Min Congda tried his best to be as detailed and serious as possible during the interview process with Mike Malone, and he considered it repeatedly.
But it is difficult for people to change their own character, and therefore it is difficult for them to change their destiny.
Impulse and taking things for granted are the biggest weaknesses in Min Congda's human nature.
No matter how carefully you think about it beforehand, or how profound the lessons you learn from the past are, they will always disappear completely in the face of the impulse of the moment and the unrealistic beautiful fantasies in your mind.
After a meal at noon and a simple communication in the afternoon, Min Congda was convinced that Mike Malone was the kind of assistant coach he needed.
The second generation coach has worked in the industry for a long time and is proficient in basic business. He has no talent and can only earn a little hard work by working hard.
And Min Congda thinks very confidently that if he is raised in a team like the Clippers for half a season, he will definitely be successfully assimilated into the atmosphere here.
With a high salary, you can just live a good life and wait until you go bankrupt. With a salary of millions, how can you work hard every day?
In this way, Mike Malone became Steve Kerr's successor, and the two Finals opponents, the Clippers and the Cavaliers, completed the coaching swap.
This exchange is quite explosive when looking at NBA history. No one understands what kind of cool operation this is.
But later events proved that this was a win-win exchange.
Kerr's build with the Clippers has been largely successful.
With his ambition, it would be a matter of time before he left.
Continuing to stay with the Clippers is just a brush with honors, and his dream of being a head coach cannot be realized.
The Cavaliers really need an offensive coach to further tap the team's potential.
Affected by the salary space, it is difficult for the Cavaliers to continue to strengthen.
Besides, it doesn’t make sense that we have to strengthen the lineup after already having such a good lineup.
Cole's arrival introduced new tactical and strategic ideas, and the Cavaliers continued to maintain strong competitiveness in the Eastern Conference against the Galaxy Battleship Heat.
As for Mike Malone, his assistant coaching career has also reached a bottleneck.
He has learned everything he can in the Cavaliers, and there is no room for improvement if he continues to stay.
Leaving the Cavaliers and embarking on the road to become a head coach is a necessary step for Mike Malone.
Now it's just a little ahead of schedule, completely within his plan.
For the Clippers, Malone's arrival is also of great significance.
That's what they really need a good defensive coach.
On the third day after signing his contract with the Clippers, Mike Malone took office early in the morning.
The Clippers team ended their game in Salt Lake City last night, and they easily defeated the Utah Jazz on the road.
For a rebuilding team like the Jazz, it will be easy for the Clippers to win.
However, the score of this game was 112:104. A relatively poor offensive team like the Jazz scored 104 points over the Clippers.
This is not good news for the Clippers.
Because the Clippers would have a home game soon, Tyronn Lue gave the players a day off after returning to Los Angeles.
During the day on the 29th, only the Clippers' coaching staff and scouting team came to the training center in the morning to meet with Mike Malone for a coaching meeting.
Malone is still a little nervous inside. The two teams were opponents in the finals last season, and the coaching staff was intrigued by each other and studied each other's weaknesses.
In just a few months, Mike Malone will help the Clippers study tactics.
The assistant coaches knew each other well, so there was no need to introduce themselves. After some pleasantries, they sat down in the office for discussion.
Kim Hughes first briefly analyzed the current situation of the Clippers.
The team has encountered some injury problems recently. Insider Randolph's knee injury has been recurring, and he has been playing intermittently.
This has had a considerable impact on the Clippers' interior and offense. Fatty Lan's role in the team is unquestionable.
There is also Curry's ankle injury. The previous surgery has been very good, but he still has some habitual sprains in recent games. The team attaches great importance to this, while actively treating it, while asking him to give up some games.
Curry and Randolph are the two sharpest knives inside and outside the Clippers lineup.
If they are affected by injuries, the team's offense will be greatly compromised.
As for tactics, Kim Hughes gave another set of data on the team's shooting percentage, points per 100 possessions, inside points, and offensive efficiency.
The Clippers' offensive statistics have declined in the last 10 games. Injuries are one of the reasons. The bigger problem is that the teams are becoming more and more targeted against the Clippers.
For any championship team, their opponents will definitely go all out and be fully prepared.
Especially some young teams take pride in defeating championship teams or performing well in games.
The Clippers are not only the champions, but they also have this year's No. 1 pick on the team. If not, who are you going to beat?
Therefore, the Clippers will be strongly blocked by their opponents in every game.
There are 29 teams and 29 coaching staffs. Hundreds of pairs of eyes are staring at you and studying you every day. If you see any loopholes, they will chase you and bite you.
The NBA court is like a jungle society, like a pride of lions on the grassland. There is no lion king who did not rise to the top by killing the lion king of the previous generation, and almost no lion king can stand upright until the end without being bitten to death by the next generation. ——Michael Jordan and his Bulls are an exception.
The Clippers are the new lion kings. The other lions are eyeing him and will rush to bite him when he is weak.
Of course, the Clippers are still young, and even if they have a few minor ailments, they can still repel most attacks.
But it definitely won’t work without defense.
Before you became the Lion King, you were staring at others, making sneak attacks and attacking.
When you become the Lion King, you become the target of public criticism. If you can't just counterattack and attack, you must know how to defend.
"There are some problems with our defense, but I think it's because the offense is not good and has been dragged down. When Randolph is away and Curry is injured, we need to develop more tactical routines..."
Lao Jin expressed his opinion, and other assistant coaches also agreed.
Tyronn Lu crossed his arms, pretending to be deep and silent.
It's not that he doesn't want to talk, but he doesn't have many thoughts in his mind.
Design several tactics, how to design them?
By the way, there is Mike Malone, why not ask Malone.
This guy has been an assistant coach for more than ten years, so he has something.
So Tyronn Lue asked: "Mike, what do you think?"
Ma Long was holding a notebook in his hand. These data from Lao Jin were still very important.
At present, the application of big data in the NBA is becoming more and more frequent and common.
Coaches can no longer rely solely on intuition and experience when making strategic adjustments. Data is very important.
However, Ma Long had just arrived and was not familiar with everything yet.
He did not answer Tyronn Lue's question, but asked instead: "Well, I can understand, what is the core idea of the Clippers when formulating tactics?"
To thoroughly understand a team's tactical strategy, you must first understand their core ideas.
In this era, tactics are common and everyone has all the information.
Triangle offense, Princeton offense, Eagle offense...as long as you want to learn it, there will definitely be materials for you to learn it.
Tactics are not some martial arts secrets, some tactics that are unique to the alliance and that no one else knows.
The key lies in the combination and execution of tactics.
Execution depends on the ability of the players.
The combination depends on the team's core ideas.
For example, if you want to attack quickly on the offensive end, you may use a combination of V-shaped offense, some counterattack routines to open up space, or high-position pick-and-roll tactics, etc.
Correspondingly, fast offensive routes will not be enough to protect backcourt rebounds, because forwards and defenders need to quickly engage in counterattacks.
So there must be good interior rebounders to provide sufficient ammunition.
This is still just offense.
In short, a core idea will affect all aspects of the team's offense and defense.
The head coach must establish the core ideas based on the characteristics of the players, the version situation, and his own understanding and wisdom, and then combine them to build a tactical system.
Now that Malone has come to the Clippers, if he wants to participate in the discussion, he must first understand the tactical ideas.
Faced with this problem, Tyronn Lue replied: "The core idea of our team is consistent, that is, everyone has the ball to play."
When Malone heard this answer, he thought Tyronn Lue was joking. Everyone has a ball to play? What is this idea?
Is this a basketball concept? Is this a political idea?
"Don't be kidding Tyron, I'm serious."
"I am indeed serious. The core idea of the Clippers is that everyone has the ball to play."
Ma Long couldn't react for a while and was stunned for several seconds.
He thought for a while and said, "Well, why does everyone have a ball to play with?"
"To put it simply, the Clippers have no real core players, or in other words, everyone is the core."
"That is, team basketball?"
"Well...it's not a simple team basketball. Everyone has the ball to play, including the players on the bench. You should know that our bench players play for a long time."
Mike Malone certainly knows this.
In his understanding, the Clippers are taking a team route. At the same time, the Clippers have many young talents and strong substitutes.
After playing, I didn’t expect it to be because the core idea of the Clippers is “everyone has a ball to play with”. I have never heard of such a team building concept in my life.
"Who came up with this?" Malone asked curiously.
"Of course it's Mr. Smart. He has advocated this team-building concept since he joined the Clippers in 2009. Of course, we have never promoted it..."
Malone has finally seen that the Clippers are really a weird team.
After understanding this, Ma Long calmed down and thought about the problem just now.
He replied: "Mr. Smart asked me a similar question before during the interview. I have always had an idea in my mind. I think the Clippers need to build a more stable and efficient defensive system."
"Of course, I know that the Clippers' defense is not bad. The team's defense is very tough. And the defensive talents of the forward guys are very good. But you... No, our system is still not complete enough. Once some players are absent, the ball will The team's defense will be affected. A good defensive system is very stable and is the best weapon to cope with the long and fierce battles in the regular season."
Mike Malone's words were unanimously agreed by everyone.
In fact, Tyronn Lue and others have similar ideas, but they are not masters of defensive system construction.
Mike Malone has served as an assistant coach for the Eastern Conference team all year round. The Eastern Conference team has always been good at defense, and the Cavaliers were also a heavy defensive team at the beginning.
And Mike Malone's father, Brandon Malone, is an expert in defense. The head coaches he assisted, Chuck Daly and Jeff Van Gundy, were all top defensive masters who founded the sect in the 1990s. .
It was their contribution in the 1990s that allowed the NBA to gradually enter an era of strong offense and weak defense from the 1980s.
Mike Malone has learned from his father, Mike Brown and others, and of course he knows how to build a defensive framework.
Seeing that no one had any objections, Malone continued to express his opinion, saying: "The Clippers actually have very good defensive resources. I am studying you... Oh, it should be said that when I was with the Cavaliers and studied you, I thought the Clippers The ship's defensive resources may be the best in the league. The biggest flaw is the back line, which is indeed a big trouble. Curry and Harden are not high-quality defensive resources. I think I would like to make a less mature suggestion, that is, Put Harden back on the bench where he's familiar and make him a sixth man like Manu Ginobili."
Malone's idea aroused Tyronn Lue's interest and said, "Go on, what else do you think?"
Malone continued: "Actually, the Clippers' starting lineup has some overflowing offensive capabilities, and the substitutes actually have insufficient firepower due to the departure of Jamie Lin. James Harden has comprehensive abilities and rich imagination on the offensive end. He is completely One person can shoulder the offensive burden of the entire team. Putting him and Curry on the court at the same time is a waste of resources. I think one of them should be mentioned as the starter, Leonard or Jimmy Butler, and Paul - George works together to better control the opponent's backcourt offense. Harden, as the team's sixth man, is leading the second team's offense. How about that?"
I have to say that Mike Malone really has an idea.
The combination of Curry + Harden is indeed powerful.
Especially in the 2011 playoffs, the two sophomores made the Spurs scream.
But as the two continue to grow, there is only one ball on the court.
When the ceiling is only 100 points, it is a pity that two 80-pointers are on the court, each sacrificing 30-point ability.
But according to Steve Kerr's idea, Harden and Curry are on the court at the same time, which can maximize the Clippers' space-passing and cutting style.
And Mike Malone asked Harden to come on the bench, which will weaken the starting firepower to a certain extent, but make the entire team's offense, defense and deployment more balanced.
After unanimous discussion, everyone quickly came to the conclusion: This is a good suggestion!
Suggestions are good suggestions, but how to implement them?
Mike Malone asked with some concern: "Let James Harden play the sixth man, will he be willing?"
For NBA players, starting is not only a matter of style of play, but also a matter of honor and status.
It is impossible for most famous stars to agree to be demoted from starter to substitute, especially if their ability has not declined, and they have to occupy a starting position even if they die.
Like Ginobili, who takes turns starting, benching, and starting, and going wherever he needs to go. There are very few black American stars. Generally, only European and South American players are willing. They don't care.
Tyronn Lue has little idea about tactical construction, but he is very confident in political and ideological work, which is his strength.
He assured: "Don't worry, no problem, Harden will play as the sixth man in the next game. Oh, by the way, the specific defensive system and training, Mike, please work harder."
Mike Malone nodded and felt comfortable. It seemed that the Clippers' coaching staff had a good atmosphere and everyone was very friendly.
Since I got such a big contract and so much money, I have to work hard!
(End of chapter)
