"Actually, it's not complicated, and it shouldn't be difficult for you." When they arrived at the training hall, Rose said while dribbling the ball.

"Dribble control is the foundation of it because you need to maintain control of the ball at high speeds," Rose said, explaining what he meant.

Although Xu Yong is a forward-guard swingman, after so many years of high-intensity ball control training, although he is not at the level of Rose, he is already good enough.

After Ross finished speaking, he demonstrated it in front of Xu Yong.

"The key lies in two places, one is footwork, and the other is mid-air finishing adjustment."

When he dribbled the ball back to Xu Yong, he had already started talking about techniques.

Xu Yong nodded as he listened. It was just as he had analyzed before. The mid-air final adjustment was one of the keys.

Ross then started talking about footwork first.

Not slowing down in disguise does not really mean that I force myself to change directly from going right to going left.

To make an analogy, it is like driving a car. You are originally driving to the right, and there is an obstacle in front of you. You suddenly turn the steering wheel to the left, then the most likely outcome is a rollover.

Although people are not cars, the principles are actually similar.

If you want to change direction without slowing down, your footsteps are the key. Only by using them can you accomplish a drifting-like situation without overturning.

First, you must use a large change of direction to induce the defender, and this change of direction must be with the opposite foot.

For example, if you start on the right, then you control the ball with your right hand, push off the ground with your left foot and change direction to the right.

At this time, the defender will most likely move his center of gravity to the right in order to block your breakthrough route.

Those with less defensive experience will lift their hands off the ground, and even those with better defensive experience will turn their hips and move sideways.

It is at this moment that the key step comes. You need to quickly retract your right foot, form a small step with your left foot, and then use your right leg to push the ground in the opposite direction, while changing direction to the left in the process.

Because you use both feet to exert force one after the other, you won't lose control of your body and fall sideways. Also, because you change direction in front of your body without slowing down, the defender basically cannot straighten himself out and may even be knocked down because of the lack of coordination of his hands and feet as he tries to catch up with you.

Some people may ask, what if the defender knows that you will change direction and blocks you on the left in advance?

It's very simple. If you don't retract your right foot, you can just break through on the right and pass him, right?

This is the premise of ball control that Rose mentioned at the beginning. Only when the ball control technique reaches a certain level can you adjust your breakthrough route freely according to the opponent's defensive changes while moving.

Xu Yong tried to follow Ross's example several times, but it wasn't particularly smooth.

This kind of footwork is indeed quite different from ordinary breakthroughs, and it still takes some time to use it freely.

And the way he does this move is a little different from Rose.

Rose's breakthrough speed is very fast. It's not a problem with the first step, but the whole breakthrough process is very fast.

Although Xu Yong has a fast burst and start now, he is a forward-guard swingman after all, and his speed cannot be compared.

But his advantage is that he can change direction more quickly, which gives him a stronger sense of rhythm.

To make an analogy, if Rose's change of direction without slowing down is a racing car, then his is the AE86.

After Xu Yong roughly mastered the footwork skills, Ross then talked about aerial adjustments.

This part is similar to Xu Yong's analysis, because there is no deceleration when changing direction, in order to have a finishing posture, mid-air adjustments are inevitable.

So fans will see Rose doing all kinds of twisting and turning movements in the air.

However, in this respect, Xu Yong is actually different.

Because he is relatively slow, most of the time he doesn't need to do those fancy moves that guards do, but instead just goes straight to the rim and finishes with a dunk.

Rose quickly noticed the difference, and then he showed off his dunk after changing direction without slowing down.

It was at this time that Xu Yong noticed something. He couldn't help but ask, "Derrick, why don't you dunk the ball without hitting the rim?"

Yes, in addition to "changing direction without slowing down", another important label of Rose is "dunking without hanging on the basket".

It is precisely because he does not hang on the basket that he often lands on one foot, which is also the reason why his injuries broke out so quickly.

Because your knees are subjected to great force twice just by breaking through, which is double the damage, not to mention the damage to your ankles.

I can't change the direction without slowing down, but I can always fix it by hanging a basket, right?

However, Ross's answer was beyond Xu Yong's expectations: "I was too fast."

Xu Yong understood immediately after hearing this: "Are you worried about getting hurt?"

Ross nodded.

When making a layup, he can move around to slow down, but dunks are all straight up and down. In the case of a high-speed breakthrough, forcibly hanging on the basket to relieve the force can easily cause shoulder strain.

So, this is a vicious circle.

Because the speed is too fast, it is almost impossible to change direction without slowing down, but because of not slowing down, it will not be possible to hang on to the basket, making it easy to get injured when landing.

Well, it is basically impossible for Rose's career trajectory to change significantly.

After understanding it, Xu Yong couldn't help but think more. If Rose's career trajectory does not change, then the best time for him to cooperate with Rose would be next season?

Or will his presence cause Rose to see less playing time, which would delay his breakout a bit, until the season after next at best?

In other words, the championship window in the initial stage of his career is within the three years of his rookie year.

Once Rose is gone, it will not be easy for him to lead the Bulls to win the championship again.

…

Time flies, and it is already early December.

In an NBA regular season game that just ended, Kobe faced Wade and made a horseback archery three-pointer with 0.5 seconds left in the game.

After the game, Wade said exactly what O'Neal knew, "If it weren't for Kobe, I would have led people to overturn the Lakers locker room."

This is also a microcosm of the Lakers' past state. With Gasol's return from injury, the championship team is really back.

It was also at this time that the league announced the honors for the Eastern and Western conferences, including the Coach, Player and Rookie of the Month awards.

In the Rookie of the Month category, the Western Conference player went to Tyreke Evans. Evans had seven consecutive games in November where he scored 20 or more points, tying the team record. He averaged 18.8 points, 5 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game throughout November.

The Eastern Conference belongs to Xu Yong. Xu Yong broke his career high score in November and scored his first 30+ in his career in the game against the Grizzlies at the end of November. His 31 points were also the highest single-game scores for rookies this year. He averaged 19.5 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game in November.

Although a large part of Xu Yong's data is due to Rose's injuries and condition problems, and he has more ball possession, this is also a kind of ability, because when needed, he can really step up.

And with Griffin out for the season, this year's league's best rookie award seems to have become a battle between the two.

Xu Yong didn't care too much about this honor. After all, when his career is over, whose fans would really use the Player of the Month as a bargaining chip?

What he is more concerned about now is improving his own strength.

If the window for him to compete for the championship is really only two or three years, the sense of urgency is still very strong.

The Bulls played a total of 14 games in November, with a record of 6 wins and 8 losses. Including the two games last month, their current record of 8 wins and 8 losses is barely over 50%.

In fact, they play pretty well most of the time, but they always run into power outages at certain moments and dig a hole for themselves.

The main reason for this is the lack of experience. For a team composed mainly of young players, the performance fluctuates greatly.

This requires the management to make some efforts to introduce some experienced veterans to at least improve the team's weak backcourt substitute situation.

Of course, these are not what Xu Yong can consider as a player. He is now concentrating on training his change of direction without slowing down.

He is making very rapid progress.

This is due to his dribbling ability and footwork.

There is no need to say much about controlling his movement. He has been training since his rebirth and has never fallen behind. As for his footwork, both the falling step and the dream dance step are good for him to master.

"Basketball fundamentals are so important" is a sentence that many people know but don't have much idea about.

But it is very clear from his experience, because core, dribbling, shooting, footwork, if you say what Xu Yong has practiced the most in recent years, it is these basic things.

With these, combined with his talents, learning these skills, wouldn't it be as easy as Li Bai writing poems?

When the training was almost done, Xu Yong was ready to put his new skills to use on the field.

The Bulls' next opponent is the Rockets.

That’s right, the China Derby that domestic fans are most looking forward to is coming.

Speaking of the Chinese Derby, we have to mention the "First Yao Yi Derby" two years ago.

That game was broadcast by 19 TV stations around the world and was watched by more than 250 million viewers. It can be said that it was a perfect operation by Stern in the Chinese market.

Moreover, Yi Jianlian gradually got into the best form after the derby game. In the next month, he was selected as the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month with an average of 12.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, and he also scored a career-high 29 points in the game against the Bobcats.

The situation is slightly different now than it was then because everything is reversed.

Xu Yong scored over 30 points in November and was selected as the Rookie of the Month before the derby.

This contrast has led to another explosive growth in the attention attracted to this derby.

The number of viewers cannot be counted yet, but what can be counted is that more than 30 media outlets around the world will broadcast this game.

Yi Jianlian's career was originally on the rise, but unfortunately due to injuries, he was ultimately unable to realize Stern's vision of further expanding the Chinese market.

Now, the appearance of Xu Yong has given him a second chance.

And the chance this time seems to be much greater.

As he paid close attention to this game, Stern also announced early that he would go to Chicago to watch the derby.