The Whip of the God of Basketball

There was a moment when Vogel felt that his brain was frozen, and after a while he came back to his senses-it took about 3.06 seconds before he was sure that his eyes were right, and Clarkston's three-quarter field sprint The running test result is indeed 3.06 seconds. If there is an error, it can only be at the millisecond level.

Vogel looked at Leon, who was still staring intently at the training on the field.

Vogel really wanted to ask Leon if he had been fooled or had seen the physical test chart in advance, or if he could really read the time when Clarkston ran three-quarters of the game.

But he still didn't speak after all, and this question troubled Vogel for a long time afterwards. It wasn't until he himself became the head coach that he got the real answer from Leon-half feeling, half bewildered.

As for Leon at this time, he has devoted himself to this rookie training camp. It can be said that he is more devoted than any scout from any team in the Impact Sports Center.

It's not because he wants to pick the best players for the Celtics, the best players will definitely not be picked by the Celtics, but because Leon is eager to prove that the knowledge about players obtained only through data The conclusion is whether it can match the real performance of the players on the field.

Leon first focused on the power forward group, which has the most promising insider of the rookie, Kenyon Martin, Mark Madsen from Stanford University, Eduardo Najura from Mexico, etc. Waiting for the striker.

In the initial mid-range test, these rookies performed pretty well. With no defensive pressure, the empty blue basically hit 7 or more of the 10 goals. Kenyon Martin even hit all 10 goals, although he The posture is a bit stiff.

"Martin's mid-range shooting rate is beyond imagination, but it feels like he relies on his body's balance in the air, and his hands are a bit stiff... According to his free throw shooting percentage, his mid-range shooting shouldn't be so good." Leon watched When Martin made consecutive shots, he felt a little unbelievable.

Sure enough, in the middle distance under the interference situation, Martin immediately slumped. Under the top defense interference of the trainer, he only hit two of the nine shots from the three positions. It seems that the previous consecutive hits were just a touch. Just bursting.

However, in the subsequent face-to-basket attack and low-post defense test training, Martin showed superior strength. His face-to-basket attack was simple and rough, without much change. He just took the ball directly after the test step, but he was able to top In the low-post defensive training, Martin performed very well. In the slide defense training and mirror slide training, he showed great agility and aggression.

"No one in the power forward group can score one-on-one in front of him." This is what Leon thought when he saw Martin's defensive sliding training.

The trainer stands on one side of the free throw arc, and Martin stands on the other. Martin uses his feet and body to completely block the trainer trying to cross the free throw line on the other end of the line.

You know, the trainer doesn't have the ball in his hand.

"Sure enough, Martin is very good at the defensive end. In his junior and senior year game data, the opponent's inside score is generally lower than other games. Although the specific data has not been fully calculated, but the overall result It should be right." Leon flipped through the notebook in his hand and thought.

Leon randomly selected ten teams from nearly thirty opponents in Martin's more than sixty games in two years, and calculated the scores of the forward and center positions of these ten teams when they played against the University of Wisconsin; The average score of the team's forward and center positions, the final result is that facing the University of Wisconsin with Martin, their score is lower than their average score.

Of course, Leon knows that such calculations are imprecise, because whether the opponent's power forward and center position scores or not is not necessarily directly related to Martin's defensive level, because the alignment of players on the field is not fixed. Misalignment occurs frequently.

The assistance of teammates, the team's tactics and on-the-spot performance all affect the performance of both sides. Therefore, if you really want to understand Martin's defensive level, you still need to watch the game with your own eyes and see his performance in training.

"It would be great if there were the scoring methods used by the opponent every time they score, and the specific matchup situation..." Leon couldn't help but think again, he still felt that the data he had was not enough, especially some fine-grained data. data.

Thinking of the various situations that may arise on the field, Leon can't wait for the statistician to describe each situation with data to make up for his gap in basketball experience.

…………………

The training in the afternoon lasted nearly three hours. Leon sat on the sidelines and watched carefully for three hours, which can be said to have benefited a lot.

On the one hand, many data conclusions obtained from his analysis have been confirmed to a certain extent in the training camp, such as the evaluation of Kenyon Martin's defense, the evaluation of Mike Miller's comprehensiveness, and the evaluation of Jamal Crawford. Shooting level predictions.

These can't be seen directly from the points, blocks, and hit rate. More advanced data calculations are needed to draw some preliminary conclusions.

But even though he has gained a lot, Leon still feels the powerlessness of the data he has obtained so far. There are too many things that cannot be shown with data, and there are too many things that he expresses that he does not understand.

For example, in the low-post offensive training, Leon has absolutely no idea of ​​the true meaning of the trainer's series of decomposition training content such as catching the ball with the waist, catching the ball with the back, blocking without the ball, turning around with the ball, catching and dribbling, etc. concept.

After all, low-post offense is the most complicated offensive skill on the basketball court. Leon, who has not been in contact with basketball for a long time, wants to figure out the inside method. He should watch no less than 30 NBA game videos first.

There are more and more things recorded in Leon's notebook, but most people can't understand his notes at all. They are all very simple words, phrases and even letters, as well as some simple images drawn with a pen.

Until 3:30 in the afternoon, the first day of testing and training officially ended. Leon packed up his things and prepared to leave with the coaching team carrying the camera.

At this time, Leon noticed that a reporter walked up to Pitino. It seemed that there would be a routine interview after the training camp. Anyway, it was not his turn. Leon silently packed his things and prepared to wait for Pitino's interview to end. Then leave together.

Unexpectedly, after the reporter said a few words to Pitino, he went straight to Leon, and extended his hand to say hello to Leon: "Hello, I'm KC-Johnson, a reporter from the Chicago Tribune. A few words to interview you, related to the rookie training camp."

Leon looked at the reporter. He was a thin middle-aged man with glasses who looked a bit like a comedian.

Leon turned his head to look at Wallace, O'Brien, and others, and saw that they were all hanging up, while Vogel lowered his head and began to "seriously" sort out his notes. Leon knew that This interview cannot be avoided.

"OK, I know everything." Leon nodded lightly and said with his hips akimbo.

"Thank you. First of all, I heard that you are a new scout for the Celtics. Can you briefly introduce your previous work experience to me? Then how did you become a scout for the Celtics?" The reporter took out A voice recorder asked Leon.

The first question is a tricky one.

Leon rolled his eyes and said, "I was an errand runner who handed towels to bar boxers in a small bar in the South Side of Boston. Then one day a boxer was knocked down, and I happened to be handing towels, and I was pulled over On the stage, the referee and the audience told me to continue the game. So, I punched the opponent away. After that, I worked there until one day, for various reasons, I had to wipe Mr. Auerbach. Glass, because the glass is well cleaned, he thought I should work in the NBA, so I was recommended to the Celtics. Originally I should be a cleaner, but the Celtics are not short of cleaners, but lack of A scout, so I became a scout. That's what I did and why I became a scout, thank you."

Vogel, who was listening with pricked ears, couldn't help laughing. Wallace and O'Brien also grinned and shook their heads, but Leon was still serious, which made people feel that he was talking nonsense. Actually he didn't.

Johnson also smiled, and didn't get entangled in this issue, but launched his offensive, constantly asking Leon about the rookie training camp, both about the rookies and about the Celtics.

Contrary to Pitino's expectations, facing Johnson's fierce language offensive, Leon was quite calm. This guy is really a hidden basketball expert. He was just acting in Auerbach's place before?

If this is the case, Pitino really lost the bet in the training camp office a few days ago, and Auerbach completely swayed him.

But with Pitino's connections in the basketball circle in the Boston area, he has never heard of Fox Leon.

"As a scout for the Celtics, who do you like most in this rookie class?" After 15 minutes of fighting, Johnson finally asked his ultimate question.

This issue is quite sensitive. The key is that as a Celtics scout, he has not obtained a unified opinion from the scouting team. Currently, between Przybilla and Moiso, Wallace and Pitino are more hesitant. , although judging from the current news, Przybilla is likely to be picked at a higher pick.

Leon sniffled, thought for a while and replied: "I am optimistic about Michael Reid, because he is the best player in the current training camp."