Chapter 34: Bad Team Mavericks
Next, head coach Paul Westphal began to drill the tactics. He first drew on the tactical cardboard and explained the tactics.
"Old K, you should get into the low post. It would be best if you can get to the basket. Use your containment power to compress the opponent's defense and create opportunities and space for the outside line."
"Kevin, pass it in immediately after Old K stops."
"Charles, you're on the weak side. If the defender helps on the weak side, you'll be open and K will pass the ball to you."
"Kevin, you can pass it to Charles too."
"Old K, if the ball is passed to you, if you have a singles opportunity, then take it. If not, pass the ball immediately to an open teammate. You have to pay attention to the open positions of your teammates."
"Dan Maalli, you and Old K are on the same side. Use your long-range shooting ability to create space for him and wait for his pass."
"Others actively run according to the tactics and pull the defense..."
The tactics are not complicated, it is the traditional center tactics. First find the center, and if the center can't play, then divide it.
In the past, the Suns did not have a strong center like Wang Tiejun, and several blue-collar centers simply could not play this tactic. The inside line was mainly Barkley. Barkley could indeed fly in the paint, but he did not have the height to become the Suns' low-post pillar.
Now we have Wang Tiejun. Although he lacks offensive ability, he has a low-post back-to-the-basket skill that can push the ball horizontally and violently. He has many opportunities to get to the basket and can stand in the low post. He has vision and height, and is also good at receiving and passing the ball. So now the head coach wants to try the traditional center tactics.
After the tactics were explained, the practical operations began.
Oliver Miller came on as a substitute, playing against Wang Tiejun at the center position.
This guy signed a two-year, $1.1 million contract with the Suns. He ate a lot when he had money and couldn't control his weight. He weighed 127 kg when he entered the league and now he has reached 130 kg, an increase of 3 kg in two months. Judging from this momentum, he will have to keep climbing.
As he gained weight, his ability to move decreased accordingly, and what he gained was not muscle. If he had lost fat and gained muscle like Wang Tiejun, he could have gained some strength, but he gained fat, so his weight gain simply increased his tonnage, his strength did not increase, and his movements became even slower.
Lao Wang was in the low post on the left wing asking for the ball. When the ball came in, he took it and immediately started to back down.
The first time you try to use force, just like the last time you hit Barkley, be completely close to the opponent, but use all your strength to make sure to loosen the opponent's center of gravity, and then continue to use force to rely on force until the opponent's center of gravity is completely destroyed.
“Bang!”
“Bang !”
In the first close combat, Miller's center of gravity was loosened just like Barkley's just now, but he relied on his huge tonnage to withstand the second combat. However, in the third close combat that followed, he could no longer withstand it, staggered back, and completely lost his center of gravity.
Wang Tiejun was about to take advantage of the situation to break into the basket and dunk, but at this time the substitute team provided weak-side help defense, and substitute power forward Jerod Mustaf rushed over, leaving Barkley open. Wang Tiejun noticed this and immediately pulled up the ball and held it high.
The substitute team was switching defense, but Barkley's open space was not filled in time. After receiving the ball, he immediately made an open jump shot and made a goal.
"Just play like this. Old K, pay attention to the weak-side help from behind and don't make mistakes when posting up."
"Dan Marche, when Old K is backing up, you can try to cut inside on the strong side to attract defense for Old K. At the same time, Old K, if you don't have time to attack, you can also pass the ball to Dan Marche."
Head coach Paul Westphal kept reminding them loudly.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, after completing the training and having a free dinner at the training base, Wang Tiejun rode his vehicle to buy wood.
He had already inquired and found out that there were several timber processing factories in the eastern suburbs where he should be able to buy round logs.
After riding for more than half an hour, I successfully found a processing plant. I was also lucky enough to buy a piece of the best wood.
What he bought was a large piece of desert ironwood, three and a half meters long and sixty centimeters in diameter, weighing several hundred kilograms.
The factory owner was a Suns fan and knew him. After he paid the money, he promised to send someone to deliver the goods to his door the next day.
At 10 o'clock the next morning, a truck delivered the piece of wood to the door. With the help of the driver, he placed the wood in the deep pit that had been dug yesterday.
After fixing it, he began to use gauze to remove the burrs on the wood. This thing was much thicker, harder and heavier than the wooden stakes he used in his hometown. The wooden stakes he used before were ordinary elm or jujube wood, no more than 30 centimeters. He broke many of them.
The wooden stakes are ready, but the Iron Mountain Training cannot be carried out yet because there is no medicated oil.
If you don't rub your muscles and bones with medicinal oil after training this kind of boxing, you will definitely get injured.
But he felt a little itchy because he hadn't done this training for a long time, not since he went to prison.
He placed his left shoulder and chest close to the huge wooden stake, leaving a one-foot space. He paused, twisted his waist and abdomen, and instantly combined the six forces into one and burst out.
“Bang!”
A dull thud was heard, and the huge wooden stake did not move at all. However, the reaction force caused his center of gravity to shift, and his horse stance was almost disrupted.
"Tsk tsk, this wooden stake is under too much force, I'm like an ant trying to shake a tree!"
Patting the wooden stake, he smacked his lips and said to himself, "If I can break this big thing loose one day, I believe my Iron Mountain Backbone will be able to reach a higher level."
“Bang, bang, bang…”
Next, he tried it more than twenty times and then stopped, not daring to try again for fear of getting hurt.
That night, the Suns played against the Mavericks, a worst team in the Western Conference, at home.
The Mavericks were bullied by everyone. Their wins in the past two seasons have hovered between 10 and 20. They had just been ravaged by Jordan and their morale was low.
Wang Tiejun's opponent is Sean Lux, a black man known as the Desert Fathead. He is from the University of Arizona, the same university where Zhang Heli's ex-sister-in-law studied. It is located in Tucson, more than 100 kilometers away from Phoenix.
He was the No. 3 pick in the second round this year. He is 208 cm tall and weighs 113 kg. He has good footwork in the basket and good confrontation ability, but his shooting skills are average and his wingspan is average. Like Wang Tiejun, his athletic ability is average. In addition, there are too many luxurious inside players in this year's draft, so he fell to the second round and his ranking was not high.
According to his conditions, if Wang Tiejun participated in the draft, he might be able to get a first-round pick, because Wang's static talent is top-notch, and his arm span and confrontation ability are better and stronger than those of Fathead Fish.
However, Lux still has strength. In the first game of this season against the Jazz, facing the Black and White Duo, he played as the starting center, made 7 of 11 shots and 6 of 10 free throws, and scored 20 points and 4 rebounds in his debut, which is a score that Lao Wang has not yet reached.
