The Timberwolves and the 76ers fought double overtime to win 121-120. After the game, the media only focused on Russell, who played a very good performance and completed the steal at a key moment, ignored Prince, who completed the key layup against the 76ers' defense, and he was also a hero in Minnesota.
Today, let's talk about his story.
The Eagles were tough defensive, and their criteria for selecting players had to follow that criterion. The Hawks have been looking for a replacement for him since Demar Carroll left Toronto, and the right guy finally appeared in the 2016 draft, as the Hawks sent Jeff Teagues away in a three-way deal with the Jazz and Pacers, and took off Torrian Prince with the No. 12 pick. "I thought I would be selected with 20th to 25th picks." Prince said that to commemorate this important moment, he also deliberately chose the number 12 as his NBA number, "The Hawks are really direct, they keep telling me they want to get me, and I'm very grateful for that." Everything I've been through has helped me get to where I am now, and I'm not going to stop there, here's another milestone. ”
Prince not only plays in a similar style to Carroll, but even looks like a mold carved out, so he is jokingly called "Shennongjia Carol" by fans - Carol was once nicknamed "Shennongjia James", so you know how much expectation Prince carries. Although he was not yet a significant figure in the Eagles, averaging 4.0 points and 2.4 rebounds in only 11.1 minutes per game, and only 0.4 steals and 0.4 blocks made him look a bit of Carroll's shadow, he finally found a place in the NBA, knowing that about 10 years ago, he was still living a life of inhospitable life - perhaps such an experience is a tragic childhood memory for many NBA players, but Prince is the only one in the league who has ever been a "savior" (a camp-like organization) of players. This experience improved after high school, and Prince was invited to live in a host family until high school graduation, because the host family lived in a white community, it is not difficult to imagine how much strange treatment he suffered from growing up, but it also created a mature attitude that he kept calm at all times.
During his time in high school, Prince grew from an inconspicuous 5'9" to 6'6" (198 cm) in the team's center role, when coach John Collins saw the untapped diamond and helped him with more training than driving Prince to the gym every day. In addition, in order to help Prince adapt to the possible future team position, transform him into a forward player, and teach him from the basic concept, let Prince understand that scoring is not the only way to help the team, improve his dribbling and decision-making ability on the field, and not easily make mistakes to become a better player. College wasn't the team's first team, having started from the bench for the first three seasons. Finally, Prince won the best sixth man in the Big Twelve League that year, and the senior successfully took the starting position.
Prince started 82 games in the Hawks' second year (17-18 season), and in addition to playing the most time in the team, his 38.5% three-point shooting rate also led his teammates, and he finally averaged 14.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. Among them, the second half of Prince's performance is more All-Star level, in addition to four games to 30+, including two career-high 38 points, the All-Star after the game to pay at least 50 three-pointers, 70 assists, 100 defensive rebounds, 30 steals is the only four players in the league to achieve this data, the other three are: LeBron James, James Harden and Paul George. As the Hawks rebuild, the team traded with the Nets to sacrifice Prince to get two valuable first-round and expired junk contracts to eat up Krabi.
However, after signing a big contract with the Nets, his performance declined, scoring efficiency in all offensive styles was much lower than the league average, and he was not satisfactory defensively, according to synergy, Prince's single defense conceded 0.985 points per game, worse than 73% of the league's players. As a result, he was sent to the Cavaliers in Harden's trade, and in the Cavaliers he regained his form, shooting more than 40% from three-point range. Coming to Minnesota on a summer trade, he said he saw himself as the Timberwolves' Swiss Army knife, giving the team whatever it needed. And this time he was at the last moment, like a sharp knife, straight into the heart of the enemy, to complete the quasi-kill basket. End the team's years of unbeaten history with the 76ers.
The Pearl of Luminous Light does not have to come from the River of Mengjin; the Bi of Ying's grip does not have to be mined from the Kunlun Mountain. Prince may not be a star player, but he is a quality role player, and maybe one day he will have a great journey with the timberwolves' youngsters.