"Duen, are you here? Please sit down!
I have no other intention of calling you here today. I just want to tell you that your previous performance has won my trust.
I admire your attitude in practicing, studying, and playing.
Your performance on and off the court caught my attention.
I think there was some negligence in the previous work. You can attract defense without the ball, instead of just attacking with the ball.
In order to give full play to your abilities, it has been decided to promote you to the starting small forward for the next game.
You won't live up to my expectations for you, right? "
The Zen master transformed into a KFC grandpa and spoke to Du En with sincerity.
Upon hearing this, Du En nodded suddenly, and then his face became happy.
Playing as the sixth man can certainly improve statistics, but playing as a starter undoubtedly has a higher status than being a substitute.
Moreover, in the starting lineup, Duane can get more open shooting opportunities.
If you bring a substitute, three-point shots are basically shot with the ball.
Duen believes that in the three-point field, it is more accurate without the ball than with the ball. If it is a wide open space, the shooting rate will be higher.
If you have the opportunity to shoot an open three-pointer, there is no need to force a three-pointer.
Curry is invincible when it comes to three-pointers with the ball, but Kerr still designed a lot of tactics for Curry to use screens to shoot three-pointers to enhance Curry's offensive power.
Playing in the starting lineup with Payton, Kobe, etc., although most of the time he is running back and forth and cannot get the ball, as long as he gets the ball, he has a good chance.
Besides, in the absence of O'Neal, the starting lineup has almost enough ball rights. Payton, Kobe, and Malone should not be condescending to lead the substitutes.
In this way, Duan is most likely to be a pseudo-starting small forward, and his real task is to serve as the sixth man and lead the bench lineup in scoring.
Taken together, Duan's ball rights will not decrease, but will increase.
For example, the playing time in the preseason was only about 20 minutes before. Later, due to the additional starting time, it may slowly increase to 25 to 30 minutes.
Usually the sixth man of an NBA team should play about 30 minutes.
Zen Master's expectations for him undoubtedly further established his status within the Lakers.
After thinking about this clearly, Du En quickly offered his loyalty to the Zen Master.
Upon hearing this, Zen Master quietly revealed to Duen that he intended to reduce some of Kobe's starting time. By then, Kobe and Duen would be Jordan and Pippen on the bench.
Du En was a little surprised when he heard this, but the Zen Master quickly explained that it was for Du En's good.
Zen Master also noticed that Du En's passing and controlling ability was slightly insufficient.
Delegating Kobe to the bench can relieve Duan's ball-holding pressure and reduce the number of mistakes.
It is easier for Kobe to attract defenses when he plays with the ball. Without the pressure of holding the ball, Duan can also use his talents without the ball to help Kobe open up space.
The advantage of this is that the distribution of ball rights in the starting lineup is relatively more reasonable.
After O'Neal returns from injury, someone in the starting lineup needs to give up the ball. Let Kobe lead the bench in advance, and there will be no conflict over ball rights.
Of course, the question that exists is, is Kobe willing to lead the bench?
After Kobe Bryant agreed to lead the bench, will he watch people but not pass the ball again because his desire for singles is higher than his desire to pass?
Zen Master said that in the next half month, he will study hard and try to arrange a more suitable role for Du En.
After listening to Zen Master's instructions, Du En picked up a few boxes of videos specially prepared for him by Zen Master, and then went home to re-study the movement and offense of the Lakers small forward under the current triangle offensive system.
Compared with holding the ball in the triangle offense, it is simpler to run without the ball, just running, passing, and cutting. It is a bit like the Warriors passing and cutting, but there are not so many screens.
Du En just wants to study hard and master the triangle offense in his new role as soon as possible.
However, as Duan recently returned to Los Angeles, he often drove in and out of the community. Neighbors noticed that a big star had come to the community, and everyone was extremely enthusiastic.
Among them are many young girls, married young women, official ladies, wealthy women with capital, and enthusiastic football fans...
There were even some distant relatives, friends and relatives of the neighbors who came to visit with gifts after learning that Du En lived here.
Du En is a normal person, with all kinds of emotions and desires. He occasionally meets up with one or two people to play ball, and there is nothing wrong with him being active.
However, considering what happened to Kobe not long ago, I decided to play it safe.
Dongzi was blind and fell into a beauty trap and was jumped by a fairy. It is normal for Chinese people to trick Chinese people abroad.
In order to avoid trouble, Du En kept himself clean and reduced unnecessary communication. At most, when receiving foreign guests at home, treat them as normal social interactions and treat them politely.
As the saying goes, there is a long way to go. If you are really interested and have no evil ideas, you can talk about it later.
It is also because there are many similar situations and Du En is too busy alone, so Du En just hired a nanny a few days ago.
Now, there was finally someone in the family who could lend a hand to Du En and help him do some dirty work.
Perhaps it was because of the sudden appearance of the nanny that some of the neighbors with ulterior motives retreated and stopped visiting frequently.
Du En was happy to be free, but people still came to visit him every day.
Fortunately, Duan spends most of his time practicing at Toyota Center. When guests come to your home, they usually leave gifts and contact information, and then leave.
Duen was not bothered by mundane tasks. With the help of his previous experience in learning the triangle offense, in just two days, he understood most of what a small forward should do.
On October 16, the Lakers faced the Cavaliers at home. It was also the first time that Duan played as a starting player, playing together with Payton, Kobe, Malone, and Grant.
The Cavaliers' starting lineup is James, Ricky Davis, Darius Miles, Boozer and Big Z.
In other words, James plays point guard, not small forward.
After the game started, Big Z helped the Cavaliers get the ball.
James drove the ball forward and was met by Gary Payton's aggressive defense after halftime.
Payton was given the nickname glove, which was very aggressive defensively, wrapping up the opponent like a glove, leaving the opponent with no touch at all.
In fact, if James has Billups's shooting and post-playing abilities, relying on his height and weight advantages, he can basically defeat today's elderly Payton.
It's a pity that James doesn't know how. At this stage, James can only use screens to break through.
After being entangled by Payton, James doubled the pressure on the ball and had to pass the ball to Ricky Davis first.
After the latter got the ball, he couldn't move when faced with Kobe's close defense. It was difficult to find a chance to take action, so he could only protect the ball with his back and pass the ball to James.
After regaining the ball, James immediately called Darius Miles to come over and give him a screen. Then just after getting rid of Payton, he faced Duan who had switched defenses.
"Hey, Melo's little brother, I heard that you played well in the summer league?"
James thought he had found a weak point and directly used the ball protector to break through.
However, during the confrontation between the two, they found that Du En was not moved.
"Are you tickling me?" After the physical confrontation, Du En immediately responded with trash talk.
James was quite shocked by this. Surprised, he immediately held the ball with both hands and feinted, trying to hit Du En, but Du En remained unmoved.
There is no shooting space, or there is a breakthrough opportunity after stopping the ball and continuing to move forward pretending that the referee did not see it.
James could only turn his back to seek support from his teammates. Fortunately, Boozer was not far away. James passed the ball, but because the intention of passing the ball was too obvious, Malone went around to defend and steal it.
The Lakers took advantage of Big Z's heavy weight and slow speed, and immediately launched a fast break. Payton and Malone connected, and Malone dunked successfully, helping the Lakers score the first two points.
James held the ball for half the game and called two pick-and-rolls before Payton could get involved. Then this time it was not Duane who appeared in front of him, but Malone's big elbow.
Although Malone's ability to protect the frame is not good, he is very good at defense, coupled with his big elbow deterrence.
James couldn't even touch Duan, let alone Malone.
As a result, James could only pull out again, call a few more pick-and-rolls, and try to break inside.
Immediately afterwards, Kobe appeared in front of James. James tried it and found that it was more troublesome than being entangled by Payton. The ball in his hand was accidentally taken away by Kobe.
Kobe's hands are small, but his wingspan is not short.
It was another fast break after James' mistake, and Kobe also dunked to complete the score.
After two rounds, James discovered that his body and pick-and-roll, which he has always been proud of, did not work well in front of the Lakers' starting lineup.
To be honest, Duen is slightly easier to fight. But with his current offensive power, it would be difficult to break through Duen's defense.
Also because it was difficult to score in the Lakers' starting lineup, James turned into a dribbling defender.
After halftime, he passed the ball to Ricky Davis or Boozer and started playing without the ball. He had no idea of taking the initiative to attack with the ball and connect the team.
Ricky Davis was also paralyzed by Kobe's defense and had to use the screen to hit Payton and Duane, but he could only barely absorb the ball and his shooting percentage was less than 40%.
Boozer also struggled against Malone's defense. He was able to score but only a little.
The Cavaliers eventually relied on Big Z's advantage at the center position to open up the situation, but Big Z's physical strength was limited and he couldn't play for too long.
Precisely because of the disparity between the two ends of the starting lineup, the Cavaliers were at a disadvantage from the beginning of the game. 15 to 29 in the first quarter, they were outscored by 14 points by the Lakers, almost doubling the score.
However, in the second quarter, James, who had previously made 0-for-2 shots and scored no points, suddenly felt like a fish in water and regained his glory.
The Lakers' bench is still led by Duane. Although Fisher, Devin George, and Grant are not bad, James' talent means that he can still score from the basket with the help of screens when he comes off the bench.
As a result, in the first half of the second quarter, Duan and James competed with each other.
Duan made 4 of 6 shots and 2 of 2 free throws and scored 10 points. James made 4 of 7 shots and 2 of 3 free throws, which was exactly 10 points.
However, as early as the first quarter, Duan cut to the basket and completed a layup, and also hit a three-pointer from the outside.
In the first half, Duan was superior to James in terms of scoring and efficiency.
In the second half, James was still brave and scored 16 points.
Of course, Duan didn't give in too much and scored another 15 points in the second half.
The game totaled 30 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals, which was not bad at all compared to James who had 26 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists.
