This striker is a bit of a monster

Chapter 135 rocket man, Ye Qinghui
In 2005-2006, the Houston Rockets' record was not satisfactory.

Lost to the Spurs in the last game of the regular season on April 4th, the Rockets ended the regular season with a record of 19 wins and 34 losses. The 48th place in the Western Conference missed the playoffs and entered the offseason first. Preparations for the season began.

The MM combination of Yao Ming and McGrady also missed many games due to injuries this year. They played 57 games and 47 games respectively.

Although Yao Ming, who had few injuries before, averaged 20+10 per game for the first time in his career, he suffered repeated injuries. In the next two seasons, he did not play more than 60 games.

McGrady's glass man attributes also began to appear frequently, both in statistics and attendance continued to decline.

Other players on the team, the old Mutong Bo, Uncle Huo, Swift who was valued by the Rockets for dunking Yao Ming, Alstom, Wesley... and other role players cannot be absent from the core Take the team forward under the circumstances.

The timeline goes back to the 2004-2005 season, which was a year of transformation for Yao Ming. His statistics also evolved from a rookie with 13.5 points + 8.2 rebounds to an inside leader with 18.3 points + 8.4 rebounds + 2 blocks. He entered the league's best team and the Rockets Entering the playoffs again, although it is another round trip, it also proves that this team has the potential to become a regular visitor to the Western Conference playoffs.

Many things happened to Yao Ming and the Rockets this year, which also determined the regrets in the direction of history.

After the end of the 2005 season, Yao Ming ended his rookie contract, accepted a five-year 5 million contract from the Rockets, and rejected the sincere invitations from Kobe and the Lakers. The Lakers were unable to get Yao Ming and Kevin Garnett. Under the premise, the final choice was in exchange for Gasol, and Gasol also won two championships side by side with Kobe on the Lakers, creating a good story.

After Yao Ming retired, many NBA commentators felt sorry for Yao Ming’s refusal of Kobe and the Lakers. But in the final analysis, there are probably several reasons. Yao Ming is a nostalgic person. He offered big contracts to both the Lakers and Rockets At the time, choosing your home team was still the first choice. Second, the internal and external framework of the Rockets was fairly complete. Although the team sent away Mobley and Francis, they ushered in McGrady, the scoring champion who broke out in the Magic. At that time, McGrady was in the top four with Kobe, and his immediate combat power was not much inferior to Kobe at that time, and the situation of the Lakers at that time was not so good.

But the facts have proved that Kobe's durability is much better than the glass attribute McGrady. Back injuries have accompanied McGrady for almost his entire career, and broke out on a large scale later in his career.

And this year's Rockets will get the No. 7 pick in the lottery, and there is a probability of getting Zhou Lin.

On April 4, Zhou Lin came to the gate of Toyota Center, and Thomas Myers followed Zhou Lin.

The first stop of Zhou Lin's inspection was the Houston Rockets.

Of course, this is also because Yao Ming is from Zhou Lin's hometown, and he also took the initiative to call to invite him. Can Zhou Lin not come?

I have to give face!
It doesn't matter if it's a reminiscence of fellow villagers, or it's a trial training.

Standing at the entrance of the Toyota Center, a huge promotional poster with Yao Ming and McGrady embracing their arms appeared directly above Zhou Lin's head.

Yao Ming and McGrady at this moment are the saviors of the Rockets.

The fiery red of the Toyota Center seems to still appear in front of Zhou Lin's eyes, and the shocking song "Rocket Man" seems to still linger in Zhou Lin's ears.

Yao Ming and the Rockets have almost become indelible imprints in the youthful memories of Chinese basketball-loving children in the early 20th century.

Familiar battle songs, and must watch the Rockets game in front of the TV every week. Once there is a Rockets game, the school cafeteria must be overcrowded. The most important thing is the various anecdotes of the NBA Rockets.

On the desk and in the pages of the book, there are various stickers of the NBA, among which Yao Ming and McGrady must occupy a huge space.

There is also the must-buy and must-see "Basketball Pioneer News" every issue, which will eventually spread among all the boys in the class. There is a poster, that is standard.

Zhou Lin felt like he was young, and now, he actually had the opportunity to be teammates with Yao Ming and McGrady. To be honest, when he thought of such a scene, Zhou Lin felt fascinated.

But Thomas Myers is not particularly optimistic about Zhou Lin joining the Houston Rockets.

Although the Rockets have a poor record, they rank almost 22nd and 23rd among the [-] teams in the entire league. In this position, the possibility of getting the top three picks is not high.

Of course, in history, there were scary European emperors with pale faces.

For example, with a 1.5% probability of getting the No. 1.7 pick to Chris Webber’s Magic, with a 2.8% probability of getting the No. [-] pick to Derrick Rose’s Bulls, and with a [-]% probability of getting the No. Cavaliers.

But at the same time, there are also many tragedies, so I won't list them one by one.

And as long as Zhou Lin doesn't try out, he will basically be in the top three in this young draft year!
This kind of pick, the Rockets can't get it, unless it's an upward trade.

In the young draft year, not many things like this are done, let alone the Rockets.

And Zhou Lin's ability to play for that team is not determined by Zhou Lin's rookie period. Players in his rookie period are essentially goods.

Another point is that Zhou Lin plays the [-]rd position, and the Rockets already have McGrady who is still a super giant and started to play the [-]rd position. Indeed, Zhou Lin's size can replace Juwan Howard to play the [-]th position. bit.

But once Zhou Lin goes to the fourth position to fight hand-to-hand, then Zhou Lin's technical characteristics will basically be abolished.

Zhou Lin's confrontation and rebounding ability can only be said to be average when he is placed in the fourth position. Moreover, as a rookie, in a team with a complete framework, the proportion of ball possession is very low.

Zhou Lin stood in the Toyota Center again and asked Thomas Jackson to take a commemorative photo of himself, and then hurried into the Toyota Center.

Yao Ming and Zhou Lin are both from Shanghai. When they met, they were very cordial and communicated cordially in Shanghai dialect.

Although Yao Ming had sent text messages and called Zhou Lin before, and even had a blessing video, none of these could compare to the familiar yet unfamiliar feeling of meeting in person.

The 2.06-meter Zhou Lin turned into a primary school student in seconds in front of the big Yao Ming, and the group photo also has a feeling of a little fan.

In fact, almost all players will become small birds in front of Yao Ming.

After retiring, Yao Ming evolved again and became a female Zhao Riyue. Even O'Neill was slim in front of Yao Ming, but in Zhou Lin's eyes, Yao Ming's body shape is just one word, strong!

Yao Ming, who has honed in the NBA for 4 seasons, has already cultivated a strong bottom line. It can be said that he will not be defeated by any center in the NBA. Moreover, Yao Ming also likes to play the kind of jumping male inside line with explosive physical fitness. That kind of thing, that time Warcraft Howard didn’t turn into Xiao Huo when he met Yao Ming. The defensive end resisted, and you didn’t even think about jumping. The offensive end’s small hook and turnaround jump shot made Xiao Huo a little tempered. nothing.

At this time, Yao Ming was at the peak of his prime, and his mustache was a bit domineering.

Zhou Lin originally thought that he could see McGrady, but McGrady was not there.

This season, McGrady suffered a recurrence of his back injury. He fell to the ground after a shot in November, and McGrady’s hidden danger of back injury appeared. He missed almost half of the games, and many games were left by midfield. Got up and played 11 games.

The early exit of the Rockets also gave McGrady enough opportunities to heal his injuries. Because of this, the Rockets will return to the playoffs next season. McGrady played 71 times, which is also the year with the most appearances in the latter part of his career.

Jeff Van Gundy was also there, and it was he who asked Yao Ming to recruit Zhou Lin. After all, the first trial training represented Zhou Lin's attitude and would give other teams some illusions.

Jeff Van Gundy took Zhou Lin to do most of the basic exercises, inspecting Zhou Lin's static data and dynamic data.

The conclusion is excellent talent, the top of the yellow race, and the upper-middle-level physical fitness in the league.

The only flaw is that the wingspan is too short and the hands are not big enough.

This is also a problem with the structure of people of the yellow race. Yao Ming is also an example. Although he is 5 feet 2.26 inches tall and about 2.25 meters tall, his wingspan is a quarter of an inch shorter than his height, only 2.92 meters, and his standing height is [-] meters.

And Zhou Lin's wingspan is only one inch more than his height, 2.09 meters, and this is a fixed data.

For comparison, Durant, who is similar in height to Zhou Lin, has a wingspan of 2.26 meters, which is about the same as Yao Ming.

The 1.85-meter small guard Rondo is a monster with a wingspan, reaching an astonishing seven feet and a length of 2.13 meters.

Wingspan has a great impact on defense, rebounding, and shooting. Zhou Lin, with slightly narrower shoulders, barely exceeds 270 cm in standing reach, while Durant, who is the same height, is 10 cm taller than Zhou Lin in standing reach.

After the single-player test, Zhou Lin was arranged to play against Stromile Swift. This gentleman is the current power forward of the Rockets and Juwan Howard's backup. He signed with the Rockets for 5 years last year. 3000 million contract.

Before the NBA's broadcast contract was upgraded, the salary cap was very low. In 2004-2005, the salary cap was less than 4400 million US dollars. By 2018-2019, the salary cap was already hundreds of millions, almost 2.5 times.

The team's maximum salary has also increased from 1200-1500 million to 3000-4500 million.

In conversion, Swift's contract can be converted into about 5 million in five years.

And this is one of the failures of the Rockets' signing.

The famous scene of this gentleman is that he once dunked Yao Ming in a game, and then he was shocked as a heavenly man.

In fact, Swift's regular scoring method is only a dunk.

The data of 8.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per game is not dazzling. This is due to the fact that as the No. [-] pick, he was given high expectations and was fed with a lot of playing time.

Back then, when Zhou Lin watched the Rockets game, he was also worried about Swift. What kind of mid-range shots smashed the rebounds? It is data that takes mistakes as sacrifices.

Indeed, he can often score top five goals, or even top ten goals, but that's all. He is also the kind of player who lives in the highlights.

The Rockets' patience with him will also run out this season.

According to the trajectory of historical development, this gentleman will be packaged and traded to his old club Grizzlies after this draft, along with Rudy Gay, as a bargaining chip for Battier.

Today, Swift was recruited to serve as Zhou Lin's sparring partner.

The Rockets really moved their minds on Zhou Lin.

The best plan is to be able to draw lots smoothly this year, get Zhou Lin, let Zhou Lin play the fourth position, gradually replace the old Juwan Howard, and become a puzzle piece of the lineup.

And taking Swift out is also an inspection of the goods.

Of course, using Swift to test Zhou Lin is actually not the right way.

The two hit ten balls.

Whoever arrives first wins.

However, Zhou Lin must admit that he still underestimated Swift.

Swift's physical strength and strength confrontation are really strong.

Often rushing to the basket, facing his own block, it is a dunk that is almost flat.

When rushing to the inside line, I couldn't pull it off by myself.

Moreover, this gentleman still has a middle distance!

Zhou Lin always thought that Swift was the kind of mid-range shot that instantly changed McGee's five embarrassing existences, but he didn't expect Zhou Lin to let Swift go a few times, and he actually scored goals.

Zhou Lin knew that he was one-sided. NBA players, after all, are among the hundreds of best basketball players in the world. Don't they have basic basketball skills?
It's unrealistic, but after entering the NBA, everyone will gradually have their own identity card and role positioning.

And the next training direction and style of play will follow the established track, and in the game, under the high-intensity confrontation, it is inevitable that those technical characteristics that are not specialized will become weak links.

Of course, some things are still the same. Swift really loves to jump, especially after Zhou Lin made consecutive three-pointers. Swift can't wait to press himself down with every ball.

He ate too many fake moves, so Zhou Lin quickly found the feeling.

The two played a total of three rounds, the scores were 10-6, 10-4, 10-5, and Zhou Lin won three games in a row.

Yao Ming smiled and handed water to Zhou Lin, and asked, "How do you feel now?"

Zhou Lin said bluntly in his hometown dialect: "Da Laohei's body is really good, and his muscles are also strong. The most terrifying thing is that the speed of playing is really fast, but it's not good to love jumping too much."

Yao Ming laughed and said: "That's right, Swift is a rough guy, the Rockets signed him with a big contract, it's a bit funny, but in the future, don't think that everyone is Swift, you will meet many Players who have Swift's body, but their skills are much more delicate than yours, polish it slowly."

"Well, if I beat him, shooting and ball handling still have the upper hand. How about your body? After entering the NBA, practice hard." Zhou Lin nodded.

Yao Ming said: "I want to draw you to the Rockets. This year's Rockets have a lottery pick, but ah, if you come to the Rockets, you can only play at the 33th position, so you have enough playing time, Zhu Wan. After all, Howard is almost [-] years old, and you may still have the opportunity to start, and the team will definitely be willing to spend more effort to train you."

A player with a height of 2.06 meters, in most teams, will be used as a player in the fourth position, and it was not until the birth of Kevin Durant that many teams changed. Big players will have so many advantages when playing outside.

(End of this chapter)