In the first stage of the CBA regular season this season, Zhang Cairen played an average of 33.4 minutes, ranking first in Beijing Shougang team. He contributed 10.9 points, 2.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 0.6 steals.
This week, Zhang Cairen accepted an exclusive interview with The Beijing News reporter. He thanked himself for not giving up and slacking in the past seven seasons. “I played less in the previous game. Everyone saw that I had few opportunities to perform. Now I have more opportunities, I still want to release my energy.”
Coach Jie Libin affirmed Zhang Cairen many times, thinking that he proved himself in the competition, which was the result of his hard work in summer training. For Zhang Cairen, he sweated in the training hall as usual in the past summer. “If there is anything different, it is mainly to focus on solving the guidance and put me in position 2, let me deal with the ball more, especially when the defender is pressed to help organize some attacks.” He had made a guest look at similar roles before, but he seldom used them in competitions.
This season, Zhang Cairen’s roles and tasks are heavier than before. The coaching staff hopes that he can adapt to the new role and give him confidence all the time. “Trust me, then I have to believe in myself. Even if I don’t do it right, as long as I do it, the coach will point out that it is definitely not OK to do nothing.” Zhang Cairen told the Beijing News reporter that the coach had been encouraging him to “do more”, and the key players against opponents would usually give them to him and Raymond. On the offensive side, Xie Libin made Zhang Cairen bolder and firmer, taking advantage of the breakthroughs he was good at to score or create opportunities for his teammates.
In his mind, the coaching team delivered heavier tasks, which meant greater responsibilities and was indeed a challenge. At the same time, Zhang Cairen saw the opportunities behind, “I did play less before, and everyone saw that I had few opportunities to perform. Now there are more opportunities, and I still want to release my energy, only when you have opportunities can you challenge your upper limit.”
As the first Tibetan player in CBA history, with good physical quality and strong confrontation, Zhang Cairen was called “little Tibetan mastiff” when he first joined CBA from 2015 to 2016 “. However, he suffered injuries in the “second grade” of CBA, and only played 6 games; And because of the change of team staffing and other reasons, he basically faded out of Shougang’s regular rotation lineup in the past three seasons.
The unfriendly remarks on the Internet followed. Zhang Cairen could only turn on the “blocking mode”. “I can’t control what others say, but I can control myself not to see these, and watch more positive energy, don’t be affected by negative energy, and then affect training and competition.” He said that he would not care too much about these over time. Sometimes he saw a smile and passed.
Looking back now, it is good to say that he is stubborn and believes in his own level. In short, Zhang Cairen did his best in the low valley. “Thank you for yourself at that time. I didn’t give up.” He said.
In order to connect with the competition time, Shougang practiced twice a day during this window, and some trainings were arranged at night. The interview with Zhang Cairen was about after the team finished training at night. When the interview time was finalized, he specially asked if he could be a little later, because he had to practice shooting every day, and the young man brought the habit of summer training to the window.
“We must hurry up to practice. The stability (shooting) is really not good.” Zhang Cairen sighed. After the first stage, the team is making a summary and the players are also replaying their personal performance. By analyzing the video and combining the situation of each game, Zhang Cairen found that the stability of shooting must be improved, “especially at the last or critical moment of the game, only when the basket is stable can it bring greater help to the team.” In addition, he also plans to strengthen targeted training during the window period. Both attack and defense should be more resolute, and the ups and downs of the upper and lower half should not be too large.
Rebounding and defense are also aspects that Zhang Cairen plans to strengthen. “After playing for such a long time, I often see that there are only two or three rebounds, which are too few.” He noticed that as the league encouraged the confrontation more this season, Shougang’s internal pressure was also greater. Therefore, he hoped to share more rebounds near freethrow line. “on the court, the awareness of this aspect should be strengthened.”
He shouldered the responsibility of the team’s top defensive soldiers, and Zhang Cairen also had self-demands. In his words, it was not white and thin for more than ten Jin in a summer, which laid a foundation for dealing with high strength, which was generally the case for Shougang members. “In order to be tired in the end, our physical fitness and energy will not drop too much, and we will be able to bite our teeth and stick to it. I hope that in the next game, at the critical moment, the strength, determination and will of individual defense can be maintained well.”
In the first stage of 9 games, Zhang Cairen scored double in 7 games. In the previous seven seasons, he scored only 8 matches in total. Zhang Cairen won a lot of praise for his good performance, and the outside world also paid attention to it. After the start of the second phase, he had to finish several single season scores to surpass the sum of the past seven years. Zhang Cairen said that he would not increase invisible pressure on himself and affect his performance on the court. “I hope to maintain long-term stable performance and help the team win more matches.”
This summer, Zhang Cairen welcomed the “great event of life”-holding a wedding with his girlfriend who had been in love for many years. At the age of 27, families and careers followed one after another. This is the year when professional players play, and it is also the stage of maturity in life.
(Text/Beijing News reporter Liu Chen)
