The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!

The domestic media in the 2000s was like this.

Players barely made a slight impression before they were hyped to the skies, with no concern for their wellbeing.

Yi Jianlian later became the typical case.

After being the 6th overall pick in the NBA draft, the media could hardly wait to write an article about every single basket, every defensive play, every free throw he made, with extremely wild headlines:

"Alian refuses to yield in the face of controversial fouling, could he have continued into overtime?"

"The Hawks' starting center scores a mere 0 points and 2 rebounds, how much should Alian, who earns 19 million, get?"

"Alian dunks over someone in a display of violent aesthetics, a 5-year 34 million enforcer becomes a prop!"

"No one in New Jersey can handle Alian's shooting, a top pick? Rough is just the word!"

...

If it weren't for the media's mindless puffery, at least two-thirds of Alian's "haters" would have fallen away.

Now, before Alian has even joined the NBA, Su Wan has become the target of domestic media's collective adulation.

His performance in the summer league could indeed withstand such hyping.

But Su Wan was very clear that with his current strength, once he joined the NBA, even if he switched on "zone" mode, he would at best be a qualified substitute. Inevitably, he would follow in Alian's footsteps. The media would dissect every move he made frame by frame.

The mere thought of memes like "With just a smile, Su Wan wins the coach's trust" or "Wan Mei" landing on his head was somewhat shameful.

Back when he was a "social livestock," he hadn't played around with those memes infrequently!

Could it be that I am the clown in the end?

This was absolutely unacceptable!

A sense of urgency suddenly surged through Su Wan's heart.

The next day, as soon as dawn broke, he was at the temporary gym, training hard. Although it had been just a week since he had crossed over, after opening "The zone" mode three times, he could now control his body well and undertake basic basketball training with no problem.

On the way to the gym, Su Wan seriously reviewed his attributes panel.

On the summer league stage, his playstyle was versatile and balanced, with breakthroughs, shooting, passing assists, blocks, and steals all coming naturally to him.

However, on the more talented NBA stage, his all-around skills could very possibly turn into "all no-goods" — a common reason why many high draft picks ultimately became "busts," aside from personal self-discipline and the small probability of sudden death or traffic accidents, was that their abilities were too balanced and lacked standout features.

For example, some players who could swing between power forward and small forward in the NCAA would appear slow for the three or underheighted, or not strong enough for the four in the NBA, and there are too many such examples to list;

Another example would be some NCAA breakthrough specialists who had to transition in the NBA due to various reasons such as physical fitness.

One of them is the "rising star" of the Bucks, Michael Red. He was known for his college breakthroughs while his shooting was weak, but he ultimately secured his spot in the NBA with precise shooting.

And then there's Tony Allen, who has yet to join the league, averaging 16.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.8 steals in his freshman year, scoring 1000 points in two college seasons. Yet after entering the league, he became a defensive expert, with his best season offensively averaging 11.5 points.

Su Wan was very clear that if he could not find a more specialized direction, once he entered the NBA regular season, he would become yet another representative "bust."

From the panel's data, he saw the upper limits of each ability.

His physical fitness could still be improved and fully developed, enough to reach the All-Star level.

His outstanding physical fitness gave him the potential to become a "Defense Spearhead."

As for offense, off-ball movement and breakthroughs were his highest potential abilities.

His off-ball movement had a potential value of 70 points, and his breakthrough potential was 68 points.

Combining these two data points, along with his excellent physical fitness...

His playing style for the new season was becoming apparent:

The "assault shooter" type of off-ball movement.

Currently, there was a great template for this in the League:

That was Richard Jefferson of the Brooklyn Nets.

As a core player who helped the Nets reach the NBA Finals for two consecutive years, Jefferson, driven by Jason Kidd's playing, averaged 18.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1 steal last season, with an impressive 50% field goal percentage!

Su Wan knew his numbers needed to increase even further next season.

Using Jefferson as his initial template was not a bad choice.

Moreover, this style of play complemented LeBron James perfectly—3D wings were always LeBron's favorite partners. By following this path, Su Wan was sure to be one of the Cavaliers' starting five in the new season.

But!

LeBron was not Jason Kidd.

Kidd's style of play, the "traditional point guard", solely relied on the positioning of his teammates, ensuring the ball was passed to them if they were in a good spot.

LeBron's passing criterion was not only this, but also whether he felt like going on the offensive himself.

Once he switched to "individual offense" mode, even a peak "Thick Eyebrow" could only stand on the court with his hands on his hips, reduced to a mere spectator.

Although Su Wan's personality was not as flamboyant as it seemed, he also hated being controlled by others. Having been a "social livestock" in his previous life was enough; playing basketball still dependent on someone else's mood to initiate an offense? That was no way to play!

Another crucial point was that switching to "The zone" mode and then pouring his heart into defense seemed like a bit of a waste, didn't it?

Besides, he needed to earn more zone points to quickly enhance his potential.

What statistics could he get on the defensive end?

Compared to this, fitting with LeBron's style of play and securing a starting position on the Cavaliers seemed worthless!

Moreover, LeBron James was a "refined egoist". Thinking for him meant becoming the next Wade, with few in the NBA whose number of championships increased while their historical rankings slipped.

Could Su Wan, who had awakened "Deep Blue" and knew LeBron's true nature, make such a mistake?

His plan was to raise his physical fitness to a certain level and then focus on enhancing his potential in skills such as dribbling, breakthrough, and shooting.

By doing so, he might not be a starter, but within the Cavaliers, "it's better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix", where he could concentrate the ball control in his own hands. In fact, the best scenario would be for the head coach to completely stagger his playing time with LeBron's.

No, that would leave him with no playing time at all...

It was well-known that LeBron James was an "iron man"!

Everyone said his rookie season averages of 20.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.9 assists were comparable to Jordan's, but who knew that he also played an average of 39.5 minutes per game. Compared to him, Evans, who later matched Jordan's caliber, scored an average 20-5-5 as a rookie but played 2 minutes and 30 seconds less per game.

When you lack the skill, you make up for it with time.

That was LeBron James' "basketball philosophy".

However, because of this, the playing time of many of the Cavaliers' perimeter players was reduced.

This was one of the reasons why rookie teammates around LeBron 1.0 version couldn't break out.

They'd just have to stagger their playing time as much as possible.

Brandon Malone had also arrived early today, and when he saw Su Wan "huffing and puffing" in the gym working on his physique, his eyes lit up with surprise and delight.

Such outstanding talent and such a proper attitude!

If he wasn't going to succeed, who would?