Time flies, and a week later, Rick Barnes decides to end his pre-season freedom, chaotic and even a bit scattered training state.

"From the training in the past half month, the departure of PJ, Lamarcus and Daniel, KD, DJ, Damien... and Sheldon, their joining, the team's ecology has completely changed..."

Last season's NCAA, Tucker, Aldridge and Daniel Gibson formed the core trio of the Longhorns. Tucker was in the center and had excellent offense and defense. Aldridge and Gibson were both inside and outside. The entire team looked solid and abnormal, with no missing.

In the new season, the departure of the core trio means that Rick Barnes must establish a new core.

"Last year, we took Lamarcus as the core of the team's offense, and the team's style of play was inward, but this year, KD was the outside style, and DJ and Damien were even more so. Obviously, we are going to change our style of play."

From the inside to the outside, the entire team's configuration also needs to be reset.

"The guard combination, AJ needs to occupy a main position, but his organizational attributes are not enough, so we have to use DJ in another position."

A.J. Abrams is the 83rd star high school student in the United States in 2005. When choosing a school, he got some promises. He played as a substitute in the first season. This season, Rick Barnes must fulfill his promise.

He occupies a main position and no one will object.

Abrams' style of play is biased towards individual offense and has no ability to organize passes. In this way, the position of another main defender can only be D.J. Augustine.

"KD can play two forwards, and we are short of inside players this year, so my idea is that he will play the fourth position."

"Dexter is too young at the center position. I'm afraid we can only use Archieley for the time being."

"Now, the only question is, the third position, do we use Damien or Sheldon?"

Four of them were identified in five positions, and the remaining one, Rick Barnes swung between Li Ke and Damien James.

Li Ke and Damien James were both recruited by Russell Spliman, and he did not favor these two people.

Rick Barnes also knew this, so he asked Russell Spliman about the choice of the main player in this position.

"Do you still understand the pros and cons of Sheldon and Damien in the past half month?"

Russell Spliman rolled his eyes.

"Sheldon's defense is better than Damien, and Damien's offense is better than Sheldon, it depends on what the main lineup needs."

The main lineup of the Longhorns already has three major scorers, including Du Xiao, Abrams and Augustin. The offense has been overflowing. However, the defense can be handed over to the center and the outside. You can't really let Du Xiao offense and defense take on one shoulder, right?

"It's only Sheldon..."

...

On the training ground at Frank Irving Center, DeAndorville, another assistant coach at Longhorn, gathered everyone.

"Freshmen in the first grade choose jersey numbers. Note that in the NCAA, numbers with the last digits of 6, 7, 8, and 9 cannot be selected."

It's time to choose a jersey, which means that the real pre-season training camp is about to begin.

"The one-on-one that has been going on every day during this period may end here..."

6, 7, 8, 9 cannot be selected because these four numbers conflict with the referee's gesture.

"So, even if I still want to choose No. 88, it's impossible."

Among the remaining numbers, Li Ke thought about it and chose No. 20.

"I came since 2020, and that's what it means."

Xiao Du chose No. 35 because his enlightenment coach Charles Craig was shot and died at the age of 35.

Augustine chose No. 14, Damien James chose No. 5, Dexter Pittman chose No. 34, Justin Mason chose No. 24...

Everyone had already chosen the jersey number, but there was no conflict. Everyone had chosen the number they like.

Rick Barnes also appeared on the training ground after the jersey was selected.

Sure enough, as Li Ke expected, the free training was over.

Next, everyone will get a position they want or don’t want from the coaching staff, and then conduct systematic training according to this position.

"Now, we're going to divide the team into two groups..."

Two groups are divided into groups, one group wears orange, which is the color of the Longhorns, and the other group wears white, which is the main color of the Longhorns jersey.

"Orange Clothes Group: KD, AJ, DJ, Connor Archieley, and Sheldon Lee."

"White group: Damien, Justin Mason, Dexter, Matt Hill and Craig Wendel."

Although the Orange Clothes Group and the White Clothes Group did not mention the main substitutes, anyone who is interested understands that the group Durant is in must be the main team.

Only Damien James frowned slightly for such grouping.

But in the past half month of training, Damien James has faced Li Ke twice, and he was locked by Li Ke's defense twice.

Although he was angry with such a grouping, Damien James was helpless.

"Also freshmen, KD, DJ and Sheldon are already the main players of the team..."

"KD and DJ are okay, Sheldon? Why is he?"

"Damion, you are the 15th in the United States. I think you should start more than Sheldon."

In more than half a month, the Longhorns, like most sports teams, clearly appeared several small groups.

Damien James and fellow freshman Justin Mason and Matt Hill got together.

Although his friends were indignant for themselves in front of him, Damien James just shook his head.

The group was confirmed, and Li Ke became the main force, but he was not so excited.

Half a month of free training, becoming the main force was already expected.

The one who competes with him is Damien James. Damien James is strong in offense and weak in defense, but the Longhorns are not short of scorers. Whether it is first-year Du and Augustine, or second-year Abrams, they are all excellent scorers.

On the contrary, after Tucker left, the Longhorn lacked a player who could defend against opponents alone on the outside and do dirty work of wiping his butt.

And Li Ke is such a player.

Of course, it is Li Ke now and Li Ke temporarily.

"In the future, Li Ke will definitely not be doing the job of wiping people's butts!"

The grouping of training camps was determined, and the daily training process has also changed significantly.

Every day, there is a long-distance running, followed by a round-trip pass training, passing and shooting training, and running training...

After lunch, there was a high-intensity team training match, and finally, the videotapes prepared by the coaching staff were watched collectively.

The time is full, and there is no one-on-one chance anymore.

Tucker and Daniel Gibson also left the Frank Irving Center shortly after the training camp began.

"Actually, at the beginning, I just wanted to help Rick train the new players in the team... but then, I have to admit that you also helped me in some aspects, just like you used McGrady's highlights as a defensive wrong question set, that's an idea that many people can't imagine..."

Before leaving, Tucker found Li Ke, chatted for a few words, and said goodbye.

"See you next offseason, Sheldon."

Tucker left like this. Before he left, Li Ke watched the single defense with high intensity video. Although it seemed that he had a tendency to upgrade, he still failed to upgrade in the end.

On the contrary, within the system, his friendship with Tucker exceeded 80 points at the moment Tucker left.
Chapter completed!