The Basketball Court Swordsman

A week has passed since the start of the pre-season training camp. Under Henson’s leadership, everyone is moving towards the goal he envisioned. On the training ground, players have also become accustomed to the offensive style of high shots, high hits, high rounds, and fast-paced. Compared to the slow-paced defensive play that was obsessed with last season, the Pacers have changed drastically.

Facts have proved that Henson perfectly implemented the concept of “tactics is to serve the team”. He is not like O’Brien or Vogel himself, who always want to put players into his own tactics, but set up such a fast-paced offensive system based on the staffing of the Pacers.

Everyone’s individual training and adversarial training are almost perfectly combined. Horford’s three-pointers usually open up space for teammates in a fast-paced offense. George’s increasingly stronger confrontation ability has made him a sharp knife in the conversion offense. The continuous rebounding training of Granger has allowed him to play easily at the fourth position…

After a week of intensive training, the players have recovered from the holiday. Without the outside world’s knowledge, this new Indiana Pacers team is ready to hit the playoffs.

That’s right, the playoffs. This is Bird’s goal this season and Henson’s goal this season. Both Bird and Henson have had enough of the embarrassment of not getting a good draft and playing the playoffs. But whether the team can play in the playoffs is not up to Henson, the game has the final say.

Time flies to the beginning of October, the start of the NBA preseason, so that fans who can’t wait to wait to see this Pacers team from the owner to the coach to the players are completely new.

However, in the preseason, the Pacers’ results were very average. Henson’s command is not without bright spots, but people see more chaos. Take the starting lineup, for 5 games, Henson lined up 5 different starting lineups. As a result, they only won two of the five games, and the two won were against the Cavaliers who lost James and the Timberwolves. For a high-profile team, such results are obviously not enough to satisfy the fans.

Of course, it can’t satisfy the media who is full of curiosity about this Chinese coach.

“Turning basketball into a game of sprinting, sprinting and shooting. IMHO, this is a simple tactic brought by a layman. Even in the East, Henson Joe’s tactical concept will make the Pacers break the blood! “

“There are two criteria that will never change on the basketball court. First, basketball is always a giant sport. Second, the closer you get to the basket, the easier it is to make a shot. The Pacers are exactly the same as these two basics. The criteria are very different. Al Horford, who is 2.08 meters tall, is already their top height. Coach Henson also asked the players to put most of their shooting options outside the three-second zone. If this is not a preseason, walk It is very likely that the Zerg team will not be able to win two games!”

“Too young, Coach Henson is too young, and the players selected by Coach Henson are too young. Young is a capital, but they are also destined to eat a lot of closed doors. If the Pacers want to reach the playoffs this year, they probably have to It takes a lot of hard work and pretty good luck.”

After 5 pre-season games, the media from all over the world gave Henson the coach different evaluations. But these different evaluations all have one meaning: Henson Joe did not meet people’s expectations.

At the same time in Atlanta, Roy Hibbert was also very “untimely” playing the quasi-All-Star level. Hibbert’s outstanding low post skills and unparalleled height allowed him to average 20 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.3 blocks in several games in the preseason! Compared to Horford’s “pathetic” 13.5 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks, Hibbert’s outstanding performance needs no words.

Geelong estimated that he would wake up in dreams now. He not only won a more dominant center, but also “robbed” three draft picks by the way.

So people have complained that Henson traded Hibbert with full potential in exchange for Horford, a center who is not traditional enough and unable to dominate the three-second zone. He is simply digging his own grave. When the fans saw Henson arranged for Horford, the center to often pull out to shoot three-pointers, they even wanted to rush to blow the head of the Chinese coach!

After five preseason games, Henson’s reputation in the fan circle has turned sharply. The Pacers did not come up with impressive performance, no longer attracting attention. How can a team that hasn’t played the playoffs for four consecutive years, is a rookie team, and has no strong insiders, how can it attract enough attention from the league? ?

Compared to the Indiana Pacers, people must be more interested in knowing what kind of performance the Heat Big Three can come up with.

In this way, on October 27, the day after the NBA opener, the Indiana Pacers and Henson finally ushered in their first regular season trip.

“The first time I played the regular season as a head coach was in San Antonio. I have to say that your luck is really bad, Henson.” On the plane to San Antonio, Frank Vogel was all about Henson’s current situation. Feel sympathy.

The poor performance in the preseason was not because of the Pacers’ lack of strength, but because Henson’s goal was not to win at all, but to try to get everyone on the court, so that everyone could adapt to the new system and look for games. feel. Therefore, he changed 5 sets of starters in 5 games, and the rotation time is very messy, just to let everyone get the chance to play.

The players also know this, so instead of being discouraged, they are suffocating. Young players are more eager to win than old players. They are very clear that the team did not show their strength in the preseason, so they all hope to kill the Quartet in the regular season, so that the media will shut up and justify themselves.

The same is true for Henson. In the regular season, this was a good opportunity to prove himself. But the unfortunate Henson happened to run into a difficult opponent like the San Antonio Spurs.

This game has attracted much attention, and the tickets for the ATT Center have long been sold out. But people are not to see the Pacers, but to see the Spurs in the new season. The Pacers are no longer being watched, and even some are underestimated.

Facing the frowning Vogel, Henson didn’t frown, as if very relaxed, “Luck is part of the basketball game, but it’s never the most important part. Our luck is really bad, but that doesn’t mean We will definitely lose.”

Henson turned his head and looked out the window, they were almost there…

On the day of the game, Henson took the players to the ATT center early to prepare for the game. Although the protagonist of today’s game is the San Antonio Spurs at home, when the Pacers’ bus drove into the ATT center, they still inevitably accepted media interviews.

In the player channel, only a few reporters obtained permission to interview. And those few reporters are basically looking for players to do interviews, just ignoring the yellow-skinned Chinese coach of Henson Joe.

It can be seen that the media dismissed Henson. As a scout and assistant coach, Henson’s resume may be magical enough. But in the position of the head coach where the pressure is huge and the success cannot be achieved by luck, everyone believes that Henson’s “Grey Guliang Fairy Tale” is almost over.

Some media even believe that within 10 games, Frank Vogel will replace Henson.

Henson didn’t care about it. He was not the kind of person who liked to live in the spotlight, so he was happy without a reporter interviewing him. As for the doubts from the outside world… he has been questioned since the first day he traveled to the United States, and he has long been used to it.

Walking into the visiting team locker room of the ATT Center and looking at the clean tactical whiteboard, Henson took a deep breath. When he first met Bird, it was during the Pacers’ game against the Spurs. Unexpectedly, in just two years, he would personally direct the team against the Spurs for Bird.

“Are you nervous? Henson.” Vogel saw Henson’s body trembling slightly, so he went up and patted his good partner on the shoulder.

Henson turned his head, with a smile on his face, “No, Frank, I’m excited! Call all the lads in, it’s time to set up a plan, tonight’s winning plan!”