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Chapter 677: Jack Durant 285

Chapter 677: Jack Durant 285

Carlisle: "For our next system build, we will focus on offense, but we won’t give up on defense. We just need to adjust the focus on the defensive end; based on our actual situation, the defensive focus will be on one-on-one defense..."

After Carlisle finished speaking, Randy Brown took the main position and began to explain the first wave of adjustments for both offense and defense.

Zhang Yang focused his attention on the explanation.

There was nothing surprising to him about the changes to the team system. Over the past week, Carlisle and Randy Brown had discussed multiple times with several key players. Although the talks weren’t very specific, he could infer the direction of the system adjustments from their conversations.

However, the adjustments Randy Brown talked about were somewhat surprising to Zhang Yang...

After the adjustments were explained, they definitely needed to practice them right away. The training time wasn’t long—just one complete training session for offense and defense combined.

After the team’s practice ended, most players stayed behind for extra practice, and Zhang Yang also stayed to work on his catch-and-turn medium-to-long shots.

His turn-around jump shot technique was actually not bad, but it was becoming increasingly insufficient when facing more sly and tricky playstyles.

During a break in Zhang Yang’s training, Carlisle came to chat with him, "Jack, what do you think about this round of adjustment plans?"

Zhang Yang: "The magnitude of the adjustments is much smaller than I had anticipated. It’s good to be cautious, but this seems too conservative."

The offensive and defensive adjustments just explained by Randy Brown involved, on the offense, just a summarization of the previous night’s team play, very minor basic cooperation adjustments, and the addition of some good ad hoc plays made by the team members. On defense, the adjustments were a bit bigger, but it was all about simplification, making defense simpler for the players.

Carlisle: "Jack, you don’t need to worry. I haven’t become scared because of the storm during the preseason. The scale of the adjustment is small because we have already been playing for a month, and we will enter the mid-season phase in less than four weeks. Rushing could affect our physical condition, and we also don’t have many game samples to refer to—we need more actual combat experience to find issues."

Zhang Yang: "I see. I understand now."

This topic changed so quickly? I feel like I’ve been ditched after being used, just thrown away... When Zhang Yang looked at Carlisle, his expressions and body language seemed to say, "Do you have anything else? If not, go away. I need to train."

Feeling a tad displeased, Carlisle asked, "So Jack, do you have any thoughts on the adjustments in playstyle?"

Zhang Yang thought for a moment and then said, "I have a few tactical ideas; I’m not sure if they are feasible."

No way, he just had to actually have some... Carlisle muttered to himself before getting serious and saying, "Let me hear them, and we can discuss them together."

Zhang Yang nodded, spread his hands towards a chair at the edge of the training field, and walked over to sit down with Carlisle, who understood the gesture.

Vincent, who was observing the players’ training, also came over when he saw this.

Zhang Yang didn’t beat around the bush and directly said, "I have some immature tactical ideas; I don’t know if you, Rick, could make them work. Like this, like that..."

Carlisle: "Speed up with dual point guards? This is doable. We have a rich variety of point guard types: traditional, speed-based, combo guards. Last season, Bernie occasionally played with dual point guards, so this shouldn’t be a big problem..."

Zhang Yang: "Like this, like that..."

Carlisle: "Top of the arc playmaking? A tactic designed for Rajon? His three-point shot isn’t good enough now, he might not attract the defense... Wait, your idea doesn’t really require him to shoot threes. If the opponent leaves him open, he can just drive through the middle. This might work..."

Zhang Yang: "Like this, like that..."

Carlisle: "Cross-cuts, two-way screens, creating mismatch opportunities... Isn’t this Princeton? This is a bit difficult; we don’t have a real interior playmaker. Paul can only do some simple playmaking work. What you’re suggesting is to treat Paul as the team’s primary playmaking point..."

Zhang Yang: "Like this, like that..."

Carlisle: "What kind of tactic is this? Wouldn’t we need to field five shooters for this to work? And put Paul in the five spot? He doesn’t even shoot three-pointers, and even if he did, would this be feasible..."

Vincent: F*** me!

He was just curious about what Zhang Yang and Carlisle were discussing; he didn’t expect to hear Zhang Yang propose several tactics that, in his view, could be used to construct an offensive system!

Are today’s players all at this tactical level? No, it must be only their team’s star player who is such a monstrously talented freak!

Dissatisfied, Zhang Yang said, "Rick, why do you keep finding faults? Aren’t these tactics good?"

Carlisle: "Your tactical ideas are very good, but many of them we indeed cannot execute. Don’t you have a direction for tactical adjustments?"

Zhang Yang: "Roster issues, tactical adaptability adjustments—that’s not for me to consider. It’s your job. I’m just sharing my ideas."

Vincent: Are these even human words?

Carlisle paused for a moment and then said, "You’re right, Sam. You got down what Jack said, right?"

Vincent: "...I remembered it."

Damn! Carlisle actually used me as a recorder! No wonder he was so focused on rebutting and questioning. He’s taking advantage of my good memory, right?

Vincent was angered by his friend Carlisle’s behavior... At the same time, his look towards Zhang Yang carried a hint of admiration. This was not a look a coach should have towards a player, but in his eyes, Zhang Yang was truly no ordinary player... Wait, does this mean overtime work again?

The admiring look was quickly withdrawn. That bad boy Jack was truly a devil!

...

The Bobcats had a two-day rest period, and on the second morning, they conducted two training sessions: one complete session each for offense and defense.