"Holy crap..."
"Is this damn system treating me like a 24/7 workhorse? This is even more ruthless than those capitalists!"
Currently, Link has three missions:
1) Genius Buster—Defeat at least 5 All-American high schoolers and make them lose their composure. 4 more to go.
2) Unwilling to be Ordinary—Within 2 days, raise the training camp trainee ranking to the top 50. This morning, I just defeated New Jersey's top high schooler, Dajuan Wagner, so my ranking will definitely rise. However, I didn't rely on solo defense but on help from teammates. From the perspective of the game, Wagner lost to the Dream Chasing Warriors Team, not to me personally.
The afternoon game is equally important.
3) Which is the newly announced Documentary Hijack. Although this mission has generous rewards, wanting to defeat and 'plunder' the resources of LeBron James and Lamine Kook is certainly no easy task.
...
...
The time came to 2:30 PM.
The Dream Chasing Warriors Team welcomed their second game of the day against the—Lightning Cyclone Team.
The ace player of this team, a top-tier player, wore jersey number 69, was a Grade 12 senior, and ranked 48th in the nation.
His playing style was that of a typical low-post center, excelling at attracting double teams and help defense through low-post back-to-the-basket singles, thereby creating good shooting opportunities for teammates. He weighed 110kg but was only 201cm tall, and his athletic ability was only at the average level for a high school small forward.
If a team had a big, strong, and tough interior player, they could restrict him quite a bit, but he happened to be the type that countered Chris Bosh.
After the game started, No. 69 continuously attacked Bosh in the low post with physical, bone-on-bone contact and decent low-post footwork. While shooting 3-of-5, he also forced Bosh to pick up 2 defensive fouls in less than 2 minutes.
Fortunately, the ABCD Training Camp encouraged trainees to defend, and it took 10 fouls to be disqualified; for this reason, Bosh was not subbed out.
But head coach Grant hurriedly called a timeout to adjust the defensive strategy.
Let Josh Smith switch onto him?
No, he hasn't fully developed yet, and his weight and strength are on par with Bosh. Additionally, his height and wingspan are slightly inferior, so the effect would definitely be worse.
Let Josh Smith provide help defense and rotations?
The Power Forward of this Lightning Cyclone Team was a white shooter. If Josh Smith, who was matched up against him, went to help Bosh, it would be easy for the opponent to hit a Three-Point Shot.
Just as head coach Chris Grant was having a headache over the dilemma, Link took the initiative to volunteer again, saying: "I'll help Chris with the double team! Although the opponent's low-post footwork is very solid, I observed that his passing ability is very average, especially his decision-making after being double-teamed."
"Besides, the guy matched up with me, although he can shoot Three-Point Shots, he mostly shoots off the dribble."
Link looked at the opponent's player data in his hand and stated his analysis and judgment.
Coach Grant was slightly stunned. This guy was really good; despite his mediocre physical talent, he had a high IQ and EQ, possessed the qualities of a court leader, and could formulate a good strategy in a short amount of time.
"Hmm, okay, Link, let's execute it according to your suggestion." Although Grant wasn't a professional basketball coach, he had one great virtue—he listened to advice.
At the same time, the other players of the Dream Chasing Warriors Team looked at Link with a few more points of admiration and respect.
Facing a short center with a strong lower body, Bosh found it difficult to handle alone. Even after he fully develops and enters the NBA, this would remain a fatal weakness on the defensive end.
The timeout ended, and Link's rapid double-teaming achieved immediate results.
The opponent was only a 201cm interior player, not as tall as Bosh and not much taller than Link. The opposing center's passing vision was severely obstructed, something a 180cm small guard couldn't achieve.
Additionally, Link, who possessed the [Double Team Master (Bronze)], had hand Speed for poking the ball that was steady, accurate, and ruthless.
In three consecutive double teams, Link completed 2 steals and forced the opponent into a panicked forced shot once, which resulted in a block by Bosh.
The transition offense after the steals also fully utilized Josh Smith's advantage in Speed.
Although Link's passes didn't turn into an "assist" every time, they were more or less related to Link's passing, which is the so-called "indirect assist."
Once the Lightning Cyclone Team's interior strength was snuffed out, the game became almost entirely one-sided.
This also allowed the Dream Chasing Warriors Team to take a 20-point lead in the first half, 51 to 31.
By the second half, the opponent still hadn't given up and wanted the short No. 69 center to continue attacking in the low post. Unlike the first half, he became calmer, thinking more about passing to open teammates.
However, as a point guard, Link was indeed tall for him, and his 211cm wingspan was sufficient. With his vision obstructed, he either made passing turnovers or had the ball poked away. Occasionally, when a teammate did receive the ball, it was particularly uncomfortable and required significant adjustment, which gave the Dream Chasing Warriors Team a chance to rotate and help.
What surprised the Lightning Cyclone Team's head coach was that Link, as a point guard, was not only the opponent's offensive engine but also seemed to be the team's defensive brain. He constantly directed his teammates to move and switch on defense, making it very difficult for his own team to get open looks.
And with Link's 198cm height, given the current player heights on his own team, it was also difficult to form a mismatch against him.
Uh...
His own white Power Forward, the stretch-four, was also 201cm. Although he was a bit stronger than Link, he couldn't punish the mismatch.
He tried 4 times: 1 steal by Link, 2 missed shots after contact, and 1 block from Bosh's help defense.
"Possesses good switching ability, can switch onto NCAA small forwards." The UCLA scout who had noticed Link in the morning modified his comments for Link when he came to observe in the afternoon.
"Decent" was changed to "Good."
However, unlike the morning, the attention on this afternoon game was relatively low. After all, in the eyes of scouts, top-tier players like Bosh and Josh were only Grade 11 high schoolers and still needed a year before entering the NCAA.
As for the Grade 12 Link, although he made people's eyes light up in the morning game, he hadn't reached a "stunning" level yet.
Among the scouts who came in the afternoon, the only one from an NCAA Division I team was from UCLA—the scout who had first given Link the "performance-type personality" comment.
Finally!
93 to 50!
Link and his team crushed their opponents by 43 points.
In the ABCD Training Camp, besides the win-loss record affecting the trainees' rankings, the point differential was also a factor. Such a lopsided score would undoubtedly benefit all members of the Dream Chasing Warriors Team.
In the game, Link shot 6-of-13, 1-of-4 from Three-Point Shot, and 4-of-5 from the free-throw line, finishing with 17 points, 10 assists, 3 rebounds, and 7 steals.
Among them, the 7 steals were a game-high.
Oh, right, Link also picked up 1 offensive rebound.
[Ding, post-game reward settlement: 75 Goat points]
[Goat points: 136/236]
With Link's available Goat points, he could perform another random draw.
To get stronger faster, Link couldn't wait to draw as soon as he got the reward.
"Ding, congratulations to the Host for obtaining—[star (draymond green) training partner card] x1."
Link:...
Dammit!
Have I fallen into the Green multiverse?
...
...
The ABCD Training Camp rankings are updated once a day, with the latest rankings posted at 7 PM.
After Link and the others finished dinner, they impatiently headed to the gym to see the latest issue of trainee rankings posted by the camp.
"Wow!"
"Link... you're way too fierce..."
Soon, Matt Babcock's excited voice rang out.
"Link, you've improved by almost 100 spots." The other teammates who followed also couldn't help but exclaim.
And at this moment, seeing his new ranking of "49", although there wasn't much emotion on his face, the corners of his mouth were harder to suppress than an AK-47.
Link had spent only 1 day to rise from "143rd" to "49th". Looking at the entire ABCD Training Camp, this was the greatest improvement; in the NBA, it would be the so-called MIP.
The system's voice rang out again.
[Ding, congratulations to the Host for completing the random mission—Unwilling to be Ordinary.]
[Mission Reward: 200 Goat points.]
Link performed 2 more random draws.
However...
The rewards made Link dumbfounded once again.
The first random draw was another [star (draymond green) training partner card].
"Dammit..."
"Am I surrounded by Green?"
But fortunately, the second random draw was better.
He obtained [physical sports special training card (2 days)] x1.
[physical sports special training card (2 days)] Description: Within 2 days, the effectiveness of physical and athletic training is increased by 5 times.