One Year Left to Play-Chapter 190 - 62: A Big Boost in Shamelessness

The first two types of turnaround fadeaway methods, he could learn them too, but he wouldn’t use them immediately. This one, however, he might have a chance to try in a game, and maybe after some practice, he could make it look really authentic.

After finishing the movements once, he started the slow-motion repetition while the explanation came: "Moving mid-to-long distance with your back to the basket during running is more advantageous for receiving the ball and reduces the chance of errors. You can use speed, pick-and-rolls, and other methods to create space to receive the ball. Shoot immediately upon receiving it, making it difficult to disrupt. This technique is low in difficulty requirements but high in balance, speed, flexibility, and shooting ability."

Zhang Hao, hearing this explanation, thought to himself, "That’s what I need," as the subtitles appeared.

"Host’s current learning target: Analysis of the technique of receiving the ball and executing a turnaround fadeaway."

At this time, the blue-collar worker came to the top of the arc for a pass, and Jordan’s 3D image started running to various spots on the court, receiving the ball and executing a turnaround fadeaway.

It’s all about catching and executing a turnaround fadeaway, with different angles and different distances even from the same angle. The moves aren’t the same!

Zhang Hao watched Jordan’s turnaround fadeaways. The baseline angles had higher arcs, getting higher the closer to the basket.

In the high-post area, the distance flung during the turnaround was farther. The closer to the basket in this area, the faster the shooting speed. The farther from the basket, the slower the shooting speed, which is just more showy...

After demonstrating various angles and distances, the technical analysis learning began, and the electronic mechanical explanation could be heard once more: "When receiving and executing a turnaround fadeaway, control over movement and body stability at the moment of catching the ball is crucial. Receiving the ball is the best time to break free from defense. Always pay attention to the positions of other players on the court and your position. When receiving the ball..."

"The step or two steps taken after catching the ball need to prepare for the shot during movement. From the moment the ball is received, the shooting preparation must begin, from the force on the stepping foot, to the knee, waist, abdomen, and back, shoulders..."

"The action of turning around after receiving the ball needs to be adjusted according to the angle of the ball-receiving position to the basket and the baseline..."

...

"Remaining life 236 days, usable life 235 days."

At 6 AM on October 15th, Zhang Hao woke up from his sleep.

He had been tossing and turning in his dream until 4 AM, but now he felt refreshed.

Whenever the next day required him not to sleep in, Zhang Hao would use the learning mode to sleep, precisely because of this effect.

Glancing at the remaining life, Zhang Hao decisively turned it off, feeling a headache just looking at it.

He got up and washed up.

Zhang Hao reviewed the learning from his dream last night, realizing it wasn’t yet to the point where he could use it, just a single turnaround fadeaway. He hadn’t expected there to be so much to analyze.

But on second thought, he felt it made sense; this was Michael Jordan’s turnaround fadeaway!

Jordan wasn’t just a master one-on-one player. In fact, after Pippen joined the Bulls, Jordan’s ball-handling rate wasn’t very high anymore, as could be seen from the assist numbers. Jordan’s average assists per game had been decreasing year by year. In the season before Pippen joined, it was an average of 8 assists, and rarely broke 6 after.

Especially in the early games of this preseason, Jordan’s assists were around 1-3 per game.

With less ball-handling and increased off-ball movements, Zhang Hao felt that Jordan’s off-ball skills certainly weren’t lacking.

He thought of the season when Kobe teamed up with Nash. As long as Nash wasn’t injured, Kobe’s efficiency was explosive; even when Nash missed more than 30 games, Kobe posted career-best efficiency that season.

The reason for the increased efficiency was by being a pure finisher.

Even though there’s little public discussion of Jordan’s career planning, Zhang Hao believed that Jordan definitely had a very mature career plan. It definitely wasn’t the technique he hastily practiced following a late-season comeback in the previous year. During his year-plus retirement, or during the first three-peat, or perhaps even earlier, he had certainly prepared for his current style at this age.

When Jordan made this move a major scoring method, it was absolutely well-polished; otherwise, he wouldn’t use it as a regular offensive tactic.

After spending 4 hours, Zhang Hao only went through the receiving and executing a turnaround fadeaway part without getting to practice yet. But analyzing it, he felt his progress was definitely faster than Jordan back in the day, not knowing how many times over because he could now directly use the latest version of Jordan’s polished turnaround fadeaway. All the detours Jordan had taken in training had already been improved upon!

This is essentially a component of the post-up game...but for now, there’s no need to consider that. He thought it would be quite satisfactory to master the turnaround fadeaway to the point of using it as a regular offensive tool in a game this morning.

Zhang Hao analyzed that his catch-and-shoot had progressed more slowly after reaching a top-level because there weren’t more options for catching and shooting; now there finally was.

After busying himself for quite a while, tweaking and modifying, Zhang Hao finally added the turnaround fadeaway training into his training schedule.

As for the other conditions under which to use the turnaround fadeaway, he would address that after mastering this first. Future matters would be considered later.

...

At 11:40 AM, Zhang Hao flew with the team to Indianapolis to play the final game of the preseason three-game road trip in this city, challenging the Eastern Conference strong team, the Pacers.

After this away game, the remaining 3 games are all home games.

Back in high school, a year’s worth of regular games was just over 30 matches, and including the championships, it was less than 40, mostly playing against high schools in his city. Playing two games a week wasn’t too tiring, and many games were just like casual basketball with a bunch of classmates.