Chapter 1514 1513. Meeting with Wade
On the chartered plane to Orlando, Wade excitedly chatted with McGrady and Grant Hill.
Wade occasionally participated in tactical training with the team before this month. When he started rehabilitation training last month, he also ran tactics with the team to familiarize himself with his style of play.
But this time is different. This time Wade went to Orlando with the team and will conduct confrontational training with the team in preparation for tomorrow's game!
More than 10 months have passed since Wade was injured in the middle of last season. This is the first time Wade has the opportunity to participate in confrontational training, which is a very exciting thing for him.
Wade's comeback is a very important thing for Liu Mang. If Wade can play, the last link of their team will be completed!
Looking at the excited Wade, Liu Mang also looked at Wade's ability evaluation excitedly.
"Dwyane Wade, ability rating 89, offense 88, defense 92, three-pointer 45, mid-range shot 85, layup 91, speed 91, strength 90..."
Seeing Wade's current ability rating, although Liu Mang expected Wade to be greatly weakened after his comeback, he didn't expect the impact to be so great!
Wade's previous close-range scoring ability was one of the best among the league's outside players, but his explosiveness inevitably declined after the serious injury.
However, the decline in explosiveness is just a trigger. Liu Mang believes that for Wade, the biggest problem is the unfamiliarity with the playing style caused by the decline in explosiveness.
Because Liu Mang looked through all of Wade's techniques that were judged as skills by the system, and didn't find the "strongest first step"!
Admittedly, Wade's speed and explosiveness after recovering are still top in the league, but there is a certain gap with the previous super-top level.
The speed of breakthrough has slowed down, and it is definitely a little uncomfortable to do the action. The time from the three-point line to the layup has become a little longer. It is impossible to get rid of the defense in one step like before. Layups will also be unfamiliar and relatively easier to defend.
It is not just the breakthrough that is affected by the explosive speed. The mid-range jump shot developed by Wade in the 2005-06 season will definitely be affected...
Seeing Wade, Liu Mang understood more clearly why some stars have a collapse in their physical fitness after they are over 30, even without a serious injury.
The impact of the decline in physical fitness is too great and all-round.
When physical fitness declines, all aspects of technology will be affected. Unless you have super perseverance to adapt and strengthen your own skills, otherwise you will soon collapse completely.
Wade is the kind of person with extremely strong perseverance. He works very hard to do rehabilitation. After being able to conduct personal non-confrontational training, Wade has been working hard to practice his skills. He has not played for nearly a year, and his skills in all aspects have declined to varying degrees. Therefore, Wade has tried very hard to use training to minimize the impact of the decline in physical fitness as much as possible. He is much better than Wesley Matthews in Liu Mang's memory. Matthews's state after a serious injury was called an avalanche.
Wade has just recovered and reached the level of being able to participate in confrontational training and is still close to the top level. It is already a miracle.
What surprised Liu Mang in Wade's ability evaluation was that his defense was not affected too much. His physical fitness declined, but it was only compared to the explosive physical fitness at the beginning of Wade's career. Now Wade's physical fitness can still support him to complete the same defense as before.
As for the offensive end, give Wade enough time to train. With Wade's tenacious character, Liu Mang believes that Wade will adapt to his current physical condition after a period of time, develop a suitable playing style, and return to the superstar level. At least this season, it is not a problem to return to the top star level. Maybe after returning after one to two weeks of confrontation training as recommended by Thomas Carter, he can return to the top level.
However, Wade's current physical fitness... Liu Mang still thinks it is very good, still the top in the league, but the physical fitness before the serious injury was too explosive, so there is that kind of gap.
Wade is chatting happily with his teammates. Although he trained and played together almost two months later than others, Wade has been doing rehabilitation in the gym and occasionally practicing tactical running together. He has long been familiar with it. Now Wade can participate in confrontation training together and will be able to participate in the game soon, which makes the relationship closer.
From "sparring partners" to teammates fighting together on the court, there is still a difference in the degree of closeness of the relationship. Now Wade is undoubtedly closer to his teammates.
In addition to Wade, Liu Mang saw that the coaches sitting in the back were also discussing something. He thought they were probably discussing the team's playing time arrangement after Wade's return.
This will definitely have a significant impact on the playing time of Rondo, Grant Hill, Finley, Mason, and even Jason Terry, Liu Mang, and McGrady.
Liu Mang came to the back row and joined the discussion of the coaches. He mainly listened to the coaches and soon understood the problem that the coaches were worried about.
The main reason is that Wade's recovery exceeded expectations!
It's not even beyond expectations. I didn't expect Wade's health to recover so well!
Two menisci are gone, and the torn cruciate ligament also affects the explosive power. But Wade has experienced a recovery period of nearly 11 months, plus Liu Mang's injury medicine and Thomas Carter's careful treatment. Wade has completely recovered except for the lack of menisci.
Not only Thomas Carter's physical examination, but also other Hawks team doctors and famous joint and nerve doctors in Atlanta also examined Wade. In addition to Wade's explosive power and explosive speed, his health in other aspects is even worse than that of Wade. Wade's physical examination condition was even better when he entered the NBA!
The key is that even if his explosive power and explosive speed are affected, Wade's physical test report after this morning's physical examination is still the second strongest outside line in the Eagles!
In addition to McGrady's overall physical fitness at the beginning of the season being better than Wade's, even Liu Mang's overall physical fitness is not as good as Wade's!
McGrady is better than Wade only because of better physical conditions. Height and wingspan are also part of physical fitness.
This gave the coaching staff a bit of a headache. They originally thought that Wade would be able to have 60% of his strength when he returned, which satisfied the coaching staff. Wade's second contract was not a maximum salary, and a substitute worth more than 12 million was expensive. A little bit, but as long as you have the strength.
But now Wade has a tendency to return to the top, which is very troublesome.
From Coach Kruger's perspective, Liu Mang learned that the coach prefers players with Rondo's style of play to start.
Liu Mang doesn't mind which teammate starts the game. As long as there are no problems within the team, Liu Mang doesn't care who starts. His playing time this season is only 33 minutes per game, which is a new low since he became the starter. The number of shots he takes is also the lowest. Hitting a new low since starting, he just wants to win.
Liu Mang felt that he had to communicate with Wade in advance before the coaching staff met with Wade to avoid disagreements with the coaching staff about role arrangements before Wade officially joined the team.
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Arriving at the Barna Bay Resort Hotel in Orlando, the Eagles had no training scheduled today and were about to start two consecutive away and home games. Although they both had one day of rest, the preparation time was not that sufficient. Since it was not sufficient, they might as well finish the flight after Rest on the same day, and then carry out tactical arrangements and training on the day of the game.
Wade and Liu Mang made an appointment at the small bar of the hotel. When they arrived, there was no one else. Liu Mang ordered a glass of vodka, and Wade ordered a glass of the same.
"Ace, you don't just want to have a drink with me to celebrate my recovery. There must be something going on. Let's talk directly. We are all brothers. You're welcome." Wade got straight to the point.
Hearing the word brother... Liu Mang felt like he couldn't say what he wanted to say, but seeing Wade being so sincere, Liu Mang stopped beating around the bush and said, "Dwyane, what are your expectations for your role on the team?" What is it?”
This topic... is very serious. Wade thought for a while and said: "I will accept whatever role the coaching staff assigns to me, and I will try my best to perform the best."
Hearing Wade's words, Liu Mang asked tentatively: "Is it okay to come on as a substitute with Jason?"
"Of course, Jason can play as a substitute, why can't I." Wade said easily.
Liu Mang couldn't believe this, but it didn't look like Wade was saying anything against his will.
Seeing Liu Mang's puzzled look, Wade said: "Ace, I'm very grateful to the team. You don't know, when I injured my cruciate ligament at the beginning of the year, I felt like the sky was falling. The Heat management has been After contacting my agent to get my injury report, they had absolutely no confidence that I would be fit again..."
Wade began to explain his mental journey during the period when he was first injured.
Abandoned by the Heat, the Hawks did not hesitate to trade him with the team's best defensive player, potential inside lineman, and high-quality pitchers, giving Wade that kind of grace.
Moreover, the Hawks obviously have an injury exception this season and could sign the team's sixteenth man, but they did not sign it just to wait for him to come back, which made Wade feel something very different from the Heat.
This is something Wade has never felt before in his career.
Wade was very grateful for this small act of respect.
Things that can often affect a person's view of a thing are very small things. The Eagles coaching staff and management actually didn't think of such details, but they did so and made Wade feel very comfortable. , happy from the bottom of my heart.
"Dwyane, it's great that you think like this. Don't worry, you will only be on the bench for this season. When you truly recover to your peak, the starting position will definitely be yours. You and I and Tracy, We are the strongest outside team in history!" Liu Mang said seriously.
"I'm also looking forward to that day. Waiting for me, I will become stronger!"
There is another very important reason why Wade can accept being a substitute, but Wade did not say it.
That's something Wade himself has observed this season to where he is now.
This is the "playing time competition mechanism" that the Eagles have not announced this season but have been ongoing. That is, whoever performs well, even if he is a substitute, may play more minutes than the starter!
The atmosphere within the Eagles is very competitive.
Team unity is the team culture that Liu Mang has built bit by bit since the new century, but the competitiveness has always been there and has lasted for a long time. This season is particularly outstanding.
This season, only two players on the Hawks have played more than 30 minutes. Liu Mang averaged 33 minutes per game and Kwame Brown averaged 30 minutes per game. Even McGrady averaged only 29.7 minutes per game.
Except for Liu Mang and Kwame Brown, who have stable playing time regardless of their performance, everyone else may be replaced if they play poorly, so that the players with good performance can play more.
There are only two teams this season with no more than two players playing more than 30 minutes, one is the Hawks, and the other is the Spurs in the West.
In addition to Duncan averaging 31 minutes and Parker averaging 35 minutes, the highest Spurs average is Ginobili's 29 minutes.
Other teams with sufficient manpower, such as the Nuggets and Mavericks, have four players playing more than 30 minutes.
This is what Wade got after observing the team's playing time arrangement for more than a month, which made him very excited. He joined "later" and he would also worry that he would not get playing time, but if it is this mechanism, he has nothing to worry about.
Everything depends on your own performance. Only by performing well can you win what you deserve!