Chapter 826: 350. Flapping Wings_3
After taking a shower, he opened his laptop to browse the news.
The excitent over the buzzer-beater and counter buzzer-beater subsided, and he looked at the headlines about Curry on the sports website, thinking more deeply—reaching the Final Four, Curry’s exposure was much higher than before, having defeated a true championship favorite.
Could this lead to old Nelson not being able to draft Curry?
His thoughts wandered, recalling the 2009 draft, where originally Griffin and Tabit, two inside players, dominated the top two picks unshakably. Harden soared during his sophomore season to beco the third pick.
But here, our Harden said he wanted to enter the NBA after his freshman year; the 2009 draft lost one spot.
Team-wise, things were different too. The Grizzlies, having ford the core trio of Parker, Gerald Wallace, and Gasol, have basically completed their rebuild. With such a good run this season, they’re sure to attract so quality players during the offseason when they’re short-handed, making it impossible for them to get a top-three pick next season.
One carrot one hole, surely there will be another team tanking heavily; it’s uncertain if the Clippers can get the top pick.
However, how much Curry’s draft expectation can rise is hard to say. Curry has led his team all the way to the Final Four, but the TV comntators only praise his fantastic March Madness performance as the best three-point shooter in NCAA history. When it cos to professional gas, their evaluation of Curry is not particularly high.
Curry’s physical condition is not highly regarded, even less than Nash back in the day. With a barefoot height of 188 cm and a wingspan of 190 cm, his speed is decent but his explosive start is poor, and shifting from a shooting guard to a point guard, his passing ability currently doesn’t look good, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.5 to 1, making two turnovers for every three assists.
But sneaking into the Final Four, Curry’s draft expectations are surely higher than ‘just’ making it into the Elite Eight.
Zhang Yang thought, if Curry gets picked by another team before the Warriors can snatch him… it has nothing to do with Zhang San.
He actually wants to see how Curry performs with a different team, without experiencing the ‘Gu’ raising, what differences there might be.
The so-called strong remain strong; he believes Curry can beco a superstar no matter where he goes, but achievents depend on the team environnt.
After browsing through Curry’s news for a while, Zhang Yang looked at the news about North Carolina.
North Carolina beca the top championship favorite in the eyes of dia and fans after the group stage, with their group stage matches being too overwhelming. Led by the core lineup of Harden, Hansbrough, Ellington, and sixth-man Lawson, they rampaged all the way.
First round 115 to 57, second round 108 to 77, third round 68 to 47, Elite Eight 83 to 73, straight to the Final Four; throughout the group stage, only the Elite Eight match had a hint of suspense, reminiscent of North Carolina’s four young stars back in the day.
As for DeRozan, he was rather unlucky, as the University of Kentucky t Derek Rose-driven University of mphis in the round of 16, suffered a brutal defeat with a score of 67 to 85.
Rose went 7 for 10, plus 6 for 6 from free throws, scoring 20 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals, while defending DeRozan to shoot 6 for 15, only scoring 14 points.
Poor DeRozan beca the stepping stone for the Rose.
Zhang Yang doesn’t know what DeRozan’s draft situation will be this year, but this good buddy now has a reason why he must enter the draft.
Zhang Yang recalled that a change in DeRozan’s family occurred earlier in the year when his mom arranged for Harden and DeRozan’s parents to get health check-ups together. His parents and Harden’s mom were very healthy, especially his mom, whose middle-aged diseases dissipated after weight loss. But DeRozan’s mom’s existing illness worsened, and his dad was also diagnosed with a disease, luckily detected early.
DeRozan’s parents both have jobs and bought health insurance, but it took two months to queue up for early treatnt reimbursent, and even then, they still have to pay quite a bit for post-treatnt reimbursent. When the illness progresses to the later stages, both parents can’t continue working.
Zhang Yang originally proposed to cover the dical expenses, but was rejected by DeRozan, who is strong-willed to the core, refusing even loans… There’s actually another hidden concern; whether it’s paying for DeRozan’s family’s expenses or offering a loan, both might violate NCAA regulations, and if he hasn’t entered the draft prematurely and can’t play in the NCAA, that would be tragic.
In the end, DeRozan went from wanting to enter the draft after his freshman year to having to enter the draft.
Though DeRozan’s situation is unclear, Zhang Yang saw draft predictions suggesting there’s no issue with entering the first round; mid-first round is also very likely. As long as he enters the NBA, DeRozan’s family can transform into millionaires, naturally resolving the dical expense issue.
After resting for the night, the next morning Zhang Yang arrived at Chicago’s United Center with Yao Ming… for solo training. Around two in the afternoon, other mbers of the Bobcats also arrived for preparation ahead of tomorrow’s ga.
The previous two matches against the Bulls concluded with 1 win and 1 loss; they want to win the remaining two gas!
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