NBA King

March 1, Magic Amway Center.

A low-level, but still quite fierce competition is taking place.

There were no Magic players involved, only some strangers whose names and pictures had never been heard of.

After the game against the Pistons, the Orlando Magic had three days of rest and adjustment. Taking advantage of these three days of rest and adjustment, Otis invited some players to come for a trial training to see if there were any.

People who can meet the team's requirements and provide some help to the Orlando Magic, which is currently suffering from a shortage of manpower. Most of these people are players from the NBA Development League, that is, NBADL. There are also a few who have no jobs after being laid off by the team.

, want to use this trial opportunity to find a way to stay in the NBA, otherwise they will have to go to the Development League or play overseas.

The ten players on the training ground were divided into blue and black teams, each wearing a different color Magic training vest. Adrian and Stan Van Gundy were sitting on the sidelines with a number of assistant coaches.

Stan Van Gundy took a fancy to a center named Chris Hunter. He was tall, long-armed, strong, and very active in rebounding. Stan Van Gundy wanted to sign a reasonably qualified substitute at the center position, so that he could solve Lewis' problem.

After being demoted to the small forward position, the Orlando Magic faced a problem of insufficient manpower inside. Judging from the previous few games, Sharad Lewis' performance was indeed much better when he returned to the small forward position than when he was at the power forward position, but once Sharad Lewis

The position of the small forward is completely stabilized, and the Magic will face the problem of insufficient manpower in the interior. At that time, the Magic will only have Kwame Brown, Marcin Gortat and Paul Millsap in the interior.

Even rotation is not enough. Not to mention injuries that may come at any time.

The only pity is that Chris Hunter doesn't seem to have much offensive power. His attack methods are only hard dunks and layups under the basket. If he receives the ball at the free throw line, he doesn't even know what to do with it.

But fortunately, his free throws seem to be passable. When he played for the McCain Mad Ants in the Development League, his free throw shooting rate reached 75%. This is a very good statistic in the paint.

However, Stan Van Gundy did not expect Chris Hunter to take on the important task of attacking the basket. He positioned Chris Hunter as a blue-collar guy who rebounds and defends the basket, but there is no need for him to attack.

After watching Chris Hunter play for a while, Stan Van Gundy was basically satisfied with him and said a few words to the assistant coach next to him. After a while, Chris Hunter was replaced by another white center.

As soon as he was substituted, Chris Hunter thought he had lost his chance, and he immediately wanted to leave with a look of disappointment on his face. However, an assistant coach stopped him from leaving the training ground and told him that the Magic were willing to sign a contract with him.

With a ten-day short-term contract, he can stay with the Magic.

Chris Hunter's face immediately showed excitement and ecstasy, and in the end he couldn't help laughing.

For nbdl players, entering the nba is their biggest dream. Even if it is a ten-day non-guaranteed contract, they will rush to compete for it. Because the income of nbdl and nba is completely two orders of magnitude, in nba, even if

Even the lowest-end role players earn twice as much as NBA All-Star players.

The huge gap in income makes NBA players sharpen their heads and desperately want to get into the NBA circle. This is nothing to criticize and laugh at. Everyone has the right to pursue a better life. As for NBA players

For players, the most convenient way to get a better life is to enter the NBA and become an NBA player.

Chris Hunter's laughter was so loud that other people on the field who were still fighting could hear it clearly, and could also see the joy on Chris Hunter's face. Suddenly there were looks of envy.

All focused on Chris Hunter.

Subsequently, the Magic signed a ten-day short-term contract with another center, the seven-foot-tall, 250-pound white center Lance Alred.

Adrian still has a slight image of Alred, because in this All-Star, Lance Alred once appeared on the stage of the All-Star Game as an All-Star of the Development League. Adrian

I still remember that he was supposed to be the starting center for the red team at that time.

After signing these two people, the Magic's inside line has basically been filled. Regardless of the strength, at least the number of people is enough. In the worst case, the Magic at least do not need to keep two main players on the court in garbage time.

physical strength.

"That guy." Adrian looked at it for a while, then suddenly pointed to a player on the field and asked the assistant coach next to him: "If I remember correctly, his name should be Weaver."

"It should be right." The assistant coach looked down at the list, nodded and said affirmatively: "Yes, Van Weaver, he was waived by the Trail Blazers before the All-Star Game."

Van Weaver?

This memory brought back some memories of Adrian. Mainly because in his memory, this Van Weaver was Yao Ming's teammate. He was McGrady's substitute at the time, and he played quite well in the Rockets.

At one time, he was even nominated for the Western Conference Player of the Week. In the end, he also went to China to play for the Shanghai Sharks under Yao Ming's name. Historically, he should have joined the Rockets as a free agent in the summer of 2008, averaging 100 points per game.

He scored ten points and his shooting percentage was around 45%. He was an important scorer on the Rockets bench at that time.

At this time, Weaver had just completed a breakthrough on the court. Although the layup ended up missing, the whole breakthrough process was quite crisp. To be honest, his breakthrough was very similar to Kobe's, except that

He is not as skillful and effortless as Kobe. If we want to talk about shortcomings, he seems to be very independent in his playing. He seems to be completely unable to see the position of his teammates on the court.

This may also be the biggest reason why Weaver is frequently kicked out. The role players have better abilities and the playing style of franchise players. As long as it is a normal NBA team, it is difficult to tolerate such players in their team, because

That would ruin the chemistry of the entire team.

By the way, Yao Ming was injured again and suffered a stress fracture in his left ankle. Although Adrian has reminded Yao Ming, it is obviously difficult for him to prevent some things from happening according to the historical trajectory. The Rockets have not announced the current severity of the injury.

But according to the original history, this left foot injury kicked off Yao Ming's frequent injuries in the later years of his career, and he finally had to passively choose to retire at the golden age of thirty years old.

Adrian doesn't have any good solutions for this. Although he is a time traveler, he is not a medical professional, and he does not have any magic weapon that can restore the health of the glass man. Therefore, he has nothing to do with Yao Ming's injuries.

The only way to do this is to hope that the big man he had loved all his life in his previous life would be able to go more smoothly in his next life.

Stan Van Gundy suddenly noticed that Adrian seemed to pay special attention to Weaver's performance, and asked: "What do you think of him, Ed? Is he the person we need?"

"You can try it first." Adrian doesn't know what Weaver's strength is. Judging from his performance on the training ground, he should be a very capable shooting guard, even if he has the playing skills.

His only shortcoming is that he is not qualified to serve as the main force, but at least he should have a place on the bench. He should be good when he comes on the bench to score points. He should not be so messed up that he cannot play the ball. But in fact, Weaver is now

It was indeed miserable. In the Trail Blazers, he only got a little playing time in garbage time, but he also hit a buzzer-beating shot for the Trail Blazers in a key game. Even more so after being waived by the Trail Blazers.

He was reduced to the point where he couldn't play ball.

He was certain that Weaver must have other shortcomings besides playing too uniquely. Adrian, who was just an ordinary student at the time, could not understand the inside story. But he knew that after the 2008-09 season,

, the Houston Rockets did not renew Weaver's contract.

It stands to reason that Weaver's performance in the 2008-09 season was amazing. As a substitute player, it should be very easy for such performance to help him win a minimum salary contract that can stay in the NBA. But in the end, the Rockets did not give Weaver

It's not a contract.

In addition to being too independent in playing, he probably has other shortcomings.

Stan Van Gundy didn't think as much as Adrian thought, but he also recognized Adrian's judgment. Weaver's ability is indeed quite good, his breakthrough is quite sharp, and his three-pointers are quite accurate. At least he gave it a try.

The value of the signing, and then through the performance of the team training to see how good he is.

In the end, Van Weaver won himself a ten-day short-term contract that allowed him to stay in the NBA, becoming the third and final player signed by the Orlando Magic during this training camp.

After finishing the training camp, Adrian continued his life. After coming to the Magic, his life became much calmer. Orlando is just a medium-sized city. There is no feasting and entertainment like Los Angeles. Every time he comes back alone,

When he gets home, Adrian will inevitably feel a little lonely.

At this moment, a phone call that surprised Adrian suddenly came to Adrian's mobile phone.

"Yao, I really didn't expect you to call me at this time." (To be continued...)