Chapter 57 Part-time scouts? Recruit the world's first unlucky guy!
At the post-match press conference, Chinese men's basketball coach Yunus highly praised Chen Yan.
"Chen's performance tonight was almost perfect, fast break, shooting, breakthrough, steal, almost everything! He has strong scoring explosiveness and can lead the team forward. I think every coach will want to have one in the lineup.
Such a player."
In addition, Yunus also said that he will pay close attention to Chen Yan's performance in the NBA and hopes that he will perform well while maintaining good health.
Regarding Yunas’ speech at the press conference, domestic fans ridiculed him on a certain basketball forum.
"Yunas just had the words "I want Chen Yan" written on his face!
"This is the first time I have seen the stern Yunus praise a Chinese player like this!"
"Hahaha, it's obvious that Lao You really likes Chen Yan!"
"Look at Chen Yan's performance tonight, and then look at the guards of the Chinese men's basketball team. If there is no comparison, there will be no harm..."
"Didn't anyone notice that Yonus smiled sweetly after losing tonight? He is probably already imagining having Dayao and Chen Yan at the same time!"
"Stop saying anything and call Chen Yan into the national team as soon as possible!"
"Chen Yan will look very handsome wearing the red jersey of the Chinese men's basketball team. He is very suitable for wearing red. I still can't forget the red suit he wore in the draft..."
After three preliminaries, the Summer League also entered the knockout stage.
The format of the knockout round is a single-elimination system, with seeded teams No. 1-24 ranked based on points.
Seeds No. 9-24 will compete in the first round, and seeds No. 1-8 will directly advance to the second round.
The winning team in the first round will advance to the second round to face off against seeds 1-8, and the losers will compete in a ranking battle to compete for 17-24th place.
The Suns had won their previous three games and were one of only four undefeated teams in the Las Vegas Summer League, so they received a bye in the first round.
Chen Yan doesn't mind playing one less game, but it's not good news for the players in the Suns Summer League.
After all, they are here to find a job and need more opportunities to show themselves.
Fast forward to three days later, the second round of the Summer League knockout round.
Tonight the Phoenix Suns' opponent is the Golden State Warriors.
Although Chen Yan appears in the team's starting lineup, his playing time is still similar to the previous games.
Even if the Suns lose, Chen Yan will not extend his playing time. This is D'Antoni's death order, out of a kind of protection for Chen Yan.
In this game, Chen Yan continuously asked for the ball in singles at the beginning, and entered the scoring mode as soon as he started!
Chen Yan feels that now that we have entered the knockout stage, we should respect our opponents a little bit.
What he never expected was that Chen Yan overestimated the intensity of the summer league...
This effort directly took away the game.
At halftime, the Suns led the Warriors by 18 points, 54 to 36.
Chen Yan made 16 of 19 shots, including 4 of 5 three-pointers and 3 of 4 free throws, scoring 39 points!
With the help of the skill [Perfect Hand Shape], his shooting percentage of both two-pointers and three-pointers has increased to a certain extent. Chen Yan's shooting ability is far more than what is shown in his personal attributes.
At the beginning of the second half, Chen Yan scored 8 points in a row. The defensive abilities of summer league players are generally not online. In addition, they are blindly pursuing offensive data and do not put too much energy into the defensive end. This leads to the lack of performance in the first place.
A good defense is even worse.
In such an environment, Chen Yan can no longer describe scoring as drinking water, scoring is simply like breathing!
After an 8-2 spurt, the Warriors assistant coach called a timeout.
After the pause, Chen Yan clocked out of get off work directly and entered movie viewing mode in advance.
In the end, the Suns won the knockout round 91-78.
Chen Yan scored 47 points in 20 minutes of playing time!
Even the on-site commentators couldn't help but call him the devil of the summer league!
To be honest, Chen Yan doesn't like this title. He has a sense of deja vu as if he couldn't play in the NBA and came to the summer league to bully fringe players...
After the game, Chen Yan quickly came to the Warriors bench, and his summer league recruitment plan continued.
This time his target is Kelana Azubuike.
This guy's abilities are very comprehensive, including three-pointers, breakthroughs, cuts, and fierce defense!
Chen Yan doesn't even know how such a player failed to be drafted in 2006...
In his previous life, Chen Yan remembers that he played well under Nelson's run-and-gun system, averaging about 14 points per game. Such a player is absolutely suitable for the Suns' offensive system, without even thinking about it.
Many fans may be unfamiliar with the name Azubuike, and that's because his career was very short.
The reasons for his short career were outrageous.
During the game against the Bucks on November 15, 2009, Kelana Azubuike was accidentally injured on a breakthrough.
After landing, Azubuike immediately hugged his left knee with a very painful expression. Judging from the media cameras on the sidelines, Azubuike's kneecap may have fallen off at that time.
The diagnosis after the game showed that Azubuike had torn the ligament in his left knee and required arthroscopic surgery.
After the surgery, Azubuike got some news.
The doctor put the wrong knee on him!
It’s simply out of this world!
Azubuike himself was shocked when he heard the news. Is this an operation done by humans?
None of the pioneer veterinarians could do this!
So the most unlucky player in the NBA was born.
In the following years, Azubuike has been recovering from surgery. In 2012, he returned to the NBA, but by this time Azubuike was no longer in good shape.
So a rising star fell.
A little sad, a little funny.
So today Chen Yan not only wants to recruit a potential outside line for the Suns, but also wants to change the tragic fate of this new star!
Chen Yan believes that the miracle doctor of the Sun will never put his knee on backwards!
"Hey! You played well in today's game!"
Chen Yan walked up to Azubuike.
An opening that has never changed for thousands of years. When communicating with such a strange player, Chen Yan really can’t think of any other opening...
"Oh! Man, you almost made us cry tonight!"
Azubuike took the initiative and gave Chen Yan a high-five.
Chen Yan originally thought that Azubuike was the taciturn type, but he ended up talking more than Chen Yan.
"Are you interested in trying out with the Suns?"
It's the same routine as recruiting Barea. The best way for players who are eager to find a job is to get straight to the point.
"seriously?"
Azubuike was a little surprised. Like Barea before, he didn't expect that Chen Yan was actually here to recruit him.
"Of course, I'd love to!"
After being confused for a while, Azubuike nodded decisively.
For Azubuike, whether he goes to the Suns or the Warriors, it is the same for him. All he pursues is a guaranteed contract.
Very humble and very real.
This is also the most realistic portrayal of many players participating in the summer league.
...
...
That night, Chen Yan called D'Antoni again.
"Coach, I found another outside player in the summer league. He is very suitable for the team's style. He can break out, shoot, defend, and..."
Before Chen Yan finished speaking, D'Antoni on the other end of the phone laughed: "Hahaha, Chen, are you going to play basketball or be a scout?"
Faced with D'Antoni's ridicule, Chen Yan also laughed: "Hahahaha, coach, I just want to give my own advice."
"Okay, Chen, I will seriously consider it."
D'Antoni isn't just saying nice things, he really thinks about it.
After sending away Marion and Babos, the Suns now only have six players who can really play, and there is no one available on the bench.
They can't catch big fish in the free market, and they don't have enough chips to trade reliable role players. Recruiting in the summer league is a good choice for them.
