60: 59.

Three brothers start the involution mode 60: 59.

Three brothers start the involution mode By 9 o’clock, Yang Jing and Zhang Chen looked at their son who came back carrying several chairs, their faces speechless.

The couple guessed, it must have been their son who had taken them out for training, but they found it hard to imagine, as a basketball player, what kind of training would require chairs.

Were they being used as weights?

If you don’t know, just ask!

Zhang Yang replied, “I use them as obstacles to practice maneuvering, the cafe doesn’t have dine-in service in the morning anyway, so it doesn’t interfere with business.”

With their doubts resolved, Yang Jing felt relieved and said, “For the training equipment, should we consider buying professional gear?

The chairs are quite heavy as well.”

“Winter break is only half a month long, so let’s just stick with chairs for now.

The park isn’t far, carrying them isn’t tiring, and it’s also a good chance to build up strength.

We can talk about it again in the summer.”

Yang Jing nodded, not insisting further as it wasn’t a big deal.

After washing up and changing his clothes upstairs, Zhang Yang went downstairs to help out.

After lunch, he went to the cafe to help with chores and even learned how to grind coffee manually from the barista.

He found it quite simple and realized the personal grinder and coffee beans the barista recommended were much cheaper than he thought.

Seeing the price of the hand-ground coffee in the shop, he understood this business was truly profitable.

However, grinding coffee, like brewing tea, could calm the mind.

It’s nice to do it occasionally when feeling restless.

He didn’t often drink coffee, but it could be a way to thank his coach for his care.

He asked the barista to help him purchase a set of a grinder and a long-spout kettle to take to Coach Thomas’s house.

In the evening, he continued his training at the park.

This time, he didn’t carry the chairs, as practicing around them in the morning was enough.

In the evening, he focused on practicing shooting, ball handling, and basic defensive moves.

Compared to the ‘him’ who had practiced defense for three years in college and then two years after college, his current basic defensive skills were barely watchable.

He didn’t aim to reach that old level immediately, but he at least needed to get the basics down to develop better habits during games and avoid having to correct muscle memory later.

Ball handling needed further enhancement, especially for shooting after pick-and-roll and performing the Euro step, all of which demanded high ball-handling skills.

…

A few days later, on the 30th at 6:30 AM, Zhang Yang arrived at the park with chairs and saw a familiar figure, to whom he warmly called out a greeting.

DeRozan responded and then hesitated.

Were the chairs carried from home?

Those wooden chairs are quite heavy, right?

Why not borrow some from the security guard?

Plastic chairs would be much lighter, wouldn’t they?

And there wouldn’t be a need to carry them so far… But he ultimately didn’t ask, just let it be.

After training with Zhang Yang for a day, DeRozan felt an increased pressure.

The young friend was developing new techniques!

Snake-like players are a fascinating bunch, with some being solitary, some prideful, some socially anxious… but very proactive when it comes to learning, even from those less skilled than themselves.

But after trying to learn from his friend’s method of ‘watching Spurs videos’ for learning pick-and-roll shooting and the Euro step, DeRozan gave up, at least for the time being.

These moves heavily rely on rhythm, and DeRozan is not a rhythm player, his style is too different.

He is more of a ‘hardcore technical player.’

However, Kobe had this style too in the first five years of his career, but after attending Jordan’s training camp in the summer of 2001, Kobe began to focus on ‘sense of rhythm’ and after a year of hard training, he saw a significant improvement in the 02-03 season, averaging 30 points per game for the first time in his career, and also excelling defensively.

His young friends Harris and Zhang San both have a good sense of rhythm, and DeRozan could learn from them anytime.

For now, he is focusing on improving his catch-and-shoot from long range, primarily concentrating on high post long twos and baseline threes.

He was preparing for his next two years of high school, aiming to better coordinate with Zhang Yang and Tatum.

Zhang Yang currently focused on shooting from the free-throw line, attacking the basket, and counterattacks, while Tatum specialized in positional team tactics and counterattacks.

DeRozan was responsible for isolation scoring plus long-range support, which was the most suitable style of play for their trio at the moment.

However, DeRozan was very interested in the defensive fundamentals that Zhang Yang was practicing.

In the evening, he would practice with Zhang Yang; when they grew tired, the two would play one-on-one, seriously focusing on both offense and defense, which was also a form of defensive training.

A few days flashed by, and as the vacation neared its end, on January 7th, the fifth day before the end of the winter break, Zhang Yang and DeRozan took Thomas’s car to Compton.

School started on January 12th, and the day before school was a Sunday when their junior varsity team had a game.

Upon arriving in Compton, Zhang Yang first accompanied DeRozan home, and then the two went to find Harden, casually joining him for lunch.

Coincidentally, the first game back at Compton High School was against Harden’s team from Lynwood High School’s junior varsity.

But when they reached Harden’s place, DeRozan heard something he couldn’t accept.

“James, you got into the first team?

Why!” DeRozan sounded very unwilling.

Harden arrogantly laughed, “Hahaha, jealous, aren’t you?

I made it into the first team earlier than you both!

Hahaha…”

Zhang Yang was more philosophical than DeRozan.

He analyzed, “James now plays as a corner three-point shooter.

This type of play might have more opportunities in the first team than in the junior varsity.

In the junior varsity, he often can’t get the ball even when he’s open.

Their team’s coordination is much worse than ours; James’s ability to attack the basket is not fully utilized, the inside often has a bunch of people scrambling around.

If their team wants to develop him better, it makes sense to move him to the first team… Oh, and DeMar, isn’t our James going to the first team soon too?”

DeRozan then remembered.

On the drive back from Hidden Mountain in the morning, Thomas had mentioned that James Keith was going to play as a substitute for Afflalo in the first team.

He felt Zhang Yang’s analysis made a lot of sense… but he was still not convinced!

James Keith was a Grade 10 player, and to think that Harden, of all people, had made it to the first team before him!

Wait, the coaches had mentioned that Zhang San’s tactical awareness, understanding, execution, and leadership… were all better than those of the first team’s Juniors and Seniors.

Could it be that Zhang San might also join the first team sooner?

DeRozan felt even more pressure!

He felt he might end up being the last!

But he was needlessly worrying.

Precisely because Zhang Yang had leadership qualities the first team players lacked, the coaching staff wouldn’t move Zhang Yang, who was not yet quite strong enough, to the first team while Afflalo and Hip were still on the team.

Zhang Yang was in the junior varsity, playing in the second-tier league where many issues could be resolved through physical fitness alone.

But in the first-tier league, physical strength alone was not enough.

A person not strong enough, despite having leadership abilities, couldn’t perform well and might even irritate his teammates.

Moreover, the trio of Tatum, Zhang Yang, and DeRozan as the outside players was seen by the coaching staff as the core lineup for the first team in the next two years.

Letting them play more together to enhance their cohesion was better than anything else.

After lunch, the trio went to fry some fish in the park.

Having not seen Zhang Yang play for over three months, Harden was shocked at his progress; he even felt that he might no longer be able to beat Zhang Yang in one-on-one!

Not acceptable!

He had to hit the books!

However, seeing Zhang Yang easily execute the Euro step while dominating weaker players, Harden really liked it!

After frying the fish, Harden asked Zhang Yang about the Euro step, learning that Zhang Yang had picked it up by “watching Ginobili’s videos,” he also planned to buy the Spurs’ game recordings.

In the past, Harden never watched Spurs’ games.

Although the Spurs had Duncan, the likes of Carter, Ray Allen, Alan Houston… had been victims of the Spurs’ rough play, tarnishing the team’s reputation – it was one of the least liked teams among youngsters.

But for learning skills… watching them reluctantly wasn’t out of the question.

Seeing Harden intent on learning the Euro step, DeRozan felt even more pressure… The Compton Trio had officially formed this winter!