The rest is just noise

Auerbach fulfilled his promise and reached a rookie contract with Ralph Sampson, the same as Bird, with an annual salary of $650,000.

Sampson couldn't ask for more because Auerbach couldn't give him a higher contract than Bird.

The two parties were very happy, and under the witness of many reporters, Sampson signed his name on the contract.

"Child, you are welcome to join!"

Auerbach looked at him as if he were seeing Bill Russell back then.

"It's my pleasure, sir," Sampson replied happily.

Bob Ryan, the famous reporter of the Boston Globe, wrote excitedly in his article: "There is no doubt that this is the restoration of the Boston dynasty. Greatness is being revived, and Ralph's thin body carries tens of thousands of people.

Everyone’s expectation!”

Interestingly, Sampson, at the suggestion of Louis, asked the Celtics to add an exception to his rookie contract (the Celtics agreed).

"If Ralph is injured, he can decide whether to play with the injury."

This is a special case for Bill Fitch.

According to Louis' experience, injuries are inevitable for a 2-meter-2 athletic giant like Sampson.

They are so tall and athletic, which violates their physiological structure. Therefore, as long as there is an injury, they must be treated seriously and treated seriously.

If possible, Louie hopes to implement "load management" on Sampson.

He just had this idea, but didn't actually implement it.

Such an honorable thing as playing through injuries has been circumvented by the contract, but when the players are not injured, they still have to miss some games to relieve physical fatigue?

This seriously goes against the will of the times.

Only when Louis takes a high position in the future can he make his own rules.

Now we can only take one step at a time.

In July, Sampson's special training began.

Louis followed him throughout the training like his trainer.

What Sampson needs to do most right now is gain weight.

Before the new season, he needs to gain at least 8-10 pounds of muscle.

Sampson suffered a lot. He had to eat six meals a day and do a lot of strength training.

Training with the ball was greatly reduced, and Louis paid great attention to shaping his body.

"If you don't eat well, you won't be able to gain weight smoothly, and then anyone can knock you to the ground. I'm not trying to scare you!"

Louie would use extreme words to intimidate Sampson.

The Louis who had been lobbying him so pleasantly a few days ago had become a different person.

No one at UVa would treat Sampson that way.

"You know people but don't know their hearts!" Sampson regretted that he should have stayed in college.

"Stop complaining, kid!" Louis seemed to not know how weak he was in front of Sampson, "You earn $650,000 a year. If you think this is natural, then you are wrong. The adult world is very complicated.

Cruel!"

In order to help Sampson train, Louis also invited Dave Cowens to be his sparring partner.

Cowens has been in a bad mood recently, so asking him to be his sparring partner is a disguised form of giving him a chance to vent his frustration.

Unfortunately for Sampson, Cowens' violent temper, rough positioning movements and desperate style of fighting for the ball made it difficult for him.

Because Louis asked him to use his blocking skills instead of using his talent to fight for positions.

Such restrictions completely exposed his weakness of not being good at blocking positions.

A month later, Cowens left, venting his frustration on Sampson, and then Laimbeer came.

"Don't worry, I will definitely be gentle."

Lambir once made Sampson think he was a good guy.

In less than a day, Ranbir's little actions almost made them enemies.

When Ranbir threw him to the ground roughly, he jumped up and wanted to fight.

Louis appeared in the middle of them just in time and told Sampson: "If you are going to get involved in something like this, I feel like you are going to get into a fight every game in the NBA."

"I don't believe there is a worse opponent in the NBA!" Sampson yelled.

Ranbir smiled mischievously and said, "You haven't seen much, you're a newbie, so I'm going to teach you this lesson for free!"

In those few months, Sampson's weight increased to 108 kilograms.

Exactly 10 pounds.

But when the 10 kilograms of weight are spread across the body of 224 centimeters, it doesn't seem to change much.

At the end of August, Fitch convened the team for special pre-season training.

In the upcoming new season, the league will change a lot.

The Dallas Mavericks paid a franchise fee of US$12 million and successfully entered the NBA. Since then, the league has expanded its territory to Dallas.

This franchise fee made the Mavericks owner deeply angry with the NBA veterans.

Because the league is losing money, although the dividends from the TV broadcast contract can barely sustain the team's operations, it is a fact that most teams are losing money.

Therefore, every team that wants to join the NBA must pay a huge franchise fee.

If the owner of the newly joined team does not have enough background, the franchise fee will make it difficult for them to recover for a long time.

In addition, the league also adjusted the divisions of four teams.

It's almost suspicious that the league office didn't understand the geography of the error being dealt with.

The San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets were moved to the West, while the Milwaukee Bucks and Chicago Bulls were moved to the East.

This adjustment is considered a weakening of the east and a strengthening of the west.

Because the Rockets and Spurs are both stable playoff teams, and the Bucks and Bulls are divided from the Western Conference, only the Bucks are playoff teams, and the Bulls' competitiveness is very weak.

But God is not as good as man. The two new teams that joined the Eastern Conference gave everyone in the Eastern Conference a big gift when they first arrived. They strengthened their combat effectiveness through their own operations and successfully entered the playoffs in the new season.

During this offseason, Louis not only paid attention to Sampson's training, but also watched a lot of game videos.

He recorded many interesting tactics.

He also tried to read more coaches' autobiographies, but they would only tell others how they succeeded instead of explaining their tactics in detail.

After all, it's stuff at the bottom of the box and can't be taken out casually.

Combined with Bill Fitch's high pick-and-roll offensive system, Louis thought of Steve Kerr's passing and cutting tactics that made fans angry.

In the 1980s, when space requirements were less stringent, passing and cutting was an effective tactic.

As a result, Louis' "L" series of tactics came into being.

This is a tactic that focuses on passing and cutting.

One of the most famous coordination routines is as follows:

The position is in a 3-2 position, with position 1 dribbling, position 5 lifting up the left wing to screen, position 1 passing the ball to position 3, and taking the screen from position 5 to penetrate into the penalty area. At this time, position 5 gets the first

If there is a chance, he can shoot or pass, it all depends on the situation at the time. If there is no chance, he will pass the ball to the second position on the right to stretch the space. If the tactics are run properly, the first and fourth positions will have a high probability of getting

An easy scoring opportunity under the basket. At this time, the second position only needs to pass the ball.

This is a short, fast tactic that requires a lot of players' adaptability.

It is also the signature tactic in the "L" series.

When this tactic first appeared in Celtics training camp, Bill Fitch found that this tactic suited his tactical system very well.

"Lu, you are working hard." Fiqi smiled.

Louis believed that if his tactics worked, the applause and praise would only go to Fitch.

But it doesn't matter. The assistant coach is a tool in the shadows and should not be the protagonist in the first place. All he has to do is use Fitch to test his tactics.

If it works, he can naturally use it when he coaches in the future. If it doesn't work, Fitch will bear the consequences.

It doesn't matter if you lose some fame and fortune for this.