The Whip of the God of Basketball

At the end of October, the new NBA season kicked off. On October 30, the regular season started in Oakland, Los Angeles and San Antonio. The Utah Jazz challenged the Golden State Warriors away, the Houston Rockets faced the Los Angeles Lakers, and the San Antonio Spurs played at home. Get your championship ring from last season and then take on the Portland Trail Blazers.

On the 31st, all teams began to fight against each other. Only a few teams did not have a schedule. The Suns were one of them. Their first game had to wait until November 1st, when they went to Seattle to challenge the SuperSonics away from home.

On the 31st, Leon and the team arrived in Seattle by plane. After they checked in at the hotel, Leon gave everyone a holiday and allowed everyone to go out and have fun, as long as they promised to be back before midnight. That's it. Before this game, the Suns' training was too difficult. Even Steve Nash, who has always been known for his hard training, said that for the first time after training, he had "tomorrow never comes". idea.

Yes, this is Fox-Leon's training style, which is not based on time and volume, but is famous for high intensity, high efficiency and high consumption. Leon has put forward very high demands on the Suns players. After several preseason games, the various tactical combinations and routines made everyone dizzy, so Leon did not organize the players in the past two days. Any high-intensity exercise, just do simple drills. As the competition is approaching, it’s time to take a break, asking everyone to relax.

Leon himself stayed in the hotel room. Someone originally invited him to have dinner tonight, but Leon thought about it and refused because he still had a lot of preparations to do for tomorrow's game.

After dinner, Leon stayed in his room and never came out. D'Antoni ordered a cup of coffee at the front desk, then knocked on Leon's door and sent him in. D'Antoni was shocked as soon as he entered the door. He saw that the room was filled with various manuscript papers. Some papers had tactical diagrams drawn on them, while others were marked with various data. D'Antoni asked: "What are these? Are you inventing something? Frankenstein."

Leon packed up the manuscript papers, stacked them neatly on the table, and said: "It is more convenient to use computers now, but sometimes it is more intuitive to use pen and paper. I am calculating the offensive and defensive efficiency of various lineup combinations on the field. , I want to have a good idea of ​​tomorrow’s game.”

D'Antoni smiled and said: "It's fine to leave these things to the data team, but I heard that you never need a computer to calculate those complex parameters. You can calculate them just by looking at them. It seems like this is real."

Leon said: "Calculating those data is not about wanting those results, those results will be deceiving, but about discovering why there are such results during the calculation process. In this way, you will not be deceived by the results, but The truth about victory can be found from video and data.”

As he said that, Leon took a sip of the coffee D'Antoni sent. It was a bit bitter, but he told D'Antoni that he didn't like adding sugar to his coffee. Bitter coffee can stimulate his brain nerves. The problems Leon faces now in the Suns are different from those in the Celtics. In the Celtics, he pays more attention to defensive data and the opponent's offensive efficiency. Compared to offense, there are much fewer changes in defensive routines. Even the extremely complex defensive strategy that Leon used with the Celtics in 2005 was much simpler than the offensive routine in terms of variables.

But when he gets to the Suns, he has to focus on the offensive end, sorting out the most fun and reliable idea that belongs to the Suns from the chaotic offensive routines. In the past, D'Antoni proposed a set of ideas and achieved great success. However, his success only stayed in the regular season, and he was repeatedly hindered in the playoffs. In addition to the lineup and luck problems, the Suns must have huge loopholes in their play style.

Leon spent the entire preseason experimenting to complete his summer tactical vision for the Suns, and was partially successful. For example, he proved that Stoudemire has the ability to independently support an offensive tactical system, and Nash When he wants to, he can also become the team's leading scorer.

But now, what worries Leon the most is that the two have proved that they can support tactics independently, and the two are equally invincible when combined. But Leon not only wants this, he also hopes that the systems supported by the two can be integrated into one. Only with me and you in me can we maximize the power of the two of us.

O'Neal and Kobe had the triangle offense as the glue. The Spurs were a three-man team and had a natural tactical advantage. Back then, the Celtics relied on their perimeter group and pulled in Garnett. The Suns are different. They claim to be MSN, but in Leon's opinion, Shawn Marion has no way to become a supporting link on the offensive end. As for Jaskovicius, he is a good lubricant and gearbox, and will He is the team's excellent tactical sixth man, but his overlapping position with Nash, as well as the loopholes on the defensive end, doomed him to be unable to assume greater responsibilities.

Previously, the best candidate Leon envisioned was of course Boris Diaw, so he had high expectations for Diaw in the training camp, and Diaw would be included in almost every tactical combination. But I don't know why, this kid works very hard, but he just can't perform as amazingly as he did in 2006, especially when Stoudemire is on the court.

Leon tried to find out if there was any conflict between Dior and Stoudemire, but the relationship between the two was good. He also talked to Dior alone. Dior said that he had tried his best, but he just couldn't find the feeling. It seems difficult to call Stoudemire in terms of play style.

"You have always looked sad these two days. If you have any questions, you can actually communicate with me. You don't have to think hard alone." D'Antoni sat in the room, watching Leon frowning and thinking about the problem, and then Kindly said. After becoming the team's assistant coach, D'Antoni's job has indeed become much easier. All he has to do is direct the team to train and then do the work assigned by the head coach.

Leon is different. Although he has said before that after coming to the Suns, he will not care about defense or offense, but in fact he will still ask about many issues, especially some detailed issues. His control has reached an astonishing level. However, it has eased a lot in the past two days, and the players seem to be getting used to Leon's training methods. He reminds him loudly less and less frequently in training.

Faced with D'Antoni's reminder, Leon smiled and said: "There are some issues that I have to figure out on my own. When I figure it out, I won't have to worry too much about training and directing in the future. I just have to promise As long as the team moves forward in the general direction I set, the team will move forward." What Leon said is really stinking, and there is a sense of deja vu that "you have learned my operations, and the rest is A."

But this may be the highest level of coaching. D'Antoni smiled and said nothing. The two chatted for a while, and D'Antoni was about to say goodbye and leave.

When leaving, Leon asked D'Antoni. He asked: "Mike, what do you usually do if you encounter a very complex and difficult problem?"

D'Antoni thought for a while and said: "I will choose to sleep and wait, and then maybe I will find out in a few days that this so-called complicated problem can be solved with a very simple method."

Leon listened thoughtfully. Perhaps D'Antoni was right. He has been using very complicated ideas to solve this problem, including designing a new set of tactics for the substitutes. But the effect will definitely not be good. An excellent problem solution must be simple and elegant, just like those precise mathematical formulas. Maybe just turning around can solve the problem, but Leon still needs an opportunity to turn around.

……………………

The next day, on the night of November 1st, the Suns, who had conducted simple training during the day, came to the Key Arena. Their first game of the season would start at 7:30 pm. More than an hour before the start of the game, players from both sides were warming up on the court. Leon met his old player, Michael Reid.

This summer, Reed was traded to the Boston Celtics for sharpshooter Ray Allen from Seattle to make room for the team's new superstar, Kevin Durant. The reason why the SuperSonics chose Reed is because Reed has always played a green leaf role in the Celtics who can attack and defend well. He has a gentle personality and his playing style is mainly off the ball and defense. He can assist Durant. , and being able to lead a team is really a good choice.

Yesterday, Reid invited Leon to have dinner with him, but Leon refused. This made Reid a little disappointed, but today he saw Leon and came up to say hello. After all, this is his real coach in the NBA, a real professional league. enlightener.

Leon stepped forward to shake hands and hug Reed. Watching the first player he selected in the NBA, accompanying him through his first years in the NBA, growing together, failing together, and winning championships together, the two couldn't help but sigh with emotion. thousand. Leon looked at Reid's face that was no longer green and his knees that were suffering from injuries and wrapped in thick knee pads, and asked, "Do you know why I didn't eat with you yesterday?"

Reid said: "I don't know, but coach you always have your reasons."

Leon smiled and said, "I'm afraid that you and I will get drunk and we won't be able to play today's game."

Reed also laughed after hearing this. Yes, if the two met last night, they must have a lot to say and a lot of wine to drink. Now, after all, each has its own master, one coach and one player, fighting for their own honor.

"Have a good night, I've asked Laga to take good care of you." Leon finally patted Reid on the shoulder and said. The two big locks of the Celtics' past defense line look like they are going to be overmatched.