It was approaching three o'clock in the afternoon, and the air conditioner in the Pyramid Stadium was running wildly, releasing a lot of cold air.
However, it was not cold at all inside the arena, but seemed very hot! All this is because of the enthusiasm of the four to five thousand fans at the scene!
Amid the enthusiastic cheers of the fans, players from the Los Angeles Lakers and the Canadian men's basketball team, who had finished warming up, appeared on the stage one after another, and then stood on the sidelines waiting for the game to officially start.
Unlike the Canadian men's basketball team, which all surrounds the coach and listens to the coach's tactics, the Lakers are clearly divided into two circles.
The smaller circle, centered around coach Kurt Rambis, has just four players.
The larger circle surrounds Duane and Kupchak, including point guard Genero Pargo, shooting guard Kareem Rush, small forward Luke Walton, and small forward Amy Udo. Card, power forward Stanislav Medvedenko and center Jamal Sampson.
Summer league usually does not require the general manager of the team to take action, and the assistant coach will lead the team.
However, today, Lakers general manager Kupchak personally came to supervise the battle. On the one hand, it represents the attitude of the old Buss, and on the other hand, it is also because Jackson is not good at cultivating rookies.
What Zen Master is good at is adapting to situations and adjusting personnel and tactics.
And build a championship-winning system that can make good use of the leading players and inspire the fighting spirit of the substitute players.
The other coaches are either feeding chicken soup or screwing over the main players.
Even if the star is very tired, he still actively implements the tactic of giving the ball to the star. At most, when the star is about to die of exhaustion, he can say, "I've left a few timeouts for you to rest."
But the Zen Master was able to say domineeringly to Jordan, O'Neal, and Kobe: "If you want to win the championship, you have to listen to me!"
In the future, Cole, the Warriors' four-time championship coach, inherited Zen Master's coaching philosophy.
Appropriately suppress the star players, give the ball to role players, and fully mobilize their enthusiasm.
Then find the right opportunity to let the star player release his long-suppressed offensive desire and win the game with full firepower.
Having said that, the current Lakers summer league coach is Kurt Rambis, and Rambis is an assistant coach of Jackson.
Because the Zen Masters value experienced veterans and are not so interested in rookies, the purpose of Rambis leading the summer league is not to cultivate rookies.
In fact, most old-school coaches who can lead their teams to win championships don't like or are not good at cultivating rookies.
Popovich has the ability to train rookies because the Spurs have no money and can only work hard to train rookies to fill the gaps.
Of course, Popovich also likes to recruit veterans, and many veterans have taken on a new lease of life under Popovich.
The reason why old-school coaches like veterans is actually very simple, because veterans have rich experience and it is easier to understand the tactics they deploy after joining the team, which can make their work easier.
Compared with a rookie who knows nothing and is full of loopholes, it is naturally easier to use a veteran and it is easier to achieve results.
In terms of employing people, Zen masters are essentially no different from Larry Brown.
The Lakers have so many CBA players, not because the logo man and Kupchak didn't choose the right person.
Just look at the future Warriors and you will know that Cole has not trained any decent rookies and can only train two-way players.
In this summer league, Jackson's original intention was to let Kurt Rambis help test the quality of several veterans he selected from the free market.
However, due to the recent draft, the Lakers selected two related players, Duan and Walton Jr.
Old Buss wanted to prove his vision, so the summer league strategy had to be adjusted.
And because there were a few rookies who had not yet been trained in the previous two years, it just happened to be put together in the summer league to give it a try.
Think of it as a test to see if Du En really has the ability to lead a team!
After all, it is not that easy to become the future of the NBA giant Los Angeles Lakers.
"Dunn, the game is about to start, let's say a few words!" Kupchak encouraged.
Although Du En was favored by Old Buss, after all, it was Kupchak who personally sold favors and traded him from the logo man.
Once Duane fails to play, the outside world will definitely criticize Kupchak for being the scapegoat, rather than criticizing Buss for being blind-sighted.
Therefore, Kupchak hopes that Duane can play more than anyone else.
It's best to cover up the limelight of No. 1 pick LeBron James!
"I will lead the charge and lead you to win the game."
The Duen people don't say much, but their goals are very clear.
He just wants to be a ball lord, concentrate on the ball and produce gorgeous statistics.
In summer league, winning or losing doesn't matter.
For Duane, the more important thing is to show his "talent" and let Buss and Lakers fans have more expectations for him.
The 17-year-old Kobe Bryant went on a rampage in the Long Beach Summer League, scoring 100 points in 4 games, leaving people in awe.
If Duane wants to have more say in the Lakers, he needs to use the summer league to perform better than rookie Kobe.
"Don't worry, Duen, we will assist you well." Genero Pargo expressed his loyalty in public.
Later, Karim Rush, Medvedenko, and Sampson, who had already met Dun at Shaq Manor.
Also, Little Walton and Uduka, who had just met during the training camp two days ago, also expressed their support for Du En.
It can be said that O'Neal had already helped Duan establish a certain prestige before Kupchak came forward.
Therefore, even if Rambis has his own mission, he cannot make any trouble under Kupchak's suppression.
Soon, the starting lineups of both sides came on stage. On the Lakers' side, they were Pago, Duane, Walton Jr., Medvedenko and Sampson.
The Canadian men's basketball team is a group of unknown chickens and dogs.
These days, the Canadian men's basketball team relies entirely on Nash alone, and it's impossible for Nash to come to the summer league to play in the summer league.
Speaking of which, at the beginning of the game, Dunn was a little wary of the name of the Canadian men's basketball team.
However, when he saw Canada getting the ball in the low post, using a post-up shot, and then slowly hitting the three-point line, Duan was not afraid at all.
I thought Embiid was already invincible, but I didn't expect there was someone softer than him!
Realizing that Canada was afraid of confrontation inside, this strengthened Duan's belief in scoring from inside.
With the Canadian men's basketball team's first attack, Duan immediately started a fast break and ran quickly.
Pago deliberately showed his kindness to Duen, first dribbling the ball quickly to attract the defense.
Immediately after throwing the basket high, Du En cooperated with the take-off to eat the cake, and smoothly completed the alley-oop.
"Duane, Duane, Duane!"
I don’t know if Nike hired a few stooges or if Lakers fans spontaneously came here to watch Duan play.
In short, after Duan scored with the help of transition attack, fans cheered loudly, but the number was not large.
Duang——
Not long after the Lakers scored, the Canadian men's basketball team also tried a fast break. Taking advantage of the Lakers' lack of position, they grabbed a three-pointer, but it failed.
When Du En, who had just returned to the backcourt, saw this, he immediately rushed to the frontcourt at full speed.
Pargo continued to pass the ball, but because the passing intention was too obvious, he was actually intercepted halfway. Fortunately, it was a long pass, and the passing force was not small. In the end, the basketball was sent out of bounds.
Duan has already digested Terry's template and is naturally not afraid of serving the ball from the sideline and playing positional battles.
Duane quickly got the ball and motioned for Medvedenko to step forward as a screen.
Medvedenko is a European power forward with good mid-range skills and also knows how to play pick-and-rolls with defenders.
Duan broke through with the ball and went to the left. As Medvedenko stepped forward, he blocked the Canadian defender who was chasing Duan.
Doon, who had no pursuers behind him, only had to deal with the Canadian insiders who were filling in in front of him.
With Duan's speed, it's no problem to beat defenders who don't move quickly laterally, not to mention the opponent is a soft and stupid inside player.
Just accelerating, Du En directly passed the person, and then facing the empty penalty area, he directly dunked with one hand in three strides.
Duan quickly came down from the basket and faced the help defense, but he did not stop him. Instead, the Canadian insider took the initiative to pick up the ball after he scored.
Du En couldn't help but raise his chest, curl his arms and fist at him, and roared angrily.
"I'm going to dunk you!"
Duan hopes that the Canadian insider in front of him can defend like Ewing and Duncan and act as a background.
As a result, he actually gave up halfway through assisting in defense.
This is a good opportunity for Dunn to dunk against the big center and make headlines.
Just look at Griffin and you will know that the short-hand dunk will appear particularly violent when dunking an opponent.
If Duan can perform the famous scene of a death dunk at the center in his first summer league game, he will undoubtedly attract a lot of fans.
Unfortunately, the opponent did not cooperate at all.
Just like when Curry was about to dunk, there was only a bare floor...
