NBA's King of Talking

If motivational quote masters have different levels of expertise, then Brooks is clearly no less skilled than the veteran motivational quote guru Doug Rivers.

Sure enough, after drinking a pot of chicken soup, the Thunder players present were instantly fired up, and their desire for the championship reached its peak!

The Thunder have one of the youngest overall ages in the entire NBA, and their core players are all energetic young people, so they are naturally easily influenced by this kind of motivational talk.

"OK, let's start our day's practice. Go young men, go Thunder!" Coach Brooks clapped his hands, adding fuel to the fire.

The players clapped, and after the applause, they began their first official training session of the season.

The official rosters for each NBA team are only finalized before the start of the regular season, so during training camp and the preseason, several fringe players will try to make it onto the roster.

— Jia Fei is a fringe player on this team.

Based on the Thunder's current roster, the starting lineup for next season should remain the same as last season: Durant, Westbrook, Sefolosha, Perkins, and Ibaka. Harden will be the sixth man, with veterans Mohammed and Collison as backup centers, Daequan Cook as backup forward, and Eric Mayno as backup guard.

This already represents a 10-man rotation. In the NBA regular season, teams typically rotate 8-11 players, usually 9 or 10. However, the team roster has 15 players, and Jia Fei's goal is to first secure a spot on the roster before competing for a rotation spot.

Compared to him, Reggie Jackson, as a first-round pick, is most likely already on the team's roster. He is definitely a development target for the team, even if he may not be the main development target.

The Thunder are, after all, a championship contender. They don't have that much time and ball possession to give to a rookie in the latter half of the first round and a second-round pick. What they need more are young players who can contribute immediately and be ready to play, or experienced veterans.

In this team, Jia Fei's main competitors are two people: backup forward Daquan Cook and Lazar Hayward, who is also a fringe player.

Jia Fei didn't want to be squeezed out of the roster and sent to the NBDL for training. Training at that level, like he did in New York before, wouldn't be very effective. It's like playing against terrible players every day—how much will your chess skills improve? Or if you constantly engage in "love exercises" with someone of the opposite sex who lacks technical skill, will your technique improve?

So for his future, Jia Fei decided he had to make the roster no matter what, even if it meant just being a benchwarmer, rather than going to the NBA DL. The benchwarmers and energy drinks in an NBA arena are better than those in the DL!

Another reason Jia Fei wants to stay in the NBA is that he has missions to complete! His missions are all related to the NBA. If he really goes to the NBDL, he won't be able to complete his missions anymore. All he'll do is argue with people. Who will he argue with?

The Thunder players began training, starting with basic warm-ups, then moving on to conditioning and shooting drills. Head coach Brooks participated throughout, observing the players closely.

The Thunder players all practiced very hard, whether they were veterans or rookies.

As rookies, Jia Fei and Reggie naturally trained diligently and tried their best to perform. They hoped to impress the coach with their abilities during practice and increase their playing time.

After Jia Fei finished his shooting practice, he was pulled aside by head coach Brooks.

“Jay, your shooting fundamentals are good. I suggest you practice your three-pointers from the corners more often,” Rubus said.

"Okay, thanks for the reminder!" Jia Fei accepted with a smile. He was right; the Thunder's need was for a 3-and-D player. Both the team's management and the head coach hoped he would play a 3-and-D type wing role in the future. They didn't need him to initiate pick-and-rolls or isolate and attack; all they needed him to do was create space on offense, shoot, and then defend.

Jia Fei felt that his goal in this team was to become Sefolosha's substitute, which was his most realistic objective.

The first day's training wasn't very intense; there was no competitive training, and the focus was mainly on recovery. The team has its own training plan. Because of the long off-season, the players have been away from the court for too long, and many less disciplined players have lost their physique.

Of the Thunder's "Big Three," Durant and Westbrook have maintained their physiques very well, but Harden...

Harden also seemed a bit slow and sluggish in today's practice, which clearly shows that he hasn't been training as diligently during the offseason.

Jia Fei also noticed that Harden has always been quite lazy. Compared to Durant and others' obsession with basketball, he seems to be more obsessed with Mo Yan's novels (Big Breasts and Wide Hips).

After finishing a day of training and returning home, Jia Fei suddenly remembered that he seemed to have accepted a contractual task earlier, so he quickly went to check it. Sure enough, the task list showed that the task had been completed. As a reward for completion, he received 1000 points.

At this point, he had a total of 1321 points. During the off-season, he accumulated some points, but it was clear that accumulating them in this way was far too slow.

Jia Fei redeemed his points, and his "Iverson Peak Skill Integration" increased from 4% to 5%!

Finally, we've reached 5%. The growth seems slow, but seeing it increase each time brings a great sense of accomplishment. As the saying goes, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," and "Many small streams make a great river." Let's take it slow; the day of reckoning will come eventually.

On the second day, the Thunder held their internal training camp, which included intra-squad scrimmages. The starting players wore red vests, while the reserves and bench players wore white vests.

Unlike some of the substitutes who frantically fought for possession, Jia Fei was diligent and meticulous on the defensive end, starting with leading the defense. On the offensive end, he would take any open shot when he had the chance, and take the fast break whenever possible. The rest of the time, he would stand in the corner or at a 45-degree angle to prepare for a shot.

Conversely, fellow rookie Reggie Jackson seemed a bit impatient, seizing every opportunity to showcase his ball-handling skills, especially his ability to attack with the ball. However, when matched up against Westbrook, he got completely outplayed…

Reggie was in a bad mood in the locker room after training; he was somewhat frustrated.

Jia Fei could understand his feelings. They were both high achievers, but after arriving in the NBA, they were ruthlessly crushed. It was indeed a hard feeling to accept.

"I'm feeling a bit down, can you talk to me?" For Reggie, Jia Fei is the teammate he knows best on the team.

Jia Fei nodded: "Let's go for a drive outside!"

Reggie nodded in agreement.