The longest river

Chapter 171: Before fighting against the outside world, one must first make peace with the inside
After the Trail Blazers began their preseason campaign, Yang Shuai had already improved/restored his shooting attributes, including mid-range shots, to their potential ceiling, and then started training in driving to the basket.

Last season in the playoffs, his layup score had already improved to 84, which is still a gap to be filled before reaching the upper limit of 86.

As his ability to break through defenses improves, his playing style will also change, and he will use more of a combination of drives and shots.

In fact, it was noticeable last season that opponents were targeting him more, and now that Miller is no longer there to keep him in check, that targeting will only intensify.

Of course, he will also have more possession and attacking opportunities, a request that Carlisle had made when they met before.

The Trail Blazers signed Yang Shuai for $1.5 million, so they naturally need him to put up even better numbers to prove the contract was worthwhile.

Yang Shuai even started studying Tim Hardaway's crossover dribble.

He prioritizes developing skills before improving his technique, which is similar to his previous approach of improving his defense.

These training sessions all require a lot of time. In a normal season, Yang Shuai would need to spend several months on them, since he spends most of his time on matches and traveling.

However, now that he only trains, his speed improves much faster, which can be considered one of the benefits of his serious injury.

During this training process, he could clearly feel the additional effects of Grover's training.

The training of those specific muscle groups greatly improved his explosiveness and core strength conversion, enabling him to break through at a faster rate and change direction with greater range.

This change made Yang Shuai realize why Jordan could enter the "zone" state, because that state is essentially a difference in speed.

Or perhaps, by consistently engaging in this training, he might one day experience what it feels like to be in a "zone."

Time flew by and it was already the end of October, with the preseason games of various teams coming to an end one after another.

The Trail Blazers finished their preseason campaign with a 4-3 record.

On October 30, the Trail Blazers flew to Indiana to face the Pacers.

Because of Yang Shuai's injury and departure from the team, Stern canceled the NBA China Games (preseason games) and instead scheduled this opening game.

Stern had a firm grasp on how to generate buzz and make the most of resources.

Before the game, the Pacers held a championship award ceremony at their home arena.

Yang Shuai also received his first championship ring at this time.

The championship rings of this era are not very valuable, but because it was the Pacers' first championship, the team still put a lot of effort into its production.

Each championship ring not only has the year of the championship printed on the front, but also the player's name and jersey number printed on the side, giving it a strong sense of exclusivity.

When Yang Shuai received the ring, put it on, and waved, he was greeted with applause and cheers from the audience.

This represents the sentiment of the vast majority of Indiana fans. Although Yang Shuai chose to leave, they are still grateful for his contributions to the team.

Even Bird mentioned Yang Shuai during his speech, and his statement "He is our MVP" drew cheers from the audience.

Looking back, the Pacers' championship last season was a team championship, and Yang Shuai's Finals MVP is the only major honor he can boast about besides the NBA championship.

After the awards ceremony, Bird also chatted with Yang Shuai for a while, inquiring about his injury recovery.

After the game started, riding the momentum of their championship night, the Pacers dominated the Trail Blazers from the outset.

It's clear that the Pacers made the optimal decision in the Yang Shuai trade.

Mullin was the former core player of the Warriors, nicknamed "God's Left Hand." After getting older, he turned to shooting and had two seasons with a three-point shooting percentage of over 45%.

He essentially replaced Yang Shuai as the shooter, forming a new Indiana duo with Miller.

Jalen Rose perfectly fulfilled the role of the sixth man, his versatility and off-peak play helping the Pacers establish an advantage.

In other words, by trading these two players, the Pacers were essentially splitting the tasks that Yang Shuai used to do into two separate tasks.

On the other hand, the Trail Blazers' problems are more obvious.

The main problem is the lack of outside scoring ability.

Walter Williams has proven there's a reason for his nomadic career over the past few seasons; he's essentially just a 3-and-D player with little ball-handling threat.

Trent's problem is that he has no shooting touch, making him easy to target.

As for Kenny Anderson, the core of the perimeter, his performance this season has declined significantly compared to last season.

He was originally expected to average 17+ points per game last season, and with Yang Shuai absent, he was expected to average 20+ points per game and carry the team's outside offense. However, he only performed at the level of 15+ points per game.

This is also a disadvantage for shorter guards; their performance fluctuates more.

Not every 1.83-meter guard is Allen Iverson.

In fact, even Iverson was only good at carrying production; it's hard to associate him with the word "efficiency."

After Anderson missed several layups, the camera naturally focused on Yang Shuai on the sidelines.

It was at this moment that a few scattered boos were heard from the crowd.

Yang Shuai chose to go to the Trail Blazers because of the higher salary. In this era, especially in Indiana where "loyalty" is a source of pride, some fans will naturally be dissatisfied with him.

Especially now that the Trail Blazers are in a bad situation.

Yang Shuai's emotions didn't show any fluctuation under the camera, but his tightly clenched hands revealed that this experience of being able to only sit on the sidelines and watch the team struggle was agonizing for him.

Ultimately, the Trail Blazers suffered a crushing defeat to the Pacers, marking a disappointing start to the season.

This also foreshadows that their start to the new season will not be so smooth. Time flies, and it's already mid-November.

The Trail Blazers started the season with a record of 2 wins and 5 losses, and have just suffered a three-game losing streak.

Although the season has just begun, this start has undoubtedly put enormous pressure on the team.

The first to be affected is team owner Paul Allen.

The Trail Blazers spent a whopping $2 million to sign players this summer, prompting Fox Sports to directly mock them, while some fans are waiting to see what happens.

After all, they see this kind of spending as "unfair" and "lacking in the spirit of competitive sports."

The Trail Blazers are having a bad start, and they're naturally gloating.

Secondly, there's head coach Carlisle.

It's worth mentioning that Carlisle is only 38 years old this year, and his appointment as head coach of the Trail Blazers sets a record as the youngest coach in NBA history.

Although he did a great job as the first assistant coach under Bird and received high praise from Bird, he was still too young to be a head coach.

Therefore, he faced considerable skepticism from the outside world at the beginning of his tenure.

Given this situation, negative comments about him from the outside world are naturally pouring in.

The New York Times directly criticized Carlisle as not being a qualified coach.

“A qualified head coach should know how to tailor his teaching to the individual players, but he simply transplanted the Pacers’ tactics directly to the Trail Blazers without taking into account the Trail Blazers’ actual situation.”

Fox Sports' analysis was even more explicit.

"To appease Yang, they gave Carlisle a contract that was far above market value. It turned out that Carlisle was not worth that price at all. They should have made Mike Dunleavy the team's head coach."

Carlisle faced pressure not only from the outside, but also from within.

It was clear from the season training camp that Carlisle did not have the trust and respect of the players, and now that the team has had a poor start, that situation will become even more obvious.

Even during matches, there would be instances where Carlisle would give tactical instructions, but the players would pretend not to hear him.

Coupled with Carlisle's handling of the situation, the Trail Blazers' head coach looked more like Dunleavy than Carlisle.

That's the NBA. Victory can mask many things, but defeat brings up all sorts of problems.

The only way to solve the Trail Blazers' current situation is to win games.

Yang Shuai is also eager to make a comeback.

He has already pushed all the abilities within the system to their maximum limit.

He needs to play matches to earn points if he wants to continue improving.

However, the Trail Blazers' medical team consistently disagreed with his early return, which was anything but "veterinary."

However, this is still easy to understand. If Yang Shuai returns to play prematurely and gets injured, then the team medical team will be the primary responsible party.

Time flies, and it's already the end of November. With the arrival of autumn and winter, Portland has entered its rainy season.

Yang Shuai also gained a deeper understanding of the rainy season here, noting that there are many rainy days and the temperature is also relatively low.

This kind of gloomy weather can be quite depressing.

The Portland Trail Blazers will host the Utah Jazz tomorrow night, Thanksgiving.

Yang Shuai still hasn't been cleared to play, but he's ready to start training with the team.

Before training began that day, Yang Shuai arrived at the training hall early as was his habit.

When he returned to the locker room after training, he heard the team members talking inside.

"Our season is over. Why would management trade over a player who can't even get playing time?"

"I don't think it will change anything even if he can play; his Finals MVP award is way too inflated."

“I think so too. He’s more of a ‘system player.’ Once he leaves the Pacers, he’s just an ordinary player.”

"Who told him to be Reebok's top star? If you knew marketing, you could make 1.5 million too."

"1.5 million! That's more than enough to last three lifetimes, and the head coach is also one of his people."

Yang Shuai frowned upon hearing this and was about to push the door open when a familiar voice came from inside.

"Hey, you two! If you have something to say, say it to someone's face. What's the point of gossiping behind their backs?"

That was Rashid Wallace's voice.

The noise inside quickly subsided; they all knew Wallace's volatile temper.

Yang Shuai withdrew his hand after hearing this.

He didn't go back into the locker room, but left the training facility directly and went to Carlisle's head coach office.

He knew he needed to do something extreme.

(End of this chapter)