The rest is just noise

On September 15, 2002, the Boston Celtics' preseason training camp opened in a low-key manner at the Waltham training base.

Yao Yueban reported to the training camp on time.

He had a fulfilling but confusing summer.

The reason for the fulfillment is that after a whole year, it can be said that there is no personal time at all.

After the NBA season ended, he reported back to the national team.

This summer is the year of the World Championships. As the champions of the Sydney Olympics, the Chinese team is the favorite to compete for the championship.

The Chinese team, which has already won the Olympic title, naturally wants to compete for the World Championship title.

But Yao Yueban discovered that the national team has changed since Louis' term ended.

The most intuitive manifestation is that the strength-first recruitment method during Louis' tenure has become a common large-list system in China.

What is the roster system? It means that the head coach does not have to worry about the list of players for the national training team. The Basketball Association decides who to recruit for the national team training. Finally, a list of 20 people is selected for selection, and then eliminated repeatedly.

In fact, the Louis era also used a roster system, but the roster in the Louis era was customized by Louis himself, and Del Harris, the head coach of the current national team, does not have this right.

Regardless of Wang Mukong's retirement, the only current NBA players selected for this year's national team are Yao Yueban, Wang Zhizhi, Hu Weidong, Liu Yuqing, and Qi Chengyan.

Others, like Kang Chengbiao, an all-rounder with extremely controversial personal style but strong strength, were not even included in the training squad.

Have a question? The answer is that Brother Biao does not match the style of the new national team.

Louis once praised Kang Chengbiao, saying that he could match any tactical system in the world, but when it came to the new men's basketball team, Biao didn't match.

The more Yao Yueban thought about what was going on here, the more he got a headache.

Although the brothers are determined to win the championship, they are not the strongest lineup. In addition, there are a few questionable teammates who do not know how they entered the national team. In the end, this men's basketball team fell at the door of the World Championship finals.

Serbia and Montenegro, led by Bodiroga, took revenge.

After the World Championships, there will be the Asian Games. Yao Yueban did not participate in this competition because there is no need. The domestic group is enough to retain the championship.

As a result, the most ridiculous thing happened.

The Basketball Association, which thought that the Asian Games gold medal was an easy-to-grasp honor, actually formed a domestic team with no NBA player experience.

You know, in this era, it is ten times more difficult for the men's basketball team to form a national team with no NBA experience than to form a national team with all players with NBA experience.

But they still did it.

This group of domestic athletes who are holding the title of Olympic champion may be superior to the Asian heroes in terms of physical strength, but if they want to win the championship in an away game, if they cannot beat their opponents by more than 15 points, there will be no guaranteed championship.

The men's basketball team encountered its biggest Waterloo in history in Busan. It was defeated by the Koreans with an 8-on-5 advantage and finished second.

Back in Boston, Yao Yueban decided to empty his head and stop thinking about those worrying things.

Today was the first day of the training camp, and he was preparing to practice casually. Suddenly, he saw President Lu walking into the training center in casual clothes.

"Hey, Xiao Yao, you're here so early?" Louis is very good at which pot is not played and which pot is raised. "Have you finished the national team game?"

Yao Yue half showed a smile that was uglier than crying: "Director Lu, when will you return to the national team?"

"Go back?" Louis smiled faintly, "Why should I go back?"

"Since you left the team, the national team has become strange."

"Oh..." Louis said casually, "Xiao Yao, have you ever thought that my years in the national team were an accident? Weirdness is the norm, no matter where it is,

You see, didn’t the U.S. team, which assembled the nation’s elite, fall into disgrace at the World Championships?”

At this time, Yao Yue half knew that the coach he had always wanted to coach would never return to the national team.

That's right, he doesn't even bother to coach an NBA team anymore.

"Xiao Yao, have you done any special technical training this summer?" Louis seemed to just ask casually.

Yao Yue said in embarrassment: "I really want to do special training, but I don't have time. The national team has competition tasks."

"You don't have to report to the national team next year. I'll take care of Director Li." Louis said, "It's just an Asian Championship. I should be able to win it without you. You need to pay close attention to your special training."

What Yao Yueban wants to know is, what should he conduct special training around?

Seeing Yao Yue's hesitant expression, Louis knew what he was thinking.

"Xiao Yao, do you ever feel that you can't exert your energy in the third and fourth quarters and your defensive quality has also declined?"

Hearing this, Yao Yue nodded half vigorously, feeling so impressed.

Yao Yueban believes that he only has the physical strength to play 25 minutes of high-quality games, but Thomas usually requires him to play 34 minutes, so in the second half of the game, his offensive and defensive efficiency will drop a lot.

When he heard that the legendary Chamberlain, who once scored 100 points in a single game, averaged 48 minutes per game this season, he was so impressed. He really couldn't imagine that there was an insider who had to take care of both offensive and defensive positions, help defense, and rotations.

, after confrontation, assisting defense and other work, you can maintain the same efficiency and play the whole game.

"With your size, it is unrealistic to increase your physical strength, so you should try your best to save your physical strength." Louis said, "In the first half of the game, you can use some simple offensive methods, such as picking and rolling to three.

Outside the line."

Yao Yue said in embarrassment: "I'm not used to the three-point line in the NBA."

"Then get used to it. Your free throw shooting percentage is so high, which means you have good shooting touch. I believe you can develop a stable three-pointer."

Yao Yueban said: "I will try my best."

"It's not about trying your best, it's about doing it," Louis said. "There's nothing wrong with shooting from the outside. You just need to remember that this is a strategy. In the first half, you can save energy by shooting, and in the second half, you can focus on playing inside."

"I understand, I will definitely develop a threatening three-pointer."

"Okay, then starting from tomorrow, I will let John Long watch you and practice three extra points."

After saying that, Louis returned to the office.

When Yao Yueban saw him again, it was during the media day to take photos.

To Yao Yueban and the Celtics players, Louis is very mysterious.

Everyone only knows that he is the president and Thomas' immediate boss, but they rarely see him.

In the long run, this will greatly help Thomas' coaching work.

Players will gradually come to believe in Thomas' authority.

Louis asked Yao Yue to practice three-pointers for a while, not only to save him energy in the game, but more importantly, to lay a solid foundation for possible future transformation.

It is impossible for a core center to play forever. When he reaches his age, if his skills cannot help him change his role, he will be eliminated by the NBA.

Such a tall person is naturally a barrier to protect the basket, and is also very useful in positioning. Coupled with the three-pointer, it should not be a problem for Yao to play like Lopez during the Bucks.

Moreover, the ability to shoot three-pointers at the fifth position can greatly enrich the tactical expansion.

That afternoon, Yinthiah Thomas came to Louis' office and explained which system to start practicing in the new season.

After the end of last season, Laimbeer proposed three major tactical systems. Thomas liked them all, and what he liked was the folding zone strategy.

The folding zone offense is very popular in high school games because it does not highlight star players and requires players to keep running and covering. Moreover, the route designed by this tactic is very easy to form a memory point in the mind. This kind of memory point can

Think of it as inertia from tactical movement, like muscle memory for shooting.

The tactic starts with the point guard dribbling toward one side of the court. The weak-side player on the baseline makes a lateral cross screen for his teammates. If there is an open passing opportunity, pass the ball to attack the basket. If not, the player on the high post will try again.

Make a downward screen for a teammate, that is, set a screen for the screener, the baseline player uses the screen to cut up, and the player who completes the screen turns around to look for opportunities to catch the ball and score.

If there is still no chance to score, the defender will pass the ball to the teammate who used the screen to cut up, and continue to provide horizontal and vertical screens on the other side.

A less confusing explanation is that this tactic requires players to run a lot, perform horizontal and vertical screens in a continuous cycle, and constantly create balanced scoring opportunities for teammates.

"Your idea is very good, but it's a bit evasive. Although the University of Maryland won this year's national championship by using the folding zone offense, it is unrealistic to achieve the same results in the NBA just by relying on this tactical system. This is Rick Pi

It’s something that only Tino can do.” Louis said unequivocally, “The breaking zone attack and pick-and-roll system should be trained at the same time and tested in the game at the same time.”

Thomas hesitated, "It's going to lead to a lot of mistakes."

"If it could be easily achieved, wouldn't everyone be able to be a head coach in the NBA?" Louis said seriously, "Let's arrange it."