Sports Medicine Master System

The new year arrived quietly.

A little after seven in the morning, Milicic glanced at Farooq, whose snores were shaking the room, grabbed his backpack, and headed out.

Downstairs, the security guard sitting behind the front desk in the lobby immediately raised a hand in greeting.

"Dako, keep it up! We almost won last night."

Milicic smiled, nodded in response, and walked out of the apartment building.

A heavy snow had fallen during the night, but it had stopped now. As far as the eye could see, everything was a vast expanse of white.

"Dako, over here!"

Just as he stepped outside, Milicic heard someone call his name.

He turned his head and saw Alex waving at him from across the street.

She was wearing a brown woolen trench coat and tall boots, wrapped in a gray scarf that left only the lower half of her face visible.

Milicic hurried over to her and asked why she hadn’t come up.

"I just got here. I was about to head up," Alex said, her breath forming a white cloud in the cold air. Her fair skin was flushed red from the cold.

The two of them walked along the street toward the Rose Garden Arena.

Milicic was too busy with training to get his driver’s license, and he had no plans to get one anyway. He enjoyed walking to practice like this, chatting with Alex, Farooq, and the others along the way.

Now and then, passersby would stop Milicic to ask for an autograph or a photo.

Since it was still early, Milicic would almost always oblige.

So far this season, he was averaging 8.9 points and 7.6 rebounds. His performance might not be good enough yet—not reaching the spectacular 20-point-per-game averages of James and Anthony, and not quite befitting his status as the second overall pick.

But the citizens of Portland were surprisingly patient and forgiving with him, and they seemed to genuinely like him.

The reason? It probably had a lot to do with his good looks.

Compared to the old "Jail Blazers" crew of misfits, he was handsome, good-tempered, and never caused trouble. Coupled with the positive image intentionally crafted by the team and local media, his popularity was miles ahead.

Anyway, the team had already announced a rebuild, so there was no pressure to win. No fans expected a bunch of young guys to accomplish anything significant.

"By the way, the roster for the Rookie Challenge was announced yesterday. You didn’t make the cut. You’re not upset about it, are you?" Alex asked, suddenly turning her head.

She was speaking English, and not too quickly, in order to help Milicic improve his English as much as possible.

And his spoken English was indeed improving rapidly. Sometimes, during post-game press conferences, he could already handle simple exchanges with reporters and answer their questions.

Milicic sighed and shrugged helplessly. "At first, I thought it was unfair too. My offensive efficiency isn’t high, but looking at the stats alone, I’m still a bit better than Kaman. Logically, I should have been selected."

"But in Dr. Chen’s words, it’s okay to feel your emotions and complain about failure and injustice, but once you’ve calmed down, you have to start by looking inward. So, since I wasn’t selected, it just means I wasn’t good enough."

"And honestly, that’s the truth. My offensive efficiency is just too low right now."

For an inside player to have a field goal percentage under 40%... It was only because Rivers and the team had been so supportive, giving him a green light to shoot, that he’d been able to put up the numbers he had.

"I’m relieved you see it that way," Alex said, breathing a quiet sigh of relief. "As for your low offensive efficiency, according to Coach Rivers, it’s because you’ve been bulking up, which changed your shooting touch. It’ll get better once you adapt."

’The second overall pick, and he didn’t even make the Rookie Challenge.’

The local Portland media might be forgiving, but the national media would definitely be full of criticism and ridicule. Alex was worried these reports would affect Milicic’s mentality.

But from the looks of it, Milicic’s mindset was still pretty good.

"By the way, Dako, have you noticed that you’ve been saying ’Dr. Chen says’ more and more lately?" Alex asked with another smile.

In their daily conversations, she often heard Milicic repeating things Chen Yu had said.

The way Milicic talked, Chen Yu sounded like a life coach.

At the mention of Chen Yu, a hint of gratitude crept into Milicic’s eyes. "Have I? I hadn’t noticed. But he does talk with me a lot, about all sorts of things. He’s helped me so much."

His father, of course, loved him very much. But having been to war, he was a quiet, taciturn man. He wasn’t well-educated either, so sometimes he didn’t know how to guide his son or help him with the struggles of growing up.

As for his mother, she was an ordinary housewife. She loved Milicic unconditionally, of course, but that was the extent of it.

So, Milicic had never really had a figure in his life who could teach him how to face the world.

But Milicic was discovering that Chen Yu was starting to play that role.

Perhaps Chen Yu was only doing it for professional reasons, willing to teach him only to improve the Pioneers’ strength. But Milicic had genuinely learned a lot from his conversations with Chen Yu.

So he was more than just grateful to Chen Yu.

Chatting as they walked, the two soon arrived at the arena.

Practice started at ten in the morning, but Milicic was two hours early.

He had become much, much more diligent these days.

His life was a straight line between the arena and his apartment. His only free time was spent either holed up at home playing video games with Farooq or strolling near the Willamette River with Alex, visiting museums and art studios.

Walking through the hallway, Milicic suddenly saw Chen Yu and Maurice Lucas approaching.

Chen Yu stopped and glanced at his watch. He smiled. "Not bad. I’ve heard you’ve been training very hard lately. Looks like it’s true. That’s great. I’ve told you before, training and sweat are the only things that will never betray you."

"Alright, go on to practice."

This wasn’t exactly extra practice. Chen Yu’s team had created a specialized training plan for him, tailored to his desire for extra work and designed to improve his fundamentals.

Watching him leave, Maurice Lucas sighed. "Dako is working really hard. I feel like he’s holding a lot in, wanting to prove himself. But it always feels like he’s a bit lost out there, like he can’t grasp what’s important on the court."

James and Anthony were really taking off, averaging 20-plus points per game. They were already being hailed by the media as historic, superstar-level rookies.

In comparison, Milicic, the second overall pick, was inevitably going to be labeled a bust.

Even Anthony had complained, asking why he shouldn’t have been the second pick.

Even if the team and the Portland fans weren’t putting that pressure on Milicic, he himself was surely unhappy, holding it all in and desperate to break out.

Chen Yu smiled. "Well, that’s exactly why I came here this time—to solve this problem."

Arriving at the conference room, Rivers and the others were already there.

Lynam was not present.

As Rivers gradually solidified his position, Lynam, feeling he had no status on the coaching staff, didn’t make a fuss with management. He simply resigned on his own accord and left the Pioneers.

With him gone, the two remaining assistant coaches from the Development Alliance clearly posed no threat to Rivers’ control over the coaching staff.

In front of Chen Yu, however, Rivers was still on his best behavior. The moment Chen Yu walked in, he immediately stood up to greet him.

After some brief pleasantries, Chen Yu sat down and said, "Alright, let’s get straight to the point. Regarding Milicic’s issues, our team has discussed it, and the solution we’ve come up with is to move him to the four spot and have him switch positions with Randolph."

Over the past month, quite a few of Milicic’s problems had been exposed.

On the offensive end, his efficiency was low and wasn’t improving.

On the defensive end, he played hard, but he was still not effective at defending his man in the post. Chen Yu’s plan was to have him spend a season bulking up, gaining muscle, lowering his body fat percentage, and improving his physicality, but that wasn’t something that would show results in a short time.

Then there was the tactical side. The up-tempo strategy D’Antoni had envisioned had never really materialized.

Rivers’s coaching staff had been constantly adjusting and trying to find solutions, but nothing had worked well.

Of course, they hadn’t dumped all the pressure on Chen Yu’s side. But Chen Yu, aware of the problems, had come up with a possible solution after numerous discussions with his team, and even after consulting with people like Skiles.

"Switch positions?"

Rivers frowned slightly and immediately looked toward D’Antoni.

On the current Pioneers team, his job was to give motivational speeches and maintain locker room stability. The day-to-day tactical work was basically all handled by D’Antoni.

D’Antoni didn’t say anything, crossing his arms and sinking into thought.

Chen Yu explained, "We believe that at present, Milicic’s low-post offensive skills, experience, and physical strength are still insufficient to allow him to finish well after contact in the post. This is likely the main reason for his low offensive efficiency."

The kid’s low-post offense was decent. He knew all the moves and was willing to be physical, but his body just wasn’t strong enough yet. After contact, his body control would falter badly, and he couldn’t execute a good finish.

He wasn’t like Duncan, who had a perfect balance of skill and physicality, with top-tier finishing ability.

"In the future, when he has more experience and his skills are more polished, he might be able to adapt to this style of offense, but not right now."

"And our initial idea, that he could use his superior agility and quickness to create mismatches against other centers, hasn’t panned out either. After studying a lot of game film, we believe that when he has the ball and isn’t physically strong enough, he needs space to get going in order to leverage his speed advantage."

"This is also his preferred way of attacking."

The guy is agile, but he’s still a big center. He needs room to get started; only when he gets a head of steam can he use his speed to his advantage.

You have to remember, this is a guy who can take off and dunk from near the free-throw line.

In D’Antoni’s vision, there were supposed to be lots of high pick-and-rolls, followed by cuts to the basket.

But in actual games, the inexperienced Milicic just couldn’t execute those plays.

More often than not, he was just banging against the opposing center under the basket.

And that’s actually his weakness.

So, let’s just move him to the four. We can develop him in the direction of a bigger Garnett first, build his confidence, and then, once his body fills out, have him play more in the post.

Only when he can play both inside and out will his development be considered a success.

"As for the five spot, Randolph has major problems on the defensive end."

First, his game is ground-bound, he’s young, and he lacks defensive experience. Second, no matter how great his wingspan is, his height is a definite weakness.

"But his offense is excellent, and he likes to operate in the low post. Besides, our main focus right now is developing rookies. We don’t have pressure to win, so we can put defense on the back burner for now and take our time with it."

’It’s not like we’re a championship contender that needs both offense and defense. We’re actually hoping to lose a few more games and aim for the lottery.’

’Let’s get the offense going and develop his skills first.’

Besides, D’Antoni’s tactical concepts were also clearly offense-oriented. Even he believed it was acceptable to sacrifice some defense to focus on offense.