Shortly after the finals, the training ground at Phillips Arena became more crowded, and Liu Mang's quiet time came to an end.

The boss and coach Kruger have returned from vacation and are about to begin pre-draft workouts. The Eagles have the third-best record in the league and have the 27th overall pick.

It is said to be the 27th pick, but it can actually be regarded as the 26th pick, because the Timberwolves were deprived of the 24th pick.

The resources in this year's draft are very good, and there are more first-round picks than in the previous two years combined.

The first grade of rookies is a new division of rookie grades that was only mentioned last year.

Due to the success of Garnett and Kobe, a large number of freshmen and high school students have participated in the draft since 1997. The draft has changed from the mature selection method of selecting Duncan and O'Neal, who is a superstar after entering the NBA, to selecting potential stocks.

Nowadays, it is extremely difficult for a rookie to be selected for the All-Stars, let alone the best team. High school talents like Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry are considered to be able to enter the league in their careers.

One All-Star break is considered a great success.

Rookies are now divided into 4 levels. The first level, which is the T1 rookie, is predicted to be a rookie who can make at least one All-Star in his career.

It seems that there are as many as 24 All-Stars every year, but this is not an easy task. Except for Kobe, Yao Ming, O'Neal, Duncan, Iverson, Garnett, Carter, and Tracy McGrady, these are the unbeatable All-Stars in the next few years.

, Dirk Nowitzki, Nash, Ben Wallace, Stoudemire, and Marion, who are irreplaceable in the next few years, are either All-Stars or substitutes, and now we have to add Liu Mang, who is either a substitute, and more

In two or three years, James Wade, who has dominated the All-Stars since his sophomore year, and Arenas, who is about to break out. At first glance, there are only two positions left for newcomers. If we want new All-Star players to emerge,

It's actually quite difficult.

Those who are predicted to be the No. 1 pick every year are also regarded as first-round rookies, which are the so-called T1 rookies.

There are five T1 rookies this year, and there were only two last year, one was Pau Gasol, and the other was Kwame Brown, and Kwame Brown is no longer good.

Among the 2000 rookies, there were also only two T1 rookies, Kenyon Martin and Swift, and no others.

There are a total of five T1 rookies this year, including Jay Williams, who is known as Duncan's type who can change a team, Dajuan Wagner, who scored 100 points in high school, and the NCAA scoring champion and rebounding champion Drew.

- Gooden, Brazil's genius violent insider Nene - Hilario, Caron Butler, who has outstanding talent in drug trafficking since childhood, but people worry about whether he will do bad things again.

If you add Yao Ming, there will be 6 T1 rookies this year.

The T2 level has NBA potential, and there are many of them this year. Chris Wilcox, who just helped the University of Maryland win the NCAA championship, and Amar'es, who has changed high schools in 6 schools in 4 years, has a vertical jump of 105 centimeters.

Headed by Tadmire.

T3 and T4 are ratings for rookies with rotation potential and those without NBA ability respectively.

The Eagles' pick is also looking for targets in T3.

The four major American leagues have very comprehensive and sound training systems and scouting systems that are usually quite accurate when rating rookies. Although occasionally there are cases like Arenas who are mistaken and rated as T3 rookies, most of the time

Still very accurate.

Starting from the beginning of June, after knowing the draft picks, teams in the lottery area have begun draft trials. By June 15th, the NBA officially organized an open competition for the 20 rookies who were invited to the Little Green Room.

Later, draft workouts for other teams that did not have high draft picks also began.

Of course, except for the Timberwolves, they had no draft picks, and the only one they had in the second round was traded to the Spurs.

The Hawks have the 27th pick in the first round and the 19th pick in the second round exchanged with the 76ers. The Hawks have invited more than 20 players to participate in trial training.

Although it is only a first-round pick with the 27th overall pick and a second-round pick, they are still two draft picks. In fact, even a second-round pick can attract countless college students and overseas players to try out.

For most basketball players who were born in the slums, their fate changes once they enter the NBA.

…

On June 17, Liu Mang was training at the training ground. Due to the recent draft workouts, the gym was a bit noisy with people coming and going. Liu Mang planned to wait until he finished watching the first day of large-scale draft workouts.

Training has been carried out in individual places, and there will definitely be many small trial trainings next. It is impossible to decide who will receive millions of dollars in just one day of trial training.

The offseason is really the best time to improve your abilities. The gap between players who are persistent and willing to work hard and players who are talented but start to slack off after getting a lot of money is opened in the summer.

After more than ten days of hard training, Liu Mang's three-point ability value has improved by two points. It is already 81. Now he is at the age where he can make the best progress. Liu Mang feels that he is expected to be able to make it during his break.

After the end of the season, we will improve by two or three points.

It is not difficult for yellow people to practice three-pointers accurately, but it is more difficult to be more accurate when they are accurate. Liu Mang broke through the three-point ability value of 80 within three days of starting training.

Later, even if I found the feeling of training, it still took half a month to break through to 81.

As Liu Mang practiced three-pointers, there were more and more people in the arena. A large number of staff, scouts, and some young people who were obviously a little timid came.

In fact, Liu Mang may be younger than most of these people, but Liu Mang feels that he is already a second-year player, and rookies are all young people!

Liu Mang ignored them and practiced on his own. At most two of these people would stay, and most of them might not make it to the NBA in the end.

It's not that Liu Mang looks down on people, but there is no need to waste that time. There is no difference between being friendly to them or being cold to them. If they can become teammates, then let's talk about it.

The main reason is that Liu Mang didn't see any "acquaintances" among these people, that is, he didn't see anyone who could stay in the NBA to the point where he could make an impression.

Liu Mang was wondering if he should talk to the coach about the teammates he wanted, but he was just a rookie and didn't know if he had the right to speak.

Liu Mang was practicing, and the rookies who had been taken by the staff to change into Eagles training uniforms came to the training ground. Mike Woodson asked them to warm up. They didn't know what to do, and then they gathered around Liu Mang to train.

People around half-court watched Liu Mang practice three-pointers.

Slowly, watching Liu Mang hit more than a dozen three-pointers from time to time, there were waves of exclamations from around him.

"What are you doing?" Liu Mang missed his last three-point shot within 300 seconds and glanced at the people around him dissatisfied. His 100 superstar points were gone!

"Huh?" Liu Mang closed his eyes and rubbed his eyes with his arm, wondering if he had seen it wrong!

A big man who stood out even among the many big players around two meters tall appeared in his sight. Even if he was standing behind the crowd, Liu Mang couldn't help but notice his presence, like a firefly in the night.

Same……

"Hi, Dayao?" Liu Mang called out in surprise.

"Hello, Ace, sorry to let me have a moment, thank you." Yao Ming politely squeezed out of the crowd.

Liu Mang was a little excited when he looked at the very skinny female sign Riyue!

Big Yao!

I had only seen it once on TV before, and it was the first time I saw Yao Ming in real life!

So thin, so long! So slender! There’s something interesting about wearing the Eagles’ training uniform.

Damn it!

Yao Ming did not accept the invitation in the previous competition in the Little Green Room District. Of course, this was thanks to the Blue Association, which only allowed Yao Ming to come to the United States for one week. Almost all teams in the lottery area wanted to invite Yao Ming to try out, but Yao Ming saw the invitation.

There were too many teams, so I told David Stern, how about we all come together? Then David Stern organized a trial training at the Knicks Garden Plaza. It is said that there will be a trial on June 20.

Large open trials.

That is to say, Yao Ming has not accepted trial training from any team. This has been criticized verbally and writtenly in the United States. Many celebrities said that the Chinese are so arrogant?

First there was a notorious rookie, and then there was a potential No. 1 pick who had not yet entered the NBA, both of whom were so "arrogant".

But why did you come to our team?

Liu Mang stepped forward and shook hands with Yao Ming.

Sure enough, Chinese people should not cuddle and cuddle. It's too gay. It's a good handshake. Two grown men can't get pregnant.

"Dayao, why are you here? I remember Director Zhang gave you my phone number. You should call me earlier and I will pick you up." Liu Mang asked in surprise.

"I called, but you didn't answer," Yao Ming took out his Nokia phone, which was like a pocket toy in his hand, shook it, and joked, "You refused to answer my call, so I had to come here to find you myself.

"

Liu Mang thought for a moment and thought, Oh, his cell phone is in the locker...

Liu Mang immediately changed the subject: "Dayao, are you coming to try out? Are you kidding? You are the number one draft pick."

"Ace, if you say this, the media will say that we two are arrogant. Do you think I should fight with you, or should I admit that I am not the number one pick?" Yao Ming said with a smile.

"Haha, you are the best rookie in the new generation!"

"According to your good advice, I actually think so too."

Liu Mang looked at Yao Ming, who was obviously more active and more willing to talk than Wang Zhizhi, and he probably understood why Yao Ming was rated so much higher than Wang Zhizhi and Yi Jianlian even though his rookie season was average.

Yi Jianlian also had 8 points and 5 rebounds in his rookie season, as well as long-range shooting ability and physical fitness comparable to a black man with first-rate physical fitness. However, he could not survive in the NBA. Not only the data, but Yao Ming's personality is obviously more casual.

, the chance of survival in the NBA is much higher than that of Wang Zhizhi.

Yao Ming's speaking style is obviously more humorous, he is more willing to talk, he is humble and at the same time he is not unwilling to express his confidence.

But...Liu Mang still feels strange. We only have one pick, No. 27, so why invite Yao Ming for a trial?

"Dayao, why did you come to our trial training? We have to give me and a few others to that Grandet to have a chance to get you." Liu Mang asked curiously.

"I heard that you were injured. The American media said that I was pretending to be a big star and would not come to the trial training. I could only accept an invitation from a team and came to see you by the way." Yao Ming joked.

"Yes, I was injured, very seriously. I lost the Eastern Conference Finals and was very sad." Liu Mang shrugged and curled his lips.

As for the national situation, some things cannot be said openly, but everyone knows that at this time, the coaching staff and the boss came with some reporters and cameramen from the United States and some reporters and cameramen from China, and the chat between the two of them was almost like this.

…

Yao Ming's first public trial is still very serious and important. Although it is unlikely to affect the first pick, it at least allows others to see his ability.

Yao Ming doesn't have any special privileges. When he comes to trial training, he has to do the same as everyone else, including warm-up, physical fitness test, shooting test, technical performance display...etc., just like everyone else.

Liu Mang wandered around among the rookies who kept coming for trial training, trying to see if anyone impressed him.
To be continued...