Chapter 24

Although Lin Han was no longer short of money, he still couldn't use the Basketball Legend System to enhance his abilities because he had no victory points or championship points. As for using the training facility to have NBA legends teach him how to play, with his current financial situation, he simply couldn't afford it.

In this situation, if Lin Han wanted to improve his strength, he could only follow what Alice suggested and undergo regular professional training, such as strength training in the weight room, physical fitness training in the gym, and seeking professional coaches from the Jazz team or the University of Utah to guide him in basic basketball skills, teaching him defensive positioning and basketball tactics.

It can be said that while these regular basketball trainings can indeed improve Lin Han's strength in the short term, the improvement is obviously limited. It's not as simple as someone saying that with hard training for a dozen years, they can enter the NBA. In fact, 99% of people, even with hard training for a lifetime, can't even touch the edge of the NBA, let alone the NCAA.

A player with a basketball potential of 60 cannot become a player with an ability of 61 just through hard work. Although Lin Han was unwilling to believe it, this was a fact. In basketball, people are inherently unequal, and most of the time, this is the case. As for those who break this rule, they are even further away from Lin Han.

However, fortunately, Lin Han's current basketball foundation was so weak that after a summer of basic training, he should still be able to make some breakthroughs in his abilities. In the early stages, the improvement in his abilities would be quite rapid. For example, all of Lin Han's defensive attributes were set to the default minimum value. As long as he was willing to work hard, these default minimum values of 1 could be increased several times over.

Therefore, after exchanging points in the Basketball Legend System, Lin Han spent a long time training with the professional trainers of the Utah Jazz to improve his various basic basketball skills.

Although he had trained with the Jazz for about a month during the draft, due to the large number of people and the complexity of the situation, even though the Jazz treated him well and gave him special treatment, they still assumed that Lin Han was a very good player. They didn't teach him the basics of one-on-one defense, such as how to slide step, which are things that are usually taught in high school or by启蒙 coaches in the United States. Now, what Lin Han needed most were these basics.

So, when Lin Han proposed to the team that he needed to improve some basic basketball skills, the Jazz were all shocked. Although they knew that Lin Han had only played basketball for a year, they didn't expect his foundation to be so poor. Previously, when Lin Han didn't defend well during team training, didn't listen to tactics, and didn't know how to position himself, Jerry Sloan thought that Lin Han knew these things but didn't want to defend or position himself because the opponents were too weak. Now, it turned out that the Jazz had misunderstood Lin Han; this kid really didn't know these things.

If they had comprehensively tested Lin Han and found out that not only was his physical fitness that of an ordinary person, but his basketball foundation was also that of an ordinary person, they would never have used a first-round pick on him. Although Jerry Sloan always compared Lin Han to Stockton, Stockton, despite his poor physical talent, had extremely solid basketball fundamentals. In this aspect, Lin Han was far inferior, and the gap was like the difference between heaven and earth.

However, even though Sloan and the Jazz were somewhat deceived by Lin Han, they had no choice but to keep him. They had signed a three-year guaranteed contract with Lin Han, and even if they kicked him out, they would still have to pay his full salary. This was exactly what Lin Han and Alice hoped for.

Before this, Lin Han had many options to enter the NBA and join many NBA teams, but without a team willing to be deceived like Sloan and the Jazz, even if Lin Han entered the NBA, he would still face the fate of being cut. Even if he continued to hide his true abilities, once the regular season started, he would be exposed and still face the fate of being abandoned.

Now, Lin Han didn't need to worry about whether he would be abandoned by the Jazz. After all, his annual salary was $1.1 million, and the entire NBA salary cap was only $14 million. According to Alice, Lin Han's current salary was equivalent to about $5 million in 2013.

According to Alice, in 2013, the average salary of the first overall pick was only about $6 million. It could be said that Lin Han, as the 18th overall pick, was treated like a first overall pick 20 years later. Players like Shaquille O'Neal, who averaged $4.5 million at the time, were equivalent to the top salaries of $20 million 20 years later.

It must be said that because the NBA's commercialization was still in its early stages and the labor agreements were not yet complete, the current NBA rookies were the most unique in NBA history.

Although they were all called rookies, their treatment was no worse than that of players who had played in the NBA for many years. Players who had played in the NBA for many years could sign big contracts, and rookies could also sign big contracts. Veteran players could sign 10-year long-term contracts, and rookies could also sign 10-year long-term contracts if they were willing. There was no difference between them and veteran players.

In a sense, they should not be called rookies but special free agents. Being selected by a team did not mean that the team owned them but only gave the team the right to sign them first. This was extremely beneficial for NBA rookies, unlike in the future, where if a rookie was selected and did not report, they would never be able to enter the NBA unless the team abandoned them. Moreover, the rookie's contract was tied to the draft position, leaving no room for negotiation, which was unfair to most rookies, as it meant they were working for the team at a reduced salary for the first few years.

Of course, the future development of the NBA would gradually limit the status and rights of rookie players, but this had nothing to do with Lin Han. At least for now, he didn't need to worry about these things. What he needed to do was to train hard and try to improve his basketball foundation over the next few months, so that he wouldn't even be afraid of traveling violations when dribbling.

Fortunately, although the Jazz, especially Jerry Sloan, were slightly disappointed with Lin Han, they didn't really cold-shoulder him. They still gave Lin Han good treatment, and the team's first assistant coach, Phil Johnson, was practically giving Lin Han special training every day.

In fact, Jerry Sloan had considered cold-shouldering Lin Han, but this special player couldn't be cold-shouldered. This wasn't because of Lin Han's high salary, but because this guy was truly unique.

In the internal team scrimmages organized by the Jazz, although this guy couldn't dribble or defend, as long as he stood on the court and had enough ball possession, he could always turn the ball into points, whether it was 15 out of 25 shots, 7 out of 25 shots, 20 out of 30 shots, or 10 out of 30 shots. As long as he had the ball, he could score. This was not a simple ability; many NBA players couldn't score even if they were given the chance. If they were forced to take 20 or 30 shots, their performance would be truly terrible. So, although this trait was somewhat toxic, it was also very rare and special. If used well, it could be a powerful weapon, and Lin Han possessed this special trait.

Because this guy's jump shot was so special, the players who came to the Jazz for tryouts after the draft were not just rookies but also many veteran free agents who had played in the NBA for many years. Their skills were at the NBA level. Even against such players, Lin Han could still average over 25 points in training games, although his shooting percentage had dropped to around 45%. For a rookie, this shooting percentage was already sufficient. Although these training games were not as intense as regular season games, Lin Han's opponents wouldn't hold back to find work in the NBA again. So, the intensity of the Jazz's internal training games, while not as high as the NBA regular season, was still comparable to the NBA preseason.

It could be said that as long as Lin Han wasn't asked to dribble, defend, or understand the coach's tactics, he was absolutely a powerful one-on-one offensive weapon on the court. However, whether having such a weapon could help win games in the NBA regular season was another matter, as in the NBA, a player couldn't lack defensive skills or the ability to execute tactics.

Therefore, Lin Han trained very hard recently, but Jerry Sloan and the Jazz were very conflicted. Should they let a six- or seven-year-old kid who could shoot with 100% accuracy with an AK-47 go to war?