I am the Warden Chapter 19: Competition cannot be allowed
"In the first set of training, he, who has great talent, followed his own consciousness and felt that the basic defensive line was not good enough. He tried to change it, but he did not do it well."
"When it comes to attacking, he observes how the more experienced defenders defend and makes comparative analysis."
"He tried again during the third training session... and succeeded! What kind of world is this? This is so unfair!"
Kevin Pritchard sorted out the situation and came to this conclusion.
As he guessed, when it was Liu Xiu's turn to attack, he noticed that when Liu Xiu did not have the ball in his hands, his eyes were not focused on his teammates who had the ball, but on the opponent's defensive movements!
Moreover, after one round, Liu Xiu pulled Travis Outlaw, with whom he had a good relationship, aside and talked for a few words. In the next round, Travis Outlaw's defensive movement changed, and Kevin Pritchard thought this change was good!
"This high school student is so lucky. With such an honest character, he came to a team like ours. I thought it was just bad luck, but luck can't beat fate! He met Jace... He probably didn't even know why he moved like that just now. He was just following Jace's instructions to move and fill in the position..."
…
After the first 20 minutes of defense training for the large group, we rested for 5 minutes.
A trainer or assistant coach would approach a player and point out his poor defensive performance. As for Liu Xiu, Kevin Pritchard told his colleagues not to worry about it… They could worry about it later, but today, let’s see how strong Liu Xiu’s talent for independent learning is.
Soon, the second 20-minute group defense training began.
This time, in the 5-minute training session in the two defensive phases, Liu Xiu's performance was very "ordinary". He almost honestly ran the defensive tactics throughout the entire process and executed one part of the defensive tactics.
The teammates and trainers who trained with him were all surprised. During the first 20 minutes of group training, everyone who trained with him was stunned. Liu Xiu's progress was so fast that it was an understatement to describe it as terrifying.
This time... are you tired from practicing and starting to slack off?
Not at all! He was very active in his movement, and every move was spot on.
Since Liu Xiu's speed is not particularly outstanding among defenders, he needs to make predictive moves, and he does a good job...obviously he is not being lazy.
On the coaching staff side, Kevin Plitt is convinced!
After announcing the end of the morning training and gathering at 2 p.m., Kevin Pritchard took Maurice Cheeks back to the office.
"This lazy guy is really a genius ! He understood it right away. You saw it. During the second set of defensive training, he was deeply understanding the tactics themselves. Instead of just thinking about making different changes himself, he was considering the changes his teammates might make and trying to cooperate...Oh! God! No! Morris, we can't watch him waste his talent anymore. You must find a way to make him work hard and develop all his talents!"
Kevin Pritchard was so excited that he was incoherent.
Maurice Cheeks was very calm. The handsome face of Liu Xiu appeared in his mind. He was sure that Liu Xiu was serious about not wanting to practice more!
"What if he just doesn't want to work hard? You see, he makes more progress with just casual practice than others who work very hard."
"So we're just going to watch him waste his talent? This is our rookie! Ours!" Kevin Pritchard yelled.
Maurice Cheeks shook his head: "Of course not. He is a genius, and geniuses always have quirks. I am worried that the more I want him to work hard, the less he will work. But he is still very weak. When the regular season starts, he will know how weak he is! Even if his playing style is not to stand on the front line and compete with opponents, you can see it. When playing against the Lakers, he rushed into the inside and collided with Malone, causing Malone to foul. Although he is lazy, we can all see his competitive spirit when it comes to the game. I think his competitive spirit will not allow him to be so weak all the time. He will definitely want to become stronger."
What can a talented athlete do to become stronger? Of course, he should train hard and turn his talent into strength.
After listening to Maurice Cheeks' words, Kevin Pritcha calmed down a lot. He was now speechless about his own thoughts - he never expected that one day he would actually expect his genius to be abused by the opponent.
…
Liu Xiu didn't know that the old-fashioned coach was worried about him again.
He doesn’t have time to care about his coach right now, he is just very happy and excited right now!
He had defensive training before, but it was just pure running of basic routes, and it was the same after he started learning from Dale Davis.
Autonomous defense is different from simply being a "functional link" in defense.
The basic route is to remember the route and when you encounter a given situation, move to the appropriate position and it will play a basic role.
But autonomous defense requires sudden movements, which is different from active movement on offense. It is passive movement following the opponent, and the direction of the body's force is completely different from the offense. The so-called basic skills of defense are to practice these movements, positions, and changes of direction that are completely different from offense...
In today's defensive training, he was not so adaptable at the beginning. He practiced the basic defensive skills such as positioning, movement, control of torso and limbs, imaginary situations and how to react.
But it is just practicing basic skills, which is different from the defensive role in team training.
These basic skills are good, but without defensive awareness it will not work.
He knew that he already had a certain foundation in basic skills. At the beginning, during the training camp, he hesitated for a long time, and finally decided to start with defense on the basis of a steady offensive flow!
He thought about it for a long time and felt that, at the moment, improving on the defensive end would be a more direct help to him!
Moreover, defensive training has an advantage - the physical energy consumption is smaller than the complex basic consumption on the offensive end. Defensive training is the most basic training of basic skills. Without considering other things, just based on this feature, it is equivalent to the same "residual physical energy". Compared with offensive training, defensive training can be trained for a longer time in simulation training.
In the past half month, even though there were games and training, he was still able to complete 28 hours of simulation training on basic skills of backup and assist defense. This is because of this.
The three necessary basic skills of shooting, ball control and passing all require minimal simulation training, and simulation training time should be prioritized for these.
His training is all effective after determining a training direction, and this training direction was learned from a successful defensive expert.
After he extracted the results of half a month's simulated training on basic defensive skills, he found that his progress was no less than that of those defensive geniuses who had just started training hard for a month, and in fact even better!
On this basis, he has a great talent in defensive awareness, which enabled him to demonstrate the results of defensive simulation training in just 40 minutes of team training!
While eating lunch, Liu Xiu was rarely so excited and excited during the break. He took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
"In the afternoon training match, I have to continue to show my talent in this area. I won't say how amazing my defensive performance is, but I have to make the coaching staff feel that it is worthwhile to increase my playing time and train me!"
Fight!
Liu Xiu has already started laying the groundwork for competing for playing time!
…
…
The training started at 2 pm. At 1 pm, everyone including Randolph had arrived, and Liu Xiu had already started warming up at 12:40.
At 1:55, 14 players arrived at the competition venue under the guidance of the trainer.
The business of the Rose Garden Arena is not as heavy as that of NBA arenas in most wealthy cities. Initially, this was because Paul Allen stipulated that the use of the arena should give priority to the Trail Blazers. For example, during the key preparation stage of the preseason, it would not be rented out. This was also the case during the mid-season, the playoffs... many times.
As a result, this arena, which is currently ranked fifth in the league, has facilities updated very quickly, and is located in a wealthy city like Portland, has really become a arena with extremely poor rental business.
Excluding revenue from games of teams from the four major leagues, the Rose Garden has never ranked among the top ten of all NBA arenas.
In response, Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen was angry but indifferent.
I was angry because I felt that this stadium, which was one of the most luxurious and advanced in the league, was actually losing money. It was so embarrassing.
He doesn't care. He really doesn't care about the matter itself...
It always feels different playing on a real competition field.
Liu Xiu felt extremely excited when he stepped onto the real court, and his eyes narrowed.
The trainer read out the two starting lineups.
The starting lineup for Team A is Damon Stoudemire, Wesley Person, Quintl Woods, Randolph, and Spantinya.
The starting lineup for Team B is Derek Anderson, Reuben Patterson, Matt Carroll, Rasheed Wallace, and Dale Davis.
The other four players, Reuben Bontjie and Jeff McGinnis were placed in Group A, and two rookies, Liu Xiu and Travis Outlaw, were placed in Group B.
As usual, the rules were explained. The game lasts 20 minutes, divided into the first and second halves, each lasting 10 minutes, with one timeout and a 5-minute halftime break. Everything else is the same as a formal game.
Everyone stretched their bodies again, and at 2:06, the team training match began!
The two teams have very distinct characteristics. In the starting stage, Team A is strong in offense and Team B is strong in defense.
Rasheed Wallace always makes Liu Xiu so angry that he doesn't know where to start.
In Team B's lineup, Rasheed Wallace often disappears on the offensive end, becoming a pure shooter and center who catches rebounds, but together with Dale Davis, they play very well on defense.
Liu Xiu heard that in the past, when Sabonis and Dale Davis were younger, Rasheed Wallace would not work so hard on defense even if he played with one of them.
This change started last season and caught the coaching staff off guard at first, but now they have gotten used to it.
In the first five minutes or so, Damon Stoudemire was full of presence, breaking through, shooting, attacking the basket, free throws...
When the timeout was called for substitutions, Damon Stoudemire had taken more than half of Team A's shots. Team A took a total of 10 shots, and he took 6 of them alone.
His performance was pretty good, with 9 points and 2 assists on 4 of 6 shots. Among others, only Randolph scored 3 points, all of which were scored from offensive rebounds. He made 1 tip-in and caused Team B to foul after grabbing an offensive rebound.
Team B did a good job of protecting the rim. Randolph failed to score in normal one-on-ones and could only rely on rushing... The one-on-one opportunities were not very good, which was related to the person who fed the ball, but the defense against Damon Stoudemire was not good, and the inside and outside defense were not connected.
In the team's training games, Damon Stoudemire is too familiar with this group of teammates and can easily tear apart their defense.
In rotation, Group B replaced Derek Anderson with Liu Xiu and Matt Carroll with Travis Outlaw.
Group A did not make any substitutions and continued playing.
Damon Stoudemire was originally going to take a break, but he continued playing... even more excited!
He had just beaten Derek Anderson, and now he was going to beat Liu Xiu as well. So the two point guard competitors on the team who were not on the same level as him were both beaten by him!
As for Jeff McGinnis, this teammate plays with him. He is the starting player and this teammate is a substitute. How great.
After the rotation is completed, there is 100 seconds of adjustment time for the players to discuss how to make adjustments.
On Team A, Damon Stoudemire was chattering alone.
Randolph didn't play very well in the first few minutes, mainly because the playing style didn't suit him. He was only somewhat useful when rushing for offensive rebounds, but he didn't fight for anything.
After Randolph became the main substitute last season, he competed for the opportunity to perform in the team's training games, and the object of his competition happened to be the Flying Squirrel.
But the little flying squirrel ignored him at all.
Randolph had no choice and was too lazy to continue fighting. He had even less intention to fight now. Things were different now. He was now the team's new inside starter and was too lazy to compete with the declining Flying Squirrel for a chance to perform in the training game.
Team B, Liu Xiu borrowed a tactical board and arranged defensive adjustments for four teammates.
In the first preseason game, Reuben Patterson was once convinced by Liu Xiu because Liu Xiu tackled O'Neal, but that was the only game. After that game, the team returned to its previous state of being a small circle.
Seeing Liu Xiu's leadership attitude, Reuben Patterson wanted to fight for it... but gave up. He saw Dale Davis nodded when he heard Liu Xiu's arrangement, Rasheed Wallace accepted it, and Travis Outlaw's eyes were full of admiration.
During the 40-minute training in the morning, Travis Outlaw was once again conquered by Liu Xiu's learning talent.
After the three of them agreed to Liu Xiu's arrangement, the four of them, including Liu Xiu, looked at Reuben Patterson who had not responded yet.
Kobe the Terminator swallowed his saliva and quickly nodded in response: "Of course I have no objection!"
