Mountain Peak System: a Path to NBA-Chapter 750 - 268: When Qin Yue’s Teammate is Yao Ming

In the group stage, the Chinese Team, led by Qin Yue, only faced a challenge in the match against the Spain Team.

With the Gasol Brothers and Ibaka, the Spain Team was also one of the favorites to win the championship in this Olympics.

However, in this match, Yi Jianlian's strong post-up play significantly reduced the offensive pressure on Qin Yue and Yao Ming on the court.

What?

Yi Jianlian, who could barely bully a chair in the NBA, could be associated with the term "strong" in such high-stakes dialogues?

In fact, on the international stage, Yi Jianlian with the basketball authority was indeed a star power forward in FIBA.

Historically, in the same era, as the only face-saving player for the Chinese Men's Basketball Team after Yao Ming's retirement, in this Olympics, the triple-tower combination of Spain could not do anything to Yi Jianlian.

Of course, the reason the Chinese Team could effortlessly win five consecutive group stage matches in the London Olympic Games was mainly because Qin Yue hit a total of twenty-eight three-pointers across the five group stage games.

Just how terrifying is a Qin Yue who can average more than five three-pointers per game with an accuracy rate of over 45%?

After the match against the Chinese Men's Basketball Team, Little Gasol, who collected Qin Yue's match jersey, shorts, shoes, and socks of the night, leaving only his underwear, said: "FIBA really needs to consider extending the three-point line to NBA's distance, otherwise 'Big-Qin' is invincible in FIBA."

Although now the FIBA three-point line has already been extended to 6.75 meters, only 0.5 meters shorter than NBA's 7.25 meters.

But on the basketball court, that 0.5-meter difference can change a lot of things.

In recent years, Qin Yue's long two-point shooting percentage in the NBA has always remained above 45%.

But beyond the three-point line, Qin Yue's career three-point shooting accuracy is only 37.4%.

Why?

Because at the longer distance, Qin Yue not only needs to change his accustomed shooting force, but 7.25 meters is also, to some extent, a limit set by basketball experts in the NBA based on the cardiovascular capacity of basketball players.

In later years, even in the small-ball era, besides a few exceptional players, the vast majority of players find it very challenging to maintain a three-point shooting accuracy above 40% in the NBA after maxing out their cardiovascular capacity.

You should know that spot-up shooting and shooting after high-intensity confrontation and extensive running are entirely different concepts.

The former, many basketball enthusiasts can even achieve professional player levels.

As for the latter?

Any basketball enthusiast who has tried running two sprints followed immediately by catch-and-shoot won't compare their hobby to other people's livelihood.

Nonetheless, regarding Little Gasol's suggestion, the International Basketball Federation's (FIBA) response was read but unanswered.

The reason FIBA cannot choose to extend the three-point line in the short term is very simple.

That is, on the international stage, a longer three-point line would inevitably lead to a significant decrease in the efficiency of teams breaking zone defense.

In FIBA, breaking zone defenses has always been a tough issue.

Therefore, if an excessively long three-point line leads to teams being unable to break opponents' zone defense for long periods in games, FIBA's own match spectacle would greatly decline.

It can be said that the 6.75-meter three-point line is also a threshold set by FIBA's basketball experts based on the current era's basketball player technical features and FIBA's rules.

It's just that this era has coincidentally seen the emergence of two utterly elusive players on the international stage.

Group A Olympic Games, the Chinese Men's Basketball Team, under Qin Yue's leadership, advanced into the quarter-finals invincibly.

Meanwhile, the new Redemption Team under Durant's lead also achieved five wins and zero losses.

This United States Team showed a staggering performance of an average net win of 30 points in the group stage.

In games, when Durant and Anthony were on fire, the "MK20" combo could shoot freely on the court like two snipers with wallhack, gunning down opponents at a shot regardless of appearing or not.

On the contrary, Curry, still lacking credentials in the United States Team, due to insufficient resources, only managed a mediocre performance of averaging 10 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists in the group stage.

In Qin Yue's past life, it wasn't until in Paris that Curry, receiving tilted resources, demonstrated his equally impressive power in FIBA to the world.

But as of now...

As the little bro to Durant and Anthony, Curry's primary task, indeed, was to assist these two big brothers and carry their bags and shoes.

And this subtly bred Curry's discontent with Coach K.

Back in college days, Duke, led by Coach K, had mercilessly rejected Curry.

So, despite the lack of evidence...

Historically, many people speculated that the reason Curry hadn't represented the United States Team for nine long years again stemmed from this experience of being marginalized by this renowned NCAA coach when Coach K was helming the U.S. Men's Basketball.

For Qin Yue, who aims to lead the Chinese Team to defend the title, Coach K's disregard for Curry is undoubtedly a major advantage.

Because, to say the least, if in games, Coach K started massively deploying Durant and Curry, plus using pick-and-rolls between Anthony and Curry, then even Qin Yue would be clueless on how the Chinese Team can outshoot this Redemption Team.

A day after the group stage ended, the Chinese Team encountered the Argentina Team in the quarter-finals at the London Olympic Basketball Arena.

Compared to the Argentina Team that won the championship eight years ago in Athens, this aging Argentina Team can only be described as no longer what it used to be.

On the match night, whether it was the veteran Nocioni's blatant elbows and sneaky kicks, or Scola's various Oscar-worthy flops, nothing could stop Qin Yue's scoring spree on the court for the Chinese Team.