Champion, please stay!

Chapter 93, Section 91: Minor Repairs and Supplements
Yi Shui was a little surprised when he saw those two big tattooed arms.

Their president, Walsh, is certainly bold enough.

At this stage, there aren't many teams that dare to sign Birdman.

Chris Anderson is the person involved in the ridiculous incident where he didn't know how to submit his application materials for the draft.

He started his career in the CBA and entered the NBA in 01. He played an average game for the Denver Nuggets for the first three years, but won the head coach's favor mainly by playing hard.

He only really came into his own after playing alongside outstanding point guards like Baron Davis, David Wesley, and Dan Dickau with the Hornets in the 2004-05 season, and signed a two-year, $7 million contract.

Then, Anderson got carried away and started having bad luck.

First, after receiving his salary in advance, he got into a fight with his own mother over money, ruining his reputation; a month later, a hurricane hit and destroyed his house; six months later, in January 2006, he was caught using drugs and banned for two years, only being reinstated this March…

Anderson played five games for the Hornets in April, but his performance was poor due to his out-of-shape physique and lack of playing time, and he was cut before the playoffs.

Even though Anderson regained his physique a few months later and averaged 9 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks per game in the Summer League, no team was willing to contact him.

Yi Shui remembers that it seems the Nuggets ended up signing Birdman? Only with Anthony on the team would the Nuggets' gang not be afraid of such a troublemaker.

Look at the Nuggets' current starting roster: Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, JR Smith, Nene, Kenyon Martin, and Dahntay Jones.

Every single one of them was a player David Stern wanted to get rid of.

Walsh's decision to sign Birdman required vision and courage.

However, Yi Shui remembered something: the Knicks, it seems, were once called a gang, and they still have players who are actually involved in organized crime, who joined this summer.

In other words, Walsh doesn't care about this.

The owner is James Dolan, so it seems he doesn't need to care about these things.

Yi Shui is very satisfied with the team's signing of Birdman.

In his memory, Birdman had a very good reputation among his teammates. Hu Weidong, Paul, Billups, Wade, and Battier all publicly praised Birdman's professionalism and strength.

As for the off-court issues of this new teammate... there are no perfect solutions in the world. Given the current situation of the Knicks, they can't ask for more than they have by signing such a talented player.

...

Although three players had not yet reported for duty, after gathering the players and introducing the new additions, D'Antoni proceeded with the original plan and announced the start of preparations for the new season.

Curry whispered to Yi Shui, "In Mike's eyes, it seems like it doesn't matter whether Little Shaq and Hillbilly (Jerome James' nickname) came or not?"

Yi Shui replied, "It really doesn't matter. That country bumpkin is probably still queuing up at a donut shop in Europe."

The little shark is said to have reached 360 pounds (over 160 kilograms), while the big shark has been persuaded by Dr. Carter to lose weight down to 320 pounds (less than 150 kilograms).

Curry's eyes widened: "360 pounds? He's only 7 feet tall, right? Crazy! What a waste! He could easily score 10+ points every game... Wait, how do you know all this?"

Yi Shui pointed to his mouth.

Curry: "What do you mean?"

Yi Shui: "I have a mouth, I asked Mike."

"..."

Curry felt his intelligence being suppressed. Ignoring the previous few seconds, he asked, "What about the Streetball King (one of Tinsley's nicknames)?"

Yi Shui: "You'll be sent away, to give you more playing time."

Curry: "Oh..."

He felt no guilt about it; he had already experienced the law of the jungle when he graduated from high school.

Playing time is a competition where it's either me or him.

The two began queuing for physical testing.

When measuring height, D'Antoni, who was holding the pen, asked Yi Shui, "Brook, have you grown taller again?"

Yi Shui originally wanted to answer about her current height, but then she suddenly remembered their late-night chat more than two weeks ago...

"No, no, you're overthinking it. Six feet seven inches, small forward."

D'Antoni also recalled Yi Shui's reaction that night, smiled helplessly, and filled in the number Yi Shui had mentioned.

When weighing himself, D'Antoni was quite satisfied to see that Yi Shui had gained weight to 225 pounds (about 102 kilograms).

He went to the Olympics during the off-season and gained a little over 10 pounds. His technique and basic skills have been improving, which is quite good.

In the running and jumping tests, he was still excellent, reaching high and fast, and his jumping ability was also outstanding.

But he doesn't seem to be taking vertical jumps seriously. Maybe he'll only start taking them seriously if Howard is in front of him.

When it came to the strength test, D'Antoni's eyes widened when he saw Yi Shui's test reports on bench press, barbell, squat, leg press, lat pulldown, etc.

He flipped through Harrington's strength test report, which showed that Harrington was about the same height as Yi Shui but weighed 245 pounds (about 111 kilograms). Except for the number of bench presses, Harrington was inferior to Yi Shui in almost every other aspect!

Moreover, the advantage in bench press is limited to the number of repetitions with a base weight of 84 kg. It's just that if you have a shorter arm span or better physical strength, your maximum bench press will be more than 10 pounds higher!
Without waiting to observe others' tests, D'Antoni immediately went to find the president.

Ten minutes later, in the president's office, Walsh, D'Antoni, lead assistant coach Dan D'Antoni, guard development coach Phil Webber, offensive tactics coach Dan Dario, shooting coach Herb Williams, and others gathered to watch the video of Yi Shui's physical test.

The test report results are correct; Yi Shui's strength is indeed better than Harrington's.

D'Antoni's face flushed red, not from anxiety this time, but from excitement.

He exclaimed excitedly, "During the joint tryouts, Brook's strength was already incredible. With that physique, he could go toe-to-toe with Beasley. Now he has far surpassed Beasley. Oh my god, I was wrong to compare him to Amare before. He has even more talent than Amare!"

Most importantly, the running and jumping ability test showed that it had not worsened compared to three months ago, and the jumping ability had even improved.

Walsh's hand trembled as he held the test report: "God bless! Thank you, New York!" D'Antoni echoed, "Thank you, New York!"

...

Yi Shui was also very excited after the physical test.

The last time he underwent such a complete strength test was on June 2nd, also at this venue.

The NBA only tested bench press during the combined tryouts; that's the only requirement for the NBA, and the national teams do pretty much the same.

Compared to the test nearly three months ago, he could see the improvement directly from the numbers on the counterweight plate—a huge improvement!

"file……

速度93、力量90、弹跳92、灵活性92、体力89……”

He completed the final 7-day 'Power Transformation' on the 22nd. He originally thought he could gain two points of strength, but he only gained one. He estimated that the difficulty of increasing strength from 86 to 88 was similar to that of increasing it from 89 to 90.

He's a man with top-tier strength in the NBA! It's just that his weight doesn't quite match that strength; his current maximum weight without affecting his speed and agility is 106 kilograms.

However, in the 20 days or so after he returned to New York, he really didn't have the opportunity to gain weight. He estimated that his training volume wouldn't be enough to suppress the impact on muscle memory during the 'strength transformation' process combined with weight gain.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have needed to spend more than ten mornings running to the park to learn boxing from or teach Tai Chi to elderly American men.

He's not in a hurry about this; he'll wait until his physique is stable before making any decisions. In the meantime, he can gradually increase his weight, just like he did in his junior year of college, focusing on improving his technique and basic skills.

After the physical tests, the team did not arrange any tests on technique or basic skills.

Yi Shui had previously heard Bartelstein say that some NBA teams prefer to make evaluations based on test results, while others prefer to look at the players' performance in regular training.

D'Antoni appears to be the latter.

For the next few days, the Knicks coaching staff arranged individual training sessions, but distributed the tactics manual to the players.

Yi Shui really wanted to practice team offense as soon as possible, but he found that some people were not training during the off-season.

For example, Jeffries has even lost his touch with free throws!
"Stephen, Mario, what gives that guy the audacity to teach us how to play?"

Curry: "Shameless."

Chalmers: "He's actually pretty good. I heard he worked as a luxury goods salesman in the summer, and with his NBA player status, he made over $50 in commissions in such a sluggish economy."

Yi Shui clicked his tongue in amazement: "That's really impressive! As expected, Florida doesn't support idlers, and everyone in New York is a talent."

Curry and Chalmers exchanged glances: What does this mean, bro?
Since he couldn't practice team offense, Yi Shui focused on practicing shooting.

Before the start of the regular season, he wanted to practice every point of long-range shooting to 80, except for the left corner and the top arc.

He wanted to take a shot from the most accurate 45-degree angle on the right.

He was already 87 when he was drafted. During the offseason, whenever he had time to train, he focused on training long two-pointers and three-pointers from the right 45-degree angle. When training with the national team, he also trained FIBA ​​three-pointers as 'long two-pointers' and practiced three-pointers according to NBA standards.

Perhaps his skill level was already quite good. After nearly a month and a half of training and eight matches, his right 45-degree angle only improved to 88, not as quickly as other positions.

Make the most of your training time before the season starts!
During this period, Yi Shui also moved from the hotel to a luxury apartment near Madison Square Garden.

During his return to the US, he changed hotels several times, and each time he was exposed after only a few days. People would take pictures of him every time he came out of the hotel. He also saw hotel staff slipping small cards into his room. But all of that was okay. Bartelstein and Walsh were worried about his safety, so they found him an apartment.

Being photographed was inevitable, as this is the Big Apple, but the apartment building has excellent security, and most of the neighbors are executives from large companies based in New York.

He spent a lot of money to buy the house, and the interior renovations were done quite quickly. The money was paid in full, but the renovation company suggested that he move in in December. He wasn't in a hurry, as long as his parents could move in when they came to visit during his high school winter break.

...

October has arrived, and it's time for the official NBA training camp.

At the start of the media day, Yi Shui became the focus of the entire team.

His performance in his junior year, the joint tryouts, and the Olympics convinced most people of his talent and ability.

The main media outlets that Dolan agreed to interview were mostly local and Chinese media; Media Day was essentially a day for promoting 'BIG-YI'.

However, recently, the claim that he is "only suitable for international competitions and college, not for the NBA" has intensified, and some media outlets have asked him for his opinion on this.

Yi Shui responded, "My idea is a bit old-fashioned and not very New York, but I did take it as motivation. I'm looking forward to seeing what new ideas the person who said this will come up with after the preseason."

On media day evening, the Knicks made a trade.

The Knicks traded point guard Jamal Tinsley to the Grizzlies in exchange for Stromile Swift.

Such a trade wouldn't attract much attention on another team, but with the Knicks, it's like when they signed Anderson—it's become a hot topic among the media and fans.

The reviews were equally terrible: Birdman has a bad reputation, and Swift is a bust runner-up.

Tinsley was frequently criticized by the media during his time with the Pacers.

The fact that Bird used a point guard who averages 11 points and 8 assists per game to make up the numbers speaks volumes – he's got a lot going on and a lot of injuries.

But now, Tinsley is being touted by the media as a 'top point guard'.

The harshest criticism of this deal came from the local New York media.

Seeing the local media praising Yishui, and then looking at their evaluations of his own actions, Walsh felt utterly disheartened.

All I can do is look at the team's salary table.

Tinsley's contract expires in 11 years, worth $700 million annually; Swift's contract is for one year, with a salary of $620 million... The space clearing plan is proceeding smoothly, and the players acquired through trades will also be useful. Don't cry!
When Yi Shui saw this deal, he realized how hard the president had worked. He had finally managed to get an insider back, only to be scolded like this.

As for the Grizzlies, it seems Conley has been put on the trade list. They've already traded him for an experienced and capable backup for Rose. I'm a little curious where Conley will go, and whether he can get the first-ever $1.5 million contract in history.

(End of this chapter)