Versatile Point Forward

Chapter 90 Rejection of Joint Trial Training
Although some mainstream media in the United States have released their predictions for the draft picks before, they reached their peak after the NCAA finals. Almost every few days, a completely different list of predictions is freshly released.Not only are the fans interested in these predictions, but the team management is also trying to find some clues from them to see if they can use the draft picks in their hands to select the players they are optimistic about.

But no matter how it changes, the troika that helped UCLA win the championship, Westbrook, Ye Feng and Love are all firmly in the top ten, and the striker is also optimistic about being selected in the first round.However, experts believe that a functional player with obvious advantages and disadvantages like him can only be selected in the second half of the first round, which means that the lottery area is out of the question.But after all, the treatment of the first-round picks is much better than that of the second-round picks, and Mbah a Moute himself is not dissatisfied. He keeps scrolling the webpage with his mobile phone every day, with a smile on his face.In contrast, several of his juniors were very calm. After Ye Feng introduced Bill Duffy to Westbrook and Love, after some in-depth exchanges and confirmation with his family, Duffy had more Two potential rookies.

Duffy, the embryo of the three superstars, was quite optimistic. He didn't hesitate to leave other jobs at hand to the employees of the company, and he personally relied on his contacts to inquire about the [-] teams in the lottery.To his relief, most of the lottery teams have expressed strong interest in these three young people, but as a veteran of the agent industry, Duffy knows that this is just a verbal statement from the management. It is not worth a dime, and it is not even ruled out that it is a smoke bomb released by the team to select other players. It is not yet known where they will be selected.When he informed Ye Feng and the others of the feedback he got, he poured cold water on them by the way, which is why they seem calmer than Ba ​​Moute now.

Soon the NBA announced the list of players participating in this year's joint trial training. Ye Feng found a lot of interesting people in this list, many of them were players who had played against each other in official games.Memphis' Rose, USC's Mayo, Kansas State's Beasley, Stanford's Lopez, Arizona's Bayless, Kansas' Chalmers and Rush, Western Kentucky's Courtney Lee is all on the list, in addition to some talented players who have been famous for a long time but have not played against them, such as Georgetown University's Hibbert and Rider University's Jason Thompson.

UCLA won a lot of hatred for them this year. Except for a few schools such as the University of Memphis and Iowa State University, no team has ever defeated them in an official game.On the contrary, many teams led by talented players were crushed by them. It is impossible to say that there is no resentment towards the UCLA trio. It became a good opportunity.In fact, even if Ye Feng and the others did not show up in the arena for the joint trial training, the other players who participated in the draft would not have spare energy in the training. , that's really a big loss.Regarding the joint trial training, Ye Feng and Love have no idea, one of them is modest and the other is lazy, only Westbrook, who is afraid of chaos in the world, is jumping up and down all day long, just waiting to show himself in the joint trial training. a face.

The combine was held in Chicago.This trial training program led by NBA officials includes static tests (height with shoes, height without shoes, arm span, standing touch height, body fat content, hand length, hand width, etc.), dynamic tests (vertical jump in place, Run-up jump, 185-pound bench press, 3/4 court sprint, baseline run, etc.), shooting test ([-]-point shooting, including high school, NCAA and NBA distances, mid-range shooting from various positions, catch jump shots, timed moves shooting, etc.), and various confrontation/non-confrontation tests.Before the start of the trial training, the NBA officially sends an invitation letter, and the rookie himself or his agent team decides whether to accept the invitation.You can imagine the joint trial training as a large-scale recruitment fair. If young players want to find a job in the NBA, they have to follow the business principle of "it's a mule or a horse, take it out for a walk".

But under normal circumstances, there are only two kinds of players who will participate in the joint trial training. They are either not sure whether they can be selected, or they want to prove themselves in order to get a better player in the draft.Those well-known young people are like outstanding graduates of famous universities. Several companies have already prepared contracts and are waiting for them. They can be signed on the night of the talent show. Naturally, there is no need to go to a job fair like a vegetable market. Once.Therefore, Westbrook's idea of ​​going to the joint trial training scene to show off did not get Duffy's support. In his opinion, these three people will definitely be able to enter the lottery. The possibility of top ten or even top five is quite high. Necessary to participate in the NBA joint tryout.However, being a good agent for the sake of players, he did not prevent Westbrook from going to Chicago, and if he wanted to participate in the combine, there is no doubt that Duffy himself would accompany him.

Of course Westbrook didn't want to fly to Chicago alone, so he simply picked up his phone and summoned Ye Feng and Love to have a meal together.He didn't call Mbah a Moute, not because he felt that the other party's level in the draft was low, but because Mbah a Moute's family had something to do, he got on the flight to Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, not long after the trial invitation list was exposed. Otherwise, the joint trial training is more suitable for him with his forecasted position of no top or bottom.

Looking at Ye Feng and Love sitting opposite, Westbrook rolled his eyes and said with a playful smile: "Dude, I heard that the players who participated in the joint trial training are some talented players, don't you want to play against them? After they get down, the pick will be higher!" Ye Feng said angrily: "Russell, you don't have to provoke us here, and your reason is not valid at all, okay?" He shook his head. The phone continued: "The latest news, many players including Rose, Beasley, and Mayo have announced that they will not participate in the joint trial training. Are you sure you want to go to Chicago to play with them?"

Westbrook's face collapsed: "What's the matter? How come none of them are interested in such a fun thing? If you want me to say, we should go to Chicago to blind the eyes of those team managers and coaches!" Love laughed. : "Isn't the three of us in the limelight this season not enough? Besides, Mr. Duffy also thinks that we don't need to go, just wait quietly for the draft. I think since he has been an agent for so many years, he must have experience It's very wide, and besides, with his style of doing things, he will definitely not cheat us, at least if he cheats us, his own commission will be much less."

Seeing that even Love didn't support him, Westbrook quickly found a reason: "Okay, okay, if you don't go, you won't go. Even the losers like Rose don't look down on the joint trial training. It's not good to lower your status!" Ye Feng looked at the self-comforting Westbrook speechlessly, and tens of thousands of horses galloped past in his heart, how could there be such a brazen person in this world?Your thoughts are inconsistent in less than a minute. Does your family know that you are so awesome?But anyway, this guy gave up the idea of ​​participating in the joint trial training, or would others still be alive?Ye Feng has always believed in eating meat and leaving a mouthful of soup for others. Before that, Duffy told him who usually participated in the joint trial training. He himself felt that it was not good to cut off other people's hope of entering the NBA.

Soon the local media in Los Angeles released news that the four players that UCLA participated in the draft this year, Russell Westbrook, Ye Feng, Kevin Love and Luke Richard Mbah a Moute will not participate in the joint draft. tryout.Such a news did not cause any sensation, and even the vast majority of people thought it was a matter of course, while other fringe players who were about to accept the invitation to participate in the joint trial training could not help but breathe a sigh of relief, although Rose and others had previously announced Give up, but as UCLA, the NCAA champion this year, it will still make people a little uneasy if their four candidates do not announce their moves.

Even so, the general managers of the 57 teams in the lottery area have a large pile of information about these talented players on their desktops, and even the general managers of the other 2000 teams have already collected relevant information. , because it turns out that there are always some geniuses who will fall out of the lottery due to various reasons, and this time is a good opportunity for them to pick up the miss. There are not a few superstars with low picks in NBA history. Manu Ginobili, who is currently playing for the Spurs, was selected by Buford and Popovich with the 43th pick in the second round, and the Bucks marksman Michael Reed is also a A low-ranking superstar, he was the [-]rd pick in the second round of [-].There are more superstars in the first-round picks outside the lottery area, so teams without a good pick also have a chance to pick future superstars, but the chances are a little smaller.

As the saying goes, knowing yourself and the enemy will never end in a hundred battles. In addition to collecting personal information on rookie players, the general manager and scouts will also inquire about the opponent's decision-making, or understand the player's own wishes, just like Francis back then. He would rather die than join the draft. His Vancouver Grizzlies, in the end the team had no choice but to send him to the Rockets through a three-way deal involving 11 people. This is a very typical case of violating the team's wishes and finally succeeding.

So according to Duffy's meaning, separate trials for other teams will be arranged for the three of them, which will be much better than joint trials.

(End of this chapter)