Eight Hundred and Fifty: This Is His Motivation to Play

Latest website: During the confrontational training that afternoon, Whiteside showed his good physical talent in front of the Grizzlies.

His big hands and long arms allow him to act like a human backboard vacuum cleaner. As long as he raises his arms, the backboard will be sucked in like a magnet.

His defensive position is not bad, and he is very active in covering up defense. He can often complete exaggerated risks in covering up defense.

However, Whiteside's single defense is a bit worrying. Gasol scored three consecutive goals on his head, and each time he was stunned.

Whiteside wants to prove himself too much. He seems to be eager to send the opponent's basketball into the audience every time he defends. But this kind of mentality will make him passive when facing top insiders.

And tomorrow's Duncan will only be more cunning than Gasol.

As for offense, Whiteside probably has none. His touch is actually relatively soft and he can hook the hand, but apart from his touch, Whiteside's other technical moves are simply a disaster.

NBA-level offense is usually a combination and connection of several technical movements. Just having good touch doesn't make you a scoring master.

This means that Whiteside can basically only rely on dunks to score, and as Joger said, Whiteside can't even play the most basic pick-and-roll well now. He doesn't know how to change the pick-and-roll strategy in different situations.

But since it was only his first day with the Grizzlies, this shortcoming is understandable.

Overall, Whiteside's performance was quite outstanding, exceeding the expectations of many Grizzlies players. Even Conley, who has always been cautious, ate Whiteside's hot pot during training today.

Just how he scored 24 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks in the Development League in the last game, this is how he played on the training ground today.

However, it can also be seen on the court that Whiteside does have those old problems, such as sometimes not being able to concentrate, such as being mentally immature and always thinking about blocking shots rather than how to effectively protect the basket.

Perhaps, Whiteside is also eager to copy his 5.4 blocks per game average in the NCAA to the NBA. But he didn't understand that NBA players are not comparable to student players.

In the end, Whiteside still completed the training and respected the seniors of the Grizzlies. There was no weird incident like refusing guidance when he was with the Kings.

Whiteside himself knows that,

How important the next game is for a player like him.

It is not that he has not understood the situation of the Grizzlies. Although the current defending champion's record of 10 wins and 2 losses is still very good, their dominance is declining. This is an indisputable fact.

As long as he can solve the Grizzlies' urgent needs, he can get a contract that lasts until the end of the season!

Whiteside knows this better than anyone.

Just when Whiteside finished his day's training and was about to go back to the rental house to rest, Link came up and patted Whiteside on the shoulder.

"Hello, Link." Whiteside immediately smiled when he saw that it was the team boss looking for him.

Although he and Link entered the league in the same year, their status in the team is very different now.

"Good performance today, Hassan. By the way, I heard you are very good at playing games."

"Well... I just like to play, hehe." Whiteside scratched his head in embarrassment.

"That's great. Do you have time tonight? Play two games of 2K with me. After Nick Young left this summer, no one will play games with me anymore."

"Huh?" Whiteside was a little confused. The outside world said that Link was a villain. Before coming to the Grizzlies, Whiteside was mentally prepared to deal with villains.

But I didn't expect that Link would be so enthusiastic about the newcomer.

"Don't have time? Forget it, I'll ask someone else." Link waved his hand and prepared to leave.

Naturally, Whiteside will not let go of this opportunity to build a good relationship with the team boss. He is very clear about Link's status in the Grizzlies. If Link appreciates him, maybe the Grizzlies will sign a contract with him until the end of the season in order to make Link happy!

So, he pressed Link's shoulders and said, "Of course, of course there is time."

"Very good, then wait for me in the locker room after training." Link smiled, and he had to use childish methods to deal with childish people.

After training, everyone goes home early. Due to the outbreak of injuries across the league this season, Joger now has very strict control over the players' training time.

If you want to practice more, that is definitely impossible. What's more, there is still a game to be played tomorrow.

Therefore, even Jimmy Butler, a training fiend, has to go home after training.

Link took Whiteside into his car. Fortunately, Link was driving an SUV today, otherwise he wouldn't be able to fit a man of Whiteside's size.

In the car, Link introduced Whiteside to the street scenes along the way, giving Whiteside a preliminary understanding of the city of Memphis.

But Link didn't mention anything about tomorrow's game, and he didn't say anything like "You must work hard and you can't make mistakes."

He knows that for people like Whiteside, too formal and serious conversations will not be effective.

After arriving home, Link immediately turned on the PS4 game console and started the NBA2K game.

Whiteside picked up the handle and became excited instantly. He can't wait to see if 2K adds him to the Grizzlies' roster.

Select the Grizzlies, open the lineup, and Whiteside's name appears in it!

But soon, Whiteside's smile disappeared. Because the rating behind his name is only 59!

In the 2K15 game, Whiteside's rating didn't even reach 60!

Suppressing their displeasure, Whiteside and Link started the game.

Whiteside chose the Grizzlies, while Link deliberately chose tomorrow's opponent, the Spurs.

After Whiteside came on the court in the game, Whiteside naturally couldn't wait to use his character.

As a result, he found that he had a hard time using a batch and couldn't use it at all!

During the game, when Link used Parker to break through the penalty area, Whiteside found that he could not control himself and rush back to the basket to defend in the first time. The speed was too slow!

Then, Whiteside used Conley to pass an alley-oop to himself, but Whiteside didn't catch the ball at all! Conley's passing attribute is 92, and he also has the alley-oop initiation badge. Logically speaking, it should be easy to complete alley-oop coordination.

But Whiteside's receiving attribute is only 50... which means he can't get Conley's pass at all.

Link found that Whiteside was about to throw the controller away in anger, and he knew that the time was about to come.

Next, Link operated Duncan to pick off an offensive rebound over Whiteside, and then passed it to Leonard. Leonard broke through directly, rushed in and ignored Whiteside's dunk!

It’s simply so miserable!

"God, this can't be me!" Seeing himself being dunked stupidly by Leonard in the game, Whiteside angrily pressed the pause button.

"The rating is 59, the blocking attribute is only 61, and the defensive rebounds are only 75! Oh my God, this is so insulting!"

"Well, I think so too. 2K's rating is too shit. I would say, based on your performance in training today, your ability score must be at least 85." Link smiled and started to lie!

Again, when dealing with naive people, use naive methods.

"Yes, even you think so!" Whiteside was very excited, as if he had found a soulmate.

"But I alone think it's useless. You have to let everyone see your value. Tomorrow's game, Hassan, must not mess up. Don't think about superfluous things, just do your defense and rebounds well. , and then stay calm at all times. I believe that after tomorrow, 2K Company will update your ability score."

"I will go all out, Link, this is what I came to Memphis for! Watch, I will make my 2K ability value keep rising! Tomorrow, I will stop everyone who dares to break into the penalty area, I I will grab every rebound for you! I know what I should do, don't worry!" Whiteside stared at his attribute interface and gritted his teeth.

Some people’s biggest motivation for playing is to win championships, and some people’s biggest motivation for playing is money, but Whiteside’s biggest motivation for playing is purely to increase his 2K ability value...

I have to say that Whiteside is really weird and naive.

But as long as he can perform on the court, so what if he's a little weird?

Link smiled with satisfaction. Tomorrow, at FedEx Arena, the talent that has been delayed for four years and has not been realized is time to show it.