted to play singles, he had no choice but to suppress his temper and reduce his shots. Instead, he passed the ball to McGrady and kept interspersed with running positions.

McGrady's strength, in addition to being unstoppable in scoring, also has his passing awareness.McGrady has a wide vision and is definitely qualified for the position of the point guard. He has to be better than Alstom in his round passing skills, plus his own offensive ability, whether it is shooting or passing, it is more difficult to Take precautions.

Hayes is well aware of McGrady's characteristics, so although he doesn't play like an inside player, he has become a good partner for McGrady.As long as Hayes runs out of the open space, McGrady will definitely get the ball and pass it to Hayes.Hayes scored less, but played better. He attracted the defense after receiving the ball, and also passed a lot of good balls. The teammates who assisted were very comfortable.

The most exciting scene was that after the steal, Hayes formed a one-man fast break. Seeing that no one was catching up, he made a back dunk. He practiced this trick for a long time, and it took him three times to succeed once.This time it was obvious that God was helping him, the ball was dunked in beautifully, and everyone in the audience cheered for him.Today is a public training session, and those fans who came to watch the training match all agreed that Hayes is the best candidate to assist Yao Mai.His main position is considered solid, if he does not start, the fans who have watched the training will not agree.

Hayes is not complacent because of this. He thinks that he has performed so well because the Rockets are too weak inside.Technically, he still needs to improve in many areas, mainly defense.He knows that his defense is definitely not as good as before, especially the awareness of rebounding.He is not tall enough, so he needs to be better at positioning when grabbing rebounds, concentrate, and make accurate predictions. His awareness of positioning is not strong enough, and he is not used to fighting with people inside. This will become his fatal in the official game. hurt.

Now, if Mutombo is around, Hayes can hardly get a rebound. This is not because he deliberately respects the old and loves the young, but the gap.

The Rockets' public training session is over today, and the whole team will rush to Austin (the capital of Texas) to officially start preparations for the new season.The Rockets will train there until October 10, and the content of these training sessions will not be made public to the media.The various media who had seen Hayes' performance in the training session also expressed their silence by coincidence, and did not advertise in newspapers or radio that "Hayes has already practiced shooting" and the like.Jeff Van Gundy has reminded several long-term cooperation media that he will let Hayes hide his outside shooting ability until the beginning of the regular season, so that he can catch opponents by surprise.

That night, Hayes suffered from insomnia.This is not to go to Austin to be excited, but he had the first heads-up practice with Azubuike today.He underestimated Azubuike's offensive ability, and was happily cleaned up by this young boy who had just been recruited.Hayes couldn't guard Azubuike, mainly because he couldn't keep up with the speed.What made him even more painful was that Azubuike articulated what he cared about the most—"Your defense is not as good as it used to be."

During the offense, the two agreed not to use their physical advantages to fight hard, so Hayes couldn't get any advantage in front of Azubuike with half-tuned dribbling.

The next day, the third day... In Austin, Hayes was easily defeated by Azubuike in heads-ups.

Hayes is full of fire, training harder.Especially in the internal group confrontation, he began to practice defense frantically.He couldn't keep up with the footsteps of the outside players, and almost all the inside players were prevented from entering the three-second zone by his strength.The worst thing was Hayaz, the soft inside substitute who was bullied by Hayes with his muscles and lost confidence in himself.Watching him play, the most impression is that he is frequently staggered by Hayes in the interior. He only proved one thing, that is, he is afraid of muscular men.

On October 10, the entire Rockets team had a half-day holiday, allowing the players to relax and adjust their status.Hayes and Azubuike, who have been training continuously, are basically overdrawn, and they both decided to rest.Azubuike went out to relax. He originally wanted to eat something good in the dormitory. Hayes, who was celebrating China's National Day, received an invitation from Jeff Van Gundy.

Jeff Van Gundy was also a tennis fan.He and the famous American tennis player Roddick met at a charity dinner in 05, admired each other and became friends, and left contact information.This time in Austin, Roddick sent Jeff Van Gundy two tickets.The coach's kindness was not good enough to refuse, so Hayes went to watch a tennis match that he didn't understand at all.

The two entered the venue earlier and chatted together.

Jeff Van Gundy waited until the game was about to start before he remembered something and asked, "Do you usually watch tennis? I forgot to ask if you are interested."

"It's very interesting to see, but it won't work if I play it." Hayes laughed.

"That's good. You have performed well recently. I should also comfort you. Yao Ming is about to return to the team. He has minor surgery on his toe, and it will be a little later. I also want to see what effect you will have as a partner with him. You It’s very important to the Rockets.” Jeff Van Gundy already had a good blueprint for the team’s offensive and defensive system in his mind.

"I'm also looking forward to practicing with Yao Ming. One-on-one with him will definitely help me improve my inside defense ability." Hayes laughed.

"I see you've been going heads-up with Corunna (Azubuike) recently. Did you get anything?" Jeff Van Gundy asked curiously.

Hayes was a little depressed, shook his head, and said: "The harvest is that I know my weakness better, and I have to find a way to increase the speed of movement. I really can't keep up with that kid. We agreed not to use physical force, so I always It was a miserable loss."

Jeff Van Gundy stared at Roddick who was entering the court, took a sip of water, and said lightly: "After practicing with you, Corunner's offense has become much calmer, and his defense is much better than Hyde. I think you are really an assistant. Coach Miao Zi. I always thought he was strong offensively and weak defensively, but now it seems we have to keep him. Do you also think he is good, so you asked him for solo practice?"

Hayes smiled: "Yeah. We are teammates in college. I know him. He has speed, can break through, and shoots with one hand. He is very threatening in one-on-one situations. I think he is better than Padgett and Jacques. Boson and others are too strong. As long as he is given enough time, he will definitely prove himself and become an important scoring point on the Rockets' bench."

Jeff Van Gundy nodded and said, "I hope he is really as strong as you said."

With a few simple words between the two, Azubuike's position was determined.The person who left became Jacobson, who was supposed to stay on the team for a short time.The Rockets already have more than enough outside shooters, and Jacobson's staying on the team has little effect.

After the game started, Jeff Van Gundy talked a lot less.Just a clap when Roddick hits a good shot.

Hayes followed suit with a few symbolic claps.He didn't know tennis and began to find the game a bit boring.After watching for a while, he was attracted by Roddick's quick and accurate movement skills, and observed carefully.

"Roddick is so fast, he can run over to catch the reverse ball at the distance like just now. What's the matter with his footsteps, that kind of small jump..." Hayes observed Roddick's footsteps for a while skill, asked.

"That's the basic chopping step. While your opponent hits the ball, your body bounces up slightly, and you land on your toes, using the reaction of muscle contraction to generate momentum. This is the basis of playing tennis. If you increase this speed, you can run half a step longer. distance, hit the ball more than a foot away." Jeff Van Gundy laughed.

Run half a step longer?Hayes wished he could stand up and experience it for himself, and said, "I think he hit more than one foot away. He ran too fast."

Jeff Van Gundy took a sip of water and explained like an expert: "That's because he is on the toes of one foot, which makes it easier to make the next move. This is where Roddick is good. He has a good sense of the ball. It is possible to predict the opponent's hitting direction in an instant, not to mention half a step, but it is possible to take a step and a half faster. But if you land with the opposite foot, it will be bad."

Hayes already had an inspiration, and asked excitedly: "If this technique is used on the basketball court, what will happen?"

"Fortunately, you can figure it out, let's not talk about whether you can predict the opponent's breakthrough route in advance, what if the opponent has already activated during the light take-off process? But I have no problem if you want to try it, but I think it requires a special reaction. Quick, only people with very accurate judgments can do it." Jeff Van Gundy did not expect that Hayes could think of basketball when he watched a tennis game.I value him more in my heart.

"How about a quick response?" Hayes was overjoyed.Since his rebirth, he clearly felt that his reaction ability had become faster than before, and it was getting faster and faster.

With Azubuike singled out again, Hayes is ready to practice this one-footed step.If the person to defend is a defender, he can only use this method if he wants to keep up with the speed.

(End of this chapter)