Super Evolution of Basketball

Chapter 253 Rookie Wall

In early February, the Lakers first defeated the injury-plagued Pelicans, and then won the Trail Blazers away.

On the 10th, the Lakers played against the Pistons at home.

The Pistons are very active on the outside. Reggie Jackson, Pope, and Ilyasova all have outside firepower. The Lakers use the outside defense to limit the opponent's shooting. As a result, they lose sight of the other. The big center Drummond smashed through the inside and lost the game.

Yuan Qingshan was overwhelmed by Reggie Jackson's amazing speed. He received 5 fouls in the third quarter and could only reduce his playing time, not to mention the backup point guard Huertas.

Reggie Jackson scored 38 points, a season personal high.

After Kobe gritted his teeth for nearly a month, the injury recurred, and his left Achilles tendon was uncomfortable. He was further restricted from playing time, and could only play 25 minutes per game.

The team's manpower problem was magnified again. Scott wanted to talk to Kupchak several times, but finally endured it. He was worried that the uniform team was really playing with Towns and Yuan Qingshan.

The closer the trade deadline is, the more big deals will gradually surface.

The mid-season trades are different from those in the summer. Many trades are often just temporary ideas without too thorough argumentation, and some are even traded for the sake of trade.

Scott worried that Jim Buss and Kupchak would gamble with the core of the team's future because they could not resist the temptation or some ridiculous idea flashed through their minds, so after much deliberation, they were not going to talk to them before the trade deadline.

Another big event in February is All-Star Weekend.

The results of the latest round of voting were announced, and Kobe still maintained the lead, followed by Curry and James, followed by Durant, Wade and Westbrook.

From this point of view, the Oklahoma City Thunder are indeed very strong. There are two players who are ranked in the top ten in both the All-Star voting and the MVP voting.

After losing to the Hornets in the away game, on the way back to Los Angeles, Kobe sat next to Yuan Qingshan. Kobe's face was very ugly. He flipped through the iPad, hummed coldly while reading the information, and then handed it directly to Yuan Qingshan.

Yuan Qingshan took a look, it was the ESPN home page, the new round of All-Star voting results page, Kobe Bryant was impressively in the first place, leading No.2 Stephen Curry by nearly 20 votes.

"It's kind of ironic, isn't it? We've been losing games recently, but I'm the champion of votes." Kobe said lightly.

Yuan Qingshan knew what he meant. The Lakers had a poor record recently, but as the team's top star, Kobe's votes were increasing rapidly. This may have touched his sensitive heart.

After Kobe finished speaking, he closed his eyes. Obviously, he didn't want to get an answer from Yuan Qingshan. The question just now was not so much about Yuan Qingshan, but about himself.

Different from the slightly heavy atmosphere of the Lakers, the Pistons held a coaching meeting immediately after winning the game. They studied the game against the Lakers again. The conclusion is that the team is not bad this season and can still make a difference.

This is an exciting consensus. The head coach immediately contacted the general manager in an attempt to persuade him to exchange future draft picks for immediate combat power, preferably the second and fifth positions.

The Pistons uniform team was persuaded, and the dark horse Lakers who were able to win this season did add a lot of points, so they became an extremely active part of the trading market, selling their first-round picks everywhere.

This was an expected lottery pick, and Kupchak naturally received a call from Detroit asking for Yuan Qingshan. To be honest, Kupchak was moved, but after thinking about it for nearly 2 minutes, he still gritted his teeth and rejected the Pistons, because he is now more and more convinced that he can definitely catch big fish with Yuan Qingshan.

On the 11th, the Lakers played against the Grizzlies again at home. This time, Conley and the black and white bears were not polite. They beat the Lakers in the third quarter, just like they lost to the Lakers last month. The game entered garbage time very early.

Towns and Whiteside have too little experience in the game, they can't beat Randolph and Gasol Jr., it's even worse if they replace Frye and Jason Smith, the four inside rotation players of the Lakers collectively misfire.

This is still a situation that has never happened before, even if they encounter Duncan and Aldridge, they have not lost so badly.

Scott and the assistant coaches looked at each other, unable to do anything.

With the superb performance of the black and white bears and Conley's go-between, the Grizzlies pulled back a victory beautifully.

After the losing streak, Scott conducted a serious reflection. In his opinion, Towns and Yuan Qingshan may have encountered a rookie wall.

What is the Rookie Wall?
After the start of each season, the rookies who have just entered the NBA seem to be very active, with endless energy all over their bodies, wishing they could play a full 48 minutes per game.

However, the NBA is a marathon on the basketball court. Starting from the summer training camp, rookies have to practice twice a day for a whole month, followed by eight preseason games. The intensity of both training and competition is definitely stronger than that of college.

Often before you have time to rest, you have to face 82 games on a long road full of back-to-back games and endless days of flying, staying in hotels and taking buses.

The games that need to be played are basically the college schedule multiplied by three, and eventually when the physical strength and mentality start to break down a little, the rookie wall comes.

This is just talking about ordinary rookies. Popular celebrities like Downs and Yuan Qingshan will definitely be specially studied by the other 29 teams. When they have studied you thoroughly, your problem will come. They will definitely arrange defensive tactics for you, so it will not be so easy to get points.

There is no doubt that the stronger the rookie, the greater the resistance he will encounter.

For example, in this game, after the Grizzlies failed in their first confrontation, the coaching staff had a whole day's meeting to study Towns and Yuan Qingshan, and specially designed defensive tactics for them.

These targeted tactics are very effective when implemented by experienced veterans like Conley, Randolph and Gasol Jr., which means that the Lakers' strong points have been destroyed before the game even started.

As for Kobe.

Sorry, the Grizzlies have one of the best perimeter defenders in the league: Tony Allen.

Mr. Tony was on the same level as Kobe throughout the game, and the Grizzlies showed their cards: I just want to use a strong defense to limit Kobe, or consume Kobe.

Coach Scott later put Kobe on the bench because he was worried about getting injured again. The assistant coaches were silent in the face of this situation, and they didn't even dare to make peace.

Kobe's face looked even uglier than when he lost to the Pistons. His teammates consciously stayed away, and no one dared to touch his bad luck.

(End of this chapter)