This Forward is Not Serious

…

116 to 106, the Nets defeated the Thunder and won their first victory of the season.

Durant scored 31 points, Westbrook also scored 27 points, and the Gemini scored nearly 60 points together, but still failed to win.

And it's not that the rest of the Thunder team didn't play well, but the Nets... Lin Ying scored 56 points by himself!

Scoring points is like drinking water, which refers to Lin Ying's state of play tonight.

Of course, that wasn't just a matter of white-hot space, but on nights like this, Lin Ying's desire to score was stronger than ever before.

Tonight, his teammates were not in very good condition, and they failed to provide him with enough help on the offensive end, so he had to do it by himself.

After all, it was his proposal night.

The Nets' opening game was a critical hit at the start of the game, and fans' evaluation of Lin Ying on social media was also full of praise.

"Jie is the MVP!"

"I think Lin is already the new number one player in the league!"

"Other than Jordan, Lin is the one I feel most comfortable playing, and he was playing against the Thunder. The Thunder ranked among the top five in the league in defensive efficiency last season!"

"I think no one can guard Lin alone. Maybe Leonard of the Spurs has a little chance, but only a little."

"Although, but, well, this season will be LeBron's last chance!"

…

Of course, in addition to comments, there is also more heated discussion about Lin Ying's proposal.

"I'm so jealous, I really want to be the one confessed! PS: I'm a female fan!"

"I'm a man, I want it too."

"This may not be the most romantic, but it must be the most shocking. It's like the feeling of being directly hit by a lightning pillar, causing cardiac arrest."

"Are you a superhuman Benchao?"

"Taylor is so beautiful tonight, that must be the dress Lin chose for her!"

"I remembered a foreign movie I had watched. There was a passage in it: My husband is an unparalleled hero. One day he will come to marry me on colorful clouds."

…

After attending the press conference, Lin Ying said hello to his teammates, and then drove for a ride with Swift.

Although the weather was relatively cold in November, they were not driving a convertible.

When they returned to the manor, Xiao Linyi had been put to sleep by the nanny, and the two of them relaxed in the study.

Swift went to his room to sleep when he was tired. Lin Ying took a shower and felt energetic, so he continued training downstairs in his home gym.

After practicing for a while, he found that the intensity was not enough, so he called Butler directly.

"Jimmy, come to my house."

Butler was also practicing at the Barclays Center at the moment. Hearing Lin Ying's call, he arrived soon.

Both of their bodies had already warmed up, and they started fighting training directly.

More than an hour later, the two people sat on the sidelines to rest.

Lin Ying wiped his sweat, picked up the water and took a sip.

Butler was breathing heavily.

One-on-one with Lin Ying is not that easy.

Especially Lin Ying this season.

In order to truly grasp the key to entering the white-hot space, Lin Ying now treats training as a game and plays with all his strength.

But this kind of training has benefited Butler a lot.

Basketball skills are like this. If you want to make further progress, you must challenge your own limits.

Seeing that Butler's tone had calmed down, Lin Ying handed over a bottle of water.

Butler took a few sips of water, and his breath finally came back.

"By the way, how are you talking about renewing your contract?"

Lin Ying asked after putting down the water.

Butler performed well in the playoffs last season. The Nets have been talking to Butler since the end of the season, but it seems they haven't reached an agreement.

"The team gave me a big contract, 40 million for four years, but I want to try the free market."

Butler had nothing to hide from Lin Ying.

Considering the luxury tax the Nets now have to pay, this is already a big contract.

But who can't live with money, and this season he has changed from a substitute to a starter, giving him a chance to get a better contract.

And doing so does not mean that he will definitely leave the Nets.

He is also a restricted free agent when his contract expires, and the Nets can keep him if they want.

"fine."

After Lin Ying finished speaking, he patted Butler on the shoulder.

Some players need opportunities to play, but some players are like gold and will be discovered sooner or later.

Having talent flaws is not a problem. What can stop a person who works hard to shine?

This is also the reason why he previously felt that the Nets could not keep Butler.

The championship aura continues to evolve, and some teams may bet on the maximum salary.

If the Nets want to keep him, the first step is to amnesty Johnson. Even after finishing this season, Johnson's contract still has two years and nearly 50 million.

50 million is not as fast as 500. Prokhorov would feel bad if he gave away so much money for free.

And it's not that Johnson can't play. The discount is the same. Treating him as a 10 million contract is very cost-effective.

Therefore, there is a high probability that the Nets will keep Johnson until his final year to buy him out. Amnesty is an operation that will only be done if there is really no choice.

And this is only the first step. Renewing Butler's contract means letting go of Yi Jianlian, whose contract expires at the same time.

The situation will be very complicated then.

Lin Ying patted his shoulder with emotion.

With Butler, a physical freak and a training freak, training, he could find someone to train with in high-intensity confrontation.

If he left, there would be no one to look for.

…

At the end of the first week of games, the Nets' record was 3 wins and 1 loss.

Lin Ying had an almost crazy week, averaging 35.5 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game!

This momentum is heading towards the scoring title in the new season!

He also deservedly became the Eastern Conference Player of the Week in the first month, and he and Durant in the Western Conference were the two stars to win the game.

However, this is not a good thing for the Nets.

Because it was not easy for the Nets to win any game, there was even a situation where Lin Ying scored 34 points and ended up with nothing.

It's not that Karl's tactical system is not suitable for the Nets, but that the rest of the Nets have some problems on the offensive end in the new season.

Deron just returned from surgery and still hasn’t found the feeling yet;

Johnson's treatment was conservative. He gained a lot of weight in the offseason. He didn't dare to lose too much because he was injured and needed time to regain his feel and condition.

And on the team's bench, Kirilenko's condition has also declined a lot compared to last year.

Even Smith hasn't found his feeling for the game yet.

Therefore, in the first game, Lin Ying had a high desire to attack, and in the following games, he had to score more points.

It’s only been a week since the competition began, and the outside world’s opinions are quite good.

But in the second week, Lin Ying's performance declined due to a finger injury, and the Nets lost another game, losing in a row.

With 3 wins and 2 losses in the first 5 games, the Nets' start to the new season is much worse than last year.

This time, fans who had high expectations for the new season gave up.

They can still tolerate old men like Deron, Johnson, and even Kirilenko.

After all, they are all the heroes who won the championship last year.

But Smith was not so polite.

Originally, when Karl brought him over from the Heat, some fans were skeptical.

This is prejudice, but it is also a normal human emotion.

After all, why would the defending champion "stab" players? !

The previous preseason performances were good and the fans put up with it.

But now, Smith has been unable to find his form, and he has suddenly become a vent for fans.

"He should be rotting in Miami with Anthony."

"When JR was in Denver, he uploaded various 'harmonious sex' pictures of his girlfriend on the community. When he arrived in Miami, he was banned for harassing women in nightclubs!"

"The things he did were completely scum. If God hadn't given him a good body, he would have been living on the streets!"

"If a player like JR can win the championship, I will stand on my head and eat shit live!"

…

There are loud criticisms from the outside world, but JR's mentality is okay.

He works very hard during training and chats with his teammates off the court.

Even so, Lin Ying was also curious as to why he couldn't find the feeling for the game.

The training session on this day was open to the public, and many fans came to the scene.

Some of them came from New Jersey.

During the opening game of the arena, the arena took care of New Jersey fans and specially designated an area for them.

That also proved to be a very far-sighted thing, and now many New Jersey fans come to watch every game.

However, due to the team's recent poor performance, Karl did not allow reporters to interview him. After training, he took the players back to the locker room.

It was when he was going back that Lin Ying noticed that Smith had gone to sign autographs and take photos with fans in New Jersey.

In the opening game, he lamented Smith's enthusiasm. Now thinking about it, Smith's enthusiasm seems to be only for New Jersey fans?

"JR is from New Jersey?"

He couldn't help but turn around and ask Billups.

"Yes, Freehold, a small town not far from Newark."

Billups nodded.

Lin Ying suddenly realized that this was not surprising.

These fans who came from New Jersey are like fellow fans to JR!

…

After the training, the team members went back one after another.

The game against the Heat tonight is very important. They need to adjust their body and mind to the best condition.

Lin Ying called out to JR and motioned for him to practice with her for a while longer.

Smith hesitated and nodded.

Basketball is a sport of five people, and Lin Ying alone is not enough for the Nets' current predicament.

Others may not be able to recover for a while, but Smith's problem may be the best to solve.

"Compared to three points?"

Lin Ying said to Smith as soon as he arrived at the training camp.

"Three points?"

Smith was delighted.

He may not be Lin Ying's opponent compared to others, but he is really worthy of Lin Ying in three-pointers and dunks.

"Bet a thousand dollars."

Lin Ying added some fun.

But he was stunned for a moment after he finished speaking.

Did you get infected from the last time you played golf with Jordan?

"good!"

Smith was very excited upon hearing this.

A thousand dollars wasn't much, but it was a lot to him.

The two initially competed on fixed-point three-pointers.

5 dots, 10 for each dot, no time limit.

This is not a three-point contest after all.

Smith had a great touch and scored 48 of 50 goals.

Don't think it's too much. For players who rely on three-pointers to make a living, missing 5 out of 100 should be regarded as abnormal performance.

For example, Curry scored 105 consecutive three-pointers from the corner and Booker scored 128 consecutive three-pointers. This is news that many people are familiar with.

And someone like Novak, who relies purely on spot-up three-pointers, only loses three three-pointers in an hour.

Lin Ying shook his hand and started shooting.

His current style of play has changed a lot from when he first entered the league. He also shoots fewer three-pointers, and his accuracy will be worse.

If it was a fixed-point 3-pointer like when he first entered the league, he would have scored at least 50... or 49.

After the last shot, he also scored 48.

Smith was a little surprised. He thought that Lin Ying's three-point shooting level had dropped a lot.

However, how can a person who spends most of his time in the training hall, even after playing cannonball, drop so much in level.

The fixed-point contest failed, and the two then started playing HORSE three-point shooting.

Smith played very hard, and Lin Ying was no match for him.

In the end, Smith successfully won $1,000 from Lin Ying.

After the competition, the two sat on the sidelines chatting.

"I just realized you're from New Jersey."

Lin Ying handed Smith a bottle of water.

"If you came last year, you were playing in your hometown."

Smith nodded.

He had said this before in the cemetery.

"I see that your training condition is not bad. Is it because you have hometown fans, so are you under pressure?"

After speaking, Lin Ying opened the water bottle in his hand, took a sip and looked at Smith.

"I...not really. It is a great encouragement to me that they can come to watch the game."

"Then what's your reason?"

Lin Ying noticed that there was something in Smith's way of speaking that seemed to concern him.

"That doesn't really matter."

Smith doesn't want to say yet.

"No, it's very important. You know that given the current situation, you are the person most likely to help the team get out of trouble."

Lin Ying said seriously.

"……I?"

But Smith apparently arrived unexpectedly.

No, I was shocked.

In high school, his coach would often tell him this: You are the one who is needed the most.

But after entering the NBA, he never heard such words again, not a word.

Starting with Byron Scott, he never had a good coach because those coaches didn't trust him and benched him a lot of the time.

Lin Ying nodded firmly, and that was not a polite statement.

"I……"

Smith was a little excited at this time.

"I just want to play the way Coach Karl wants me to play. I don't want to be called a thorn anymore. This is New York."

Lin Ying only understood half of Smith's words, and he didn't understand the rest.

Is there anything special about New York?

Speaking of history, Smith seemed to be a changed person after arriving in New York. He scored a career-high 18.5 points and then helped the team reach second place in the Eastern Conference.

But those are not the topics that Lin Ying is concerned about now. He just needs to understand the first half of the sentence.

What Smith means is that he is suppressing his desire to score and playing the way Karl wants him to do.

This sounds no problem, and can even be said to be a good thing. A prick is willing to strictly implement the coaching tactics. Isn't this a good thing?

But that doesn't seem to be the case for Smith.

Because that's how Smith plays, and he's even more powerful when he plays like that.

Now that you are in the middle of your career and you have to make changes from scratch, you may have a certain chance of making changes, but it is not something you can do overnight.

On the contrary, he will struggle if he plays in a way he is not used to.

It's definitely not appropriate to let Smith fight randomly like before, but it's also not okay to let Smith struggle like this now.

Perhaps unleashing Smith's natural instincts and letting him grab points would be a better way to deal with it if the situation gets tough and replaces him.

"JR, you know, prejudice is not something you're born with."

Lin Ying spoke.

Smith nodded. He actually knew how much of a jerk he was, so he ignored the criticism from the outside world.

"But you have an opportunity to change that bias."

Lin Ying said, turning to look at Smith,

"In the way you're familiar with."