Linwei The progress of this season is obvious to all.
In terms of scoring, he has risen from 15.5 points per game last season to 20 points per game, and is one of the only four players in the CBA with an average of 20+points per game.
However, Lin Wei's ball holding initiative is more worth discussing. This season, under the guidance of Xire, he was obviously closer to the ball right. The rising average assists (3.2 to 4.2), as well as the highest round utilization rate (26.3%) of local guards+forwards, confirmed this point.
We have observed the signs of Lin Weijia's skills in November last year, and I also think he is probably the player with the most potential to become a local core player.
However, half a year passed. It seems that Lin Wei's story of holding the ball is just a beginning
"There is no problem in the choice and judgment of the ball. He will not be too imaginative and foolhardy, which is why he makes only 0.9 mistakes per game (of course, relatively speaking, the creativity of passing is almost meaningless)" - this is the evaluation we wrote to Lin Wei last November.
Related reading: What is the logic of Lin Wei's bottoming and rebound?
However, the competition samples at that time were not enough. With the increase of competition samples, our evaluation of Lin Wei at that time was also falsified with the average 2.1 mistakes of Lin Wei at the end of the season.
I still maintain the view that Lin Wei is relatively stable in dealing with the ball. He is not a player with erratic style and full imagination, so there is no attempt of radical passing. Since it was not because he played too well that he made mistakes, Lin Wei's mistakes were actually because his basic skills were not solid enough.
As a professional arena, CBA is not as weak as everyone thinks, especially in hand to hand combat. It is reasonable for Lin Wei, a 20-year-old boy, to be unstable in passing and controlling under the confrontation of high professional level.
However, this is still the case in youth competitions at the same level, which is probably a problem.
Lin Wei also participated in the adidas European training camp during the offseason this year. Although the scoring efficiency has increased, and the assist error of 4.3/3.3 is better than that of 4.0/4.0 in the same period last year, it is definitely not exciting.
Lin Wei is the "Big Brother" of the 2003 session, and the participants with him are basically the 05th and 06th sessions, and there are even many 07th and 08th sessions. You know, being 2-5 years older is a great advantage in youth competitions.
As a core player who has already carried the flag in the professional team, but has not played a crushing performance in youth level competitions, there are probably only two explanations.
The first is that he didn't play hard. If so, we can end the discussion here, because the content of the game has no reference value.
The second one is that the "basic skills are not up to standard" mentioned above, which makes it difficult for him to play effectively even if he has the right to play in this kind of game.
The weak basic skills of control and operation make it easy for Lin Wei to stop the ball in front of defense, which is absolutely a taboo for the ball holder. At this time, once the opponent presses forward, it is easy to lose the ball, as follows:
Moreover, Lin Wei has always lacked the creativity of passing the ball. Although there is a lack of vision and imagination, it is also related to the lack of exquisite passing techniques. And from the following rounds where the ball was divided incorrectly, it can be seen that the ball passed by Lin Wei is quite awkward, and his teammates can't catch it at all
In addition to passing and controlling, in fact, Lin Wei's strengths in attacking with the ball are not so amazing. As expected, hitting younger brothers who are younger than his own age should be a matter of holding hands, but this is not the case. In many cases, when encountering a sudden attack, Lin Wei will also appear to stagger.
Especially in the face of some defenders with good physical quality, he played far less easily than expected If the special training in Europe in the summer of 2023 gave Lin Weijia confidence in his ball holding skills, did he see the gap this time in 2024?
After watching Linwei's performance in Europe, let's return to CBA. Put the time back to the 50th round of the regular season, which is the key game to determine the qualification of Nanjing team for the playoffs. It also happens to be against the final champion Liaoning Benxi Steel.
In this game, Lin Wei led the ball with 2 assists and 3 mistakes. However, the inability to solve the problem in such a domestic game of high intensity is enough to show that Lin Wei has not really practiced at home in this respect.
Throughout the game, there were not many opportunities for Lin Wei to dominate the ball, because this was a crucial game that could not be missed. It was always Blakeny who was more trustworthy and more capable of breaking the game, not Lin Wei. In the decisive moment of the fourth quarter, Lin Wei spent most of his time crouching at the bottom corner, waiting for Blackney, who was more capable of the ball, to tear up the defense, which was indeed the best way for short-term interests.
The background sound of this round was very interesting. The commentary said: "If Lin Wei can get down to the two corners, it will have a good effect". But there is no doubt that if Lin Wei wants to go further, he will actually become the role played by Blackney in this round.
However, a strange scene appeared at the end of the game. Lin Wei, who had not dominated the ball in the fourth quarter, was allowed to dominate the ball at the top of the arc by the guidance of Xire. However, Lin Wei ruined the qualification of Nanjing team to enter the playoffs with a rather low-level passing error.
This goal shows that Lin Wei is not ready to become the so-called core of holding the ball, but it also reveals one thing - has Nanjing Team created a really suitable environment for Lin Wei to develop?
Lin Wei can grow to the level of 20 points per game today, of course, thanks to the opportunity given by Nanjing Team. But sometimes when a player is trained to 80 points, it does not necessarily mean that they have the ability to train a player to 90 points or even higher.
Because the two things require different abilities. Maybe the former can be achieved through stocking, but the latter absolutely requires the coaching team and management to have higher cognitive level and practical ability.
In fact, friends who have played football can understand that sometimes you can do things like this in training, but it is not the case in actual combat. But only by constantly trying, accumulating experience and building confidence in actual combat can we finally have the opportunity to internalize those skills. The rule that practice makes perfect is never outdated.
This is the only two rounds in which Lin Wei led the pick and roll cooperation
It's the same here in Linwei, If there are not a large number of dominant rounds for him to adapt to the rhythm and trial and error for a long time, then there will be problems if he is pushed to the front of the stage at a time of high pressure.
The national team in the throes of the transition between the old and the new needs a backcourt ball holding core, and the Nanjing team also needs its own facade signboard, which is a rare moment when the national team and the club have the same interests.
Since Blackney has been transferred to Shanghai for a long time, does the Nanjing team have the motivation to let Lin Wei do more things on the court?
As many people say, the best way to learn a foreign language is to throw it away from the life of that country. And to make Lin Wei become the core of ball holding, it is also inseparable from his unremitting efforts in this regard to the so-called 10000 hour rule.
Of course, dominating the ball has never been a comfortable area for Lin Wei. He is not even as calm as his teammate Wang Lanqin in dominating the ball.
But if it's difficult, why not do it?
Moreover, it is not the wishful thinking of fans to let Lin Wei practice in the direction of holding the ball, Out of the comfort zone is because of its plasticity ：
On the third match day of Adidas Europe Training Camp, when Zhao Weilun was covered by American talent buddies and it was very difficult to even throw the ball in the game between the world team and the American elite team, he did not expect that Lin Wei, who failed to understand the organization in the first two games, became the person who broke the game at that moment. He played several beautiful organizational series, and also successfully led a wonderful round of the goal at the buzzer.
Although as the core of ball holding, Lin Wei's basic skills of transmission and control are still not in place. But not everyone can have the will to take responsibility and overcome difficulties.
Sometimes, the former can be learned and practiced, while the latter is often eaten by God. When a player with this quality appears, it's hard not to expect more from him.
I think that every Chinese men's basketball fan hopes to see that Lin Wei can one day copy these contents in the official international arena and become our core of ball holding.
Are you right?
