NBA: The man who passed the ball to Yao Ming

Zhang Jinshui opened his eyes and saw that Van Gundy had already sat beside him. He quickly sat up straight, rubbed his face to wake himself up, and said, "Didn't sleep, coach, do you have anything to do with me?"

"I'm sorry to disturb your rest. There is something I want to say hello to you in advance." Van Gundy said apologetically.

Immediately afterwards, he leaned sideways in front of Zhang Jinshui, lowered his voice, and discussed with Dawson before, in order to enhance the depth of the team's lineup, he needed to strengthen the team, and let Zhang Jinshui and Yao Ming McGrady participate in the entire team together. Tell Zhang Jinshui about the plan in the process.

"At 8 o'clock tonight, Dawson and I will invite you, McGrady and Yao Ming to Dawson's hotel room. At that time, we will discuss the general direction of the team's reinforcement and target players."

Zhang Jinshui was stunned for a moment, and agreed with all his mouth: "Okay, coach, then see you tonight."

Van Gundy went on to say: "Say a few more words, the reason why I came here to talk to you about this matter is that I hope you will have a mental preparation and do some thinking in advance.

On the other hand, the so-called reinforcement is nothing more than using our players to trade for other players. I discussed with Dawson this morning and decided to give you, Yao Ming and McGrady one each and keep one teammate from being traded I hope you will seriously consider the names of teammates who do not want to be traded now, and then give us the names tonight. "

After speaking, Van Gundy patted Zhang Jinshui on the shoulder, got up and left.

Zhang Jinshui stared blankly at Van Gundy's back, and it took a while before he came back to his senses.

The conversation between Van Gundy and him just now contained too much information.

First of all, the coaching staff and management are still not satisfied with the status quo and want to seek reinforcements even though the Rockets have such an excellent record at the beginning of the season.

That can only show one thing, in their minds, the Rockets have only one goal this year, a championship, and they will not hesitate to break the boat for this.

No matter for him, Zhang Jinshui, or Yao Ming and McGrady, whose peak period can't last for a few years, this is the best news.

Secondly, in the last life, although Zhang Jinshui had seen rumors about superstar players having the privilege of interfering with team transactions from some rumors reported by the media, he never took these reports seriously.

Until now, he didn't know that this privilege really exists, and it is not a simple right to know, but the right to directly affect the team's trading strategy and content.

It is incredible that he, a rookie rookie who has just played 8 regular season games on behalf of the Rockets, was given this privilege.

From it, Zhang Jinshui felt the appreciation and trust of Van Gundy and Dawson, which made him both proud and excited.

"Keep a teammate from being traded?" Zhang Jinshui muttered after Van Gundy's words.

From the beginning of the pre-season training camp, he has mixed with the Rockets players almost every day. Except for Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, he gets along very well with other players.

However, with the superimposed feelings for the Rockets in the previous life, Zhang Jinshui still prioritized a few names that he did not want to be traded away: Uncle Mu, Uncle Huo, Lutherhead and Alston.

In fact, Zhang Jinshui obviously hated Alstom more than he liked it, because he always felt that Alstom would not pass the ball to Yao Ming.

However, after being teammates together in this life, I discovered that Alston really didn't want to pass the ball to Yao Ming, but his passing ability was really limited.

Putting aside the poor cooperation with Yao Ming, Alston's ball-handling ability and chaotic ability are still outstanding as a backup guard for the Rockets.

As for the other regulars in the current rotation: Derek Anderson, David Wesley and Swift, Zhang Jinshui thinks they can all be traded.

In the last life, in order to win the championship dream, Anderson asked the Rockets management to trade himself to the Heat in the 05-06 season.

David Wesley left the Rockets for the Cavaliers after the Rockets finished the 05-06 season tepidly.

The biggest contribution to the Rockets was Swift, who was once expected but was soon sidelined.

After the end of this season in the previous life, the Rockets used him as a bargaining chip to exchange for the snubbed Sean Battier from the Grizzlies, and found the most reliable helper for Yao Mai in the next few years.

After thinking about it, Zhang Jinshui finally decided to leave his place to Uncle Mu.

On the one hand, although Uncle Mu is 39 years old and no longer the bravery of winning the league's best defensive player four times, he has very rich game experience.

The experience of the previous life proves that the aged Uncle Mu is still the best substitute for Yao Ming. Even if Yao Ming is absent occasionally, Uncle Mu can definitely take on the backbone of the Rockets' interior defense.

On the other hand, Uncle Mu plays the role of spiritual leader in the Rockets locker room.

To give the simplest example, before the game against the Pistons, the Rockets players were more or less affected by the negative public opinion from the outside world. Uncle Mu's remarks in the locker room minimized those negative effects.

What's more, Uncle Mu still has experience in the finals. I believe that as the Rockets get closer to the championship, such experience will help the Rockets more and more.

As for which teammate Yao Ming and McGrady want to leave the spot to, whether it will also be Uncle Mu, is not within the scope of Zhang Jinshui's consideration.

He intends to be the first to announce his candidate tonight. If the candidates of Yao Ming and McGrady coincide with his, it just so happens that they can reserve their places for other teammates, which is not a bad thing.

After thinking about this, Zhang Jinshui lay down on the back of the chair again.

At this time, the plane had only been flying for less than an hour. Zhang Jinshui, who didn't get enough sleep last night, actually wanted to catch up on some more sleep, but guessing the team's possible reinforcements made him so excited that he couldn't sleep. He could only continue to maintain his sleeping position and think wildly.

Houston is 1600 kilometers away from Indianapolis, the home city of the Indiana Pacers, and it takes two and a half hours by plane.

At 12 noon, the Rockets' special plane landed at Indiana Airport on time.

Zhang Jinshui took the luggage, walked out of the arrival hall with his teammates, got on the hotel bus arranged by the Rockets early in the morning, and arrived at the Hilton Hotel in the city center at 12:45.

Van Gundy and Dawson organized the Rockets to have lunch at the hotel restaurant.

After discovering that the mental outlook of the players was average, Van Gundy realized that many players might not have recovered from the intense game last night, so he decisively announced that the team training originally scheduled at [-] p.m. Temporary cancellation, let the players take advantage of the afternoon to have a good rest.

This decision immediately caused Alstom and other Rockets players to shout long live.

After lunch, Zhang Jinshui, who was yawning profusely, bid farewell to his teammates and went back to the hotel room to take a good nap.

At 04:30 in the afternoon, Zhang Jinshui, who had slept together for more than 2 hours, asked assistant coach Jim to come to the hotel gym. Under the supervision and guidance of the latter, he did the training moves to improve the dunk ability one by one.

Because he is very concerned about dunking and insists on practicing every day, Zhang Jinshui's every movement is very standard, which has attracted Jim's praise again and again.

Because time was tight when teaching these movements last time, after finishing all the movements this time, Jim explained in detail the target muscle groups targeted by each movement and the training philosophy behind it, allowing Zhang Jinshui to understand the whole set of training Action has a deeper understanding.

After 6:8 p.m., all the training was over. Zhang Jinshui and Jim had dinner together in the hotel restaurant, and went back to their room to take a shower. After a rest, they rang the Dawson Hotel at [-]:[-] p.m. The door of the room.

The door opened, Zhang Jinshui walked in, and found that Yao Ming, McGrady and Van Gundy had all arrived.

"Hey, Zhang Jinshui, come and see, this old boy Dawson only arranged suites for our players, and he lived in the presidential suite." McGrady yelled immediately when he saw Zhang Jinshui.

At this time, Zhang Jinshui also found that the room he walked into turned out to be a large living room, with a huge white sofa, TV, and a business table for 6 people.

The area of ​​the living room alone is already much larger than his entire room.

Yao Ming was sitting casually with Van Gundy at the business table, looking at McGrady with a smile.

McGrady, on the other hand, had a resentful expression of "little daughter-in-law", rummaging in the living room.

Dawson naturally knew that McGrady was joking, and explained with a smile: "My usual room standard is the same as Van Gundy's. This time, I changed this room temporarily because I have a meeting with you."

"There is no evidence to say it. When I go to the next away game, I will ask to check your room. If this standard is still the same, I will report it to Alexander." McGrady said pretending to be reluctant.

"Okay, just check, don't say such a simple request, even if you want to share a room with me, I will agree to you unconditionally."

The two chatted and laughed a few more words, pulled Zhang Jinshui to sit next to the business side, and officially started today's talk.

Because Van Gundy has already said hello before, so there is no need to waste extra words for introduction now.

Zhang Jinshui went straight to the point, announcing that he would leave his spot to Uncle Mu.

Yao Ming immediately laughed. It turned out that his choice was the same as Zhang Jinshui, and he was also Uncle Mu.

In addition to his relationship as a teacher and friend, Yao Ming did not want Uncle Mu to be traded for the same reason as Zhang Jinshui: Uncle Mu himself has a strong internal defensive ability, and he has a strong influence in the locker room.

But since Zhang Jinshui chose Uncle Mu, Yao Ming was naturally happy to choose another teammate.

When he was considering candidates, McGrady first revealed his choice: Uncle Huo.

This choice was also within the expectations of Zhang Jinshui and others. Uncle Huo and McGrady had been teammates for a year in the Magic, and then came to the Rockets together, and the relationship has always been good.

After Yao Ming pondered for a while, he also said his final candidate: Alston.

The reason is that Yao Ming thinks that Alston's ball control is very good. Although he has shortcomings in passing the ball, he is very open-minded.

This choice surprised Zhang Jinshui.

In the last life, Zhang Jinshui, like all the Rockets fans in Huaguo, took it for granted that Yao Ming should hate Alstom because of Alston's poor pass to Yao Ming.

Unexpectedly, it turned out that Yao Ming actually admired Alstom.

As it turns out, sometimes, things can't be taken for granted, especially in the world of the NBA.

When Zhang Jinshui and Yao Mai gave the list of candidates to be banned from trading, Van Gundy and Dawson did not express any opinions throughout the whole process, which can be regarded as a great respect for the choice of the three.

After the roster is finalized, it is finally the turn to discuss tonight's main event, which is the team's future reinforcement direction and potential trading targets.

Dawson took out a few pieces of paper from his briefcase and said, "I won't repeat what Van Gundy said to you before. In short, our management team and the coaching staff have the same goal, which is to use your three-person team , Strengthen the team lineup and hit the championship."

He put the paper in his hand on the table, patted it, and said: "This list is a list of potential players listed by our staff during this period of time. Let me first talk about our specific ideas for screening these players. Right. With the three as the cornerstone, our reinforcement positions are naturally power forward, shooting guard or small forward, and the focus of reinforcement is defense, team players and individual scoring ability that can be achieved.”

Van Gundy nodded next to him and said, "Dawson has communicated with me about this idea before, and there is no problem at all. I wonder if the three of you have any other ideas?"

Zhang Jinshui looked at Yao Ming and McGrady, and said first, "I agree with this idea very much, and I have no other ideas."

Yao Ming said: "I also agree with this idea."

"I'm sure I have no objection. Let's take a look at the list of players first. I'm already impatient." McGrady pulled the piece of paper from the table as soon as he stretched out his hand, looked at it, and said, "I thought the list was so long. Well, why are there only five people?"

Then, McGrady read: "Birdman Anderson of the Hornets."

"Shawn Battier of the Grizzlies."

"Free agent Chuck Hayes."

"Magic's Turkoglu."

"Luis Scola? Who is this person, why haven't I heard of it?"

Dawson explained: "Luis Scola was an Argentine player selected by the Spurs with the 2002th pick in the second round in 27, but because Luis Scola's old club fired a buyout fee of 350 million US dollars, which was much higher than the The highest limit allowed by our NBA league is 50 U.S. dollars, so I haven’t logged into the NBA for a long time.”

"I have watched the game video of this Argentine power forward before. He is very agile on the offensive end, and his offensive footwork is very changeable. I think he is a power forward who is very suitable to partner with Yao Ming."