69: The three brothers that upset Thomas 69: The three brothers that upset Thomas Thomas also recruited an exceptionally talented point guard, 15-year-old Jimmy Anderson who stands at 180 centimeters tall, hailing from the small seaside town of Anaheim, southwest of Compton.

For Thomas to say in front of Zhang Yang and DeRozan that both Gordon and Anderson have very good talents means that he truly sees these two as the core for the future…

High school coaches fight to grab the future core every summer.

On July 31st, Zhang Yang bid farewell to his parents and was forced by his mother to say goodbye to his younger brother still in her womb, before departing for Compton.

After a week’s vacation, Thomas returned to Compton with the three high school students.

Looking at Harden, Thomas felt regret.

When Harden was 13 and still playing basketball at Mineral Vein Middle School, Thomas had recognized his talent as rivaling DeRozan’s.

In the past few days, he had been watching the training of the trio and saw a completely different Harden from last year.

In terms of ability, Zhang Yang had all-around surpassed Tatum.

Whatever Tatum could do, Zhang Yang could do, and even things Tatum couldn’t do, Zhang Yang could as well.

With Harden, it would have been different.

Harden’s jumper from the wing in the 9th grade was of a very high level in the CIF Division I; his drives to the basket were incredibly aggressive, able to soar up against seven-foot centers and forcefully score.

When it came to scoring efficiency on breaks, Harden was also superior to Tatum.

Zhang Yang, DeRozan, Harden, together they would be an unbeatable combination.

But Harden’s dream was to “escape Compton and rush to the big city,” a sentiment Thomas also felt from Harden’s family.

Of course, he didn’t think it was a bad aspiration to seek a better environment and yearn for a better life.

It was the right thing to do.

He simply regretted not being able to form the ideal trio.

With this in mind, Thomas felt somewhat fortunate that Zhang Yang had “grown crooked.”

Zhang Yang had no idea of vying for the role of the core playmaker, as he was passionate about shooting.

Given the choice between shooting and passing, he would always choose to shoot, and he skillfully and gladly used tactics to create shooting opportunities for himself.

Zhang Yang’s style of play avoided disputes over ball rights with Tatum.

Yet, Harden became the regret that lingered in Thomas’ heart.

…

Arriving in Compton, Thomas dropped Harden and DeRozan at their homes before taking Zhang Yang to the shopping plaza.

Expecting Zhang Yang to buy clothes and sneakers, he was surprised when Zhang Yang instead bought three cardboard cutouts that the shoe stores were going to throw out.

Watching Zhang Yang use cardboard cutouts of Kobe, Garnett, and O’Neal as obstacle training in the yard, Thomas realized it was this kid who had placed the cutouts in Hidden Mountain Park!

Truly…

he had ambition!

Actually, Zhang Yang had wanted to buy one of Yao Ming, but Compton is one of the rare cities in California where Chinese people are hardly seen.

The Reebok stores were full of Iverson’s posters, with not a single one of Yao Ming, so getting a cutout was even less likely.

He had to settle for O’Neal’s instead.

Continuing his training and self-study, on the 7th, Zhang Yang invited several teammates who had a good relationship with DeRozan to join him in celebrating DeRozan’s 15th birthday at his home.

On the 9th, Zhang Yang completed a task and received a reward of +1 to his physical talent, with the new task bringing him a reward that would boost his shooting talent.

Zhang Yang remembered that after he added a point to his physical talent, close to the age of 23, his physical strength was 88, which is the prime age for male athletic performance.

Now that he had added two more points to his physical talent, his physical limit should have reached 90.

This time, it took him 42 days to accumulate 40,000 shooting value points.

Recently, he mainly focused on three-pointers, which initially affected his efficiency.

But with the foundation of mid-range and long two-point shooting, his progress on three-pointers was swift.

After just over a month, his stationary three-point shooting had become quite accurate.

Games in CIF Division I would start in mid-October, two months away.

He had to keep training.

Last season, Zhang Yang watched several of the main team’s games at home and concluded that if he could master the three-pointer after a pick-and-roll, he would add another scoring method to his arsenal.

Memories from the experiences would be sealed at the end of the journey, and as long as he didn’t consciously recall them, they could be considered gone.

What wasn’t sealed were the fundamental skills and technical training methods, as well as tactical knowledge.

Thus, the experiences didn’t affect Zhang Yang’s personal life.

However, he frequently took the initiative to recall those games to use as a reference, adjusting the direction of his future development and studying points of focus for playing matches.

There’s a significant difference between high school and NBA games.

In the NBA, the mid-range shot after a pick-and-roll is a tough move to defend, but in high school games, it’s a terrible option.

In high school games, when playing a pick-and-roll, the two defenders will both rush towards the ball, ignoring the screener.

If you dive in after a pick-and-roll, you’ll undoubtedly be double-teamed.

Therefore, a three-pointer after a pick-and-roll is known as a “quick shoot” technique, which effectively avoids the certainty of being double-teamed after a pick-and-roll.

A few days later, on August 13th, the autumn semester started at Compton High School.

Zhang Yang met Gordon and Anderson, two talented freshmen.

Their abilities were indeed good, although definitely not comparable to DeRozan from last year, but still much stronger than their peers.

Zhang Yang learned from Thomas that both freshmen had directly made it into the reserve team.

This year, the reserve team wouldn’t continue to compete in the Southern California League, but would instead participate in the third-tier Los Angeles County Tournament.

Aboya and Smith hadn’t made it directly into the varsity team as sophomores like DeRozan, but like Tatum from last year, continued to train with the reserve team.

Thomas told Zhang Yang directly that he, DeRozan, and Tatum were confirmed as the core of the varsity team.

The other juniors who had made the reserve team were put by Thomas on the list of candidates for the varsity team.

They still had to prove their strength in the upcoming training camps and warm-up matches.

If they hadn’t improved enough or if their potential had already peaked on the reserve team, they might not be able to displace the 12th-graders who had less talent but were a year or two older and had more game experience.

Some of the players who didn’t make the varsity team last year and were now seniors still hoped to make it onto the team, and occasionally someone would catch the coaches’ eyes.

Keith had made the varsity team in his sophomore year and performed very well, with accurate long-range shooting and a knack for finding open spaces.

The coaching staff had already decided to keep him on the varsity team as the primary long-range option.

Aboya didn’t make the varsity team because Keith was there.

Aboya would only be a substitute on the varsity team, and substitutes on the varsity team didn’t get much playing time.

The varsity team was about delivering results.

In the two weeks before school started, the coaching staff’s training for the varsity team candidates focused on individual skills to see the players’ progress over the past half-year.

During this period, their performances had already led Thomas to make some preliminary decisions.

By the end of August, they officially entered the training camp phase.

The training during this stage focused on team coordination to assess the players’ tactical literacy.

Some players might have been weaker, but their synergy with the three cores might have been better.

Naturally, such players would be a priority for Thomas.

During these two phases, Zhang Yang trained on his own.

Thomas asked him not to direct his teammates’ movements during practice.

The purpose was to truly assess the players’ tactical capabilities.

Zhang Yang felt that such an arrangement was fine, as directing teammates with a better sense of tactics was definitely easier than directing those without any.

He was happy to relax during this stage and focus on training.

After starting his junior year, Zhang Yang quickly understood why Hip regretted not self-studying college-level courses in advance to take exams during his junior year.

The varsity team’s schedule was really tight, packed every day.

During Hip’s junior year, with Stuart, a top-fifty national high-schooler ahead, the burden wasn’t so heavy, and there was still time for fun.

Now he had to rush to the forefront and shoulder the responsibility, which was roughly equivalent to what Hip faced in his senior year.

If he wanted to save 8-10 periods a week for college prep classes, it could really impact the training schedule.

Luckily, he had a talent for studying.

In China, he was considered quite good, and the time during classes in the daytime and before sleeping after evening practice was enough for him.

The tight schedule was due to the increased duration of his training, which had started during the summer.

His physical condition was better than the previous year at this time, and he needed to take advantage of it.

Soon, time reached mid-September.

On the 11th, Zhang Yang spent over 30 days accumulating 40,000 Shooting value and received a reward of a +1 mid-range talent.

As his three-point shooting got more accurate and his speed increased, things got easier.

A new task started, with a reward of a random physical attribute.

His analysis was correct; after adding 8 points to his talent, the task difficulty increased for the second time, requiring 60,000 Shooting value.

Fortunately, it wasn’t doubled again, which was much better than he had anticipated.

On September 13th, Monday afternoon, Thomas announced the official 10-man varsity team roster and the 5 reserves.

This year’s reserves—essentially practice players—were all juniors.

By training more with the varsity team, there was a chance to make it the following year as seniors, but for this season, there was no hope.

If a varsity player was suspended or injured, Thomas would prefer to bring up a player from the reserve team for training.

Juniors who hadn’t made the varsity wouldn’t get more resources from the team, and becoming a practice player was the best case scenario.

After Thomas announced the official varsity roster, Zhang Yang felt a mix of emotions—10 players, 6 juniors: himself, Tatum, Keith, Monroe, Kanter, and Miller; 1 sophomore, DeRozan; and only 3 seniors.

Last season there were 7 senior players, only 2 juniors, and 1 sophomore.

The new season was full of challenges!

Having officially made the varsity team roster, Zhang Yang unexpectedly received a second task—to accumulate 50,000 Shooting value to start a new timeline of training.

Zhang Yang planned to complete the task of upgrading his physical attributes talent first, and then to accumulate Shooting value to start the training.

The task bar indicated that a new task would only be released after completing both tasks, so it didn’t matter which task was completed first.

Based on the growth rate of his stamina, he speculated that the increase in physical attributes or the ceiling of shooting talent had already started to impact his body’s development and shooting talent.

The training mode was based on his current talents and skills, with the expectation that adding a bit more talent before starting the new training would feel somewhat better from a psychological perspective.