Chapter 1179: Chapter 375: The Rampaging Stray Dog (In Honor of Master Budiao, Heshang, and Other Patrons’ 10,000 Rewards)
As a privileged player, everything in the team rests on your shoulders, everyone is counting on you. Every night you must give your utmost effort, you must think like a superhero and take responsibility for everything for the team.
For instance, right now, because of the discussions about "privileged player", all fans and media are focused on Roger. If the Warriors keep losing frequently after the trade, the doubts about Roger will really start to increase.
So, Roger now only hopes that the guy brought in to replace Allan Houston doesn’t let him down.
The morning after the trade, Matt Barnes was driving to Oracle Arena. On the car radio, everyone was talking about the aftermath of this trade.
The biggest suspense now is who will win the backup second position vacated by Allan Houston.
Matt Barnes excels in the forward position, but he believes he can play the second position perfectly fine.
The season has reached 11 games so far, and Matt Barnes has appeared in six of them, but his average playing time is less than 10 minutes per game.
He knows with his resume he needs to patiently wait for opportunities. After all, before being signed by the Clippers last season, he was even in the ABA playing for the Long Beach Jam alongside the 43-year-old Dennis Rodman.
He’s not the Chosen One, nor a super genius. He has to be like a stray dog, even if it’s picking up bones, he can’t fall behind anyone.
Now, a "bone" appears before him, and he must hold on tight and not let go.
He doesn’t want to return to the ABA, playing streetball with damn, stinking old Dennis Rodman.
Today’s training session, he will surely take it seriously.
During the afternoon’s shooting practice, Matt Barnes noticed head coach Erik Spoelstra kept watching him.
He didn’t know why the coach was so focused on him today, but he was somewhat concerned about it.
Because just last season, during his short stint with the Clippers, Clippers head coach Mike Dunleavy had criticized him: "Why are you practicing that? We don’t need you to shoot, nor do we need you to even take a shot, do you think you can become the offensive spearhead? Why waste time on this? Wake up Matt, you’re already 24."
This feeling of effort being ignored made Matt Barnes extremely angry, almost to the point of fighting Mike Dunleavy right there.
In the subsequent press conference, he bluntly said "Mike Dunleavy is a d*ck, a particularly short one", and was fined because of it.
In fact, this was probably a major reason why he was abandoned by the Clippers.
So he hated having coaches watching him practice shooting, for this reason he never called on shooting coaches for help while practicing.
He didn’t want to be criticized again; he didn’t want his efforts to seem like a joke to others.
But Spoelstra just watched him, saying nothing.
Under the coach’s gaze, Matt Barnes showed his usual shooting performance—painfully poor.
Beside him, Jeff Hornacek shook his head: "What more can I say? I know why so many teams cut Matt last season, his jumpshot is as bad as his temper. From training camp to now, his jumpshot has shown no improvement."
Just like the scouting report said, Matt Barnes is a lanky, tough defender, but lacks stable shooting and ball-handling skills as a blue-collar wing.
And such a player, once on the court, would drag down the team’s offense, automatically making offense a 4 on 5.
Thus, Jeff Hornacek does not quite agree with pushing Matt Barnes into the rotation: "I know the kid has a ruthless streak, his girlfriend might be the hardest woman to hook in the world, because nobody wants to court such a tough guy. But as a player, a player on a champion team, what he can do is really limited. I don’t even know why, his shot is always veering left."
"Roger, did you hear what Jeff said? He doesn’t think the kid is suitable." Spoelstra asked Roger who was also watching Matt Barnes shoot.
"You only know if it’s suitable by trying, why do we have to have someone so outstanding offensively on the court? Clearly, he has other strengths. Also, veering left, even if we trade him later, others can’t immediately use him."
"How do you want to test him? Give him more playing time in the upcoming matches? Our next opponent is the Los Angeles Lakers, you know we can’t lose to the Lakers after losing to the Knicks, we can’t use that match to test Matt Barnes’ ability." Jeff Hornacek reminded.
"No", Roger waved his hand, "The best way to understand a person is to experience them personally."
"Look at what you’re saying, seems my daughter’s idol is still a big philosopher." the lethal 3-point shooter teased.
Roger patted Jeff Hornacek’s shoulder: "Tell Abby, she really has an eye for people."
As someone who, as player and coach, won championships with Roger, Jeff Hornacek certainly knows how to let Roger experience Matt Barnes.
Roger didn’t need to say it outright, he knew what to do.
He called the team gear manager: "Go check the showers, make sure there’s plenty of soap."