Start coaching the Thunder, starting with Westbrook

Chapter 9 "Long Zhong Pair"

The 2013 NBA Draft will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 6. The full list of candidates for the draft has been announced on the 27th, the day after the previous finals. Therefore, Presti has already started researching candidates in the past few days.

In fact, there have been players who have come to try out before, and the Thunder have long been interested in some players, including the 2.11-meter-tall New Zealand center Steven Adams and Andre Robertson, who has the potential to be a defensive champion at the forward position.

In the future, these two players will also be members of the Thunder's starting lineup against the 73-win Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. Relying on rotation defense and rebounding, the Warriors suffered a lot, but they fell short because of their shooting shortcomings.

It can be said that both of them belong to the kind of players who are seriously biased and have obvious advantages and disadvantages. If they are in a suitable lineup, they can actually give full play to their advantages.

And including Adams, before he gained weight, he could barely keep up with his footsteps, and it would not become an obvious defensive loophole in the small ball era.

But compared with these two players, Li Sheng is of course more interested in the other two players.

If this draft is rearranged, these two should be the top two players.

One is the future two-game MVP, the core of the Bucks, and the "Greek Monster" Antetokounmpo Giannis Antetokounmpo.

In this draft, he was selected by the Bucks with the 15th pick in the first round. He started from the bench and eventually grew into the absolute core of the team's offense and defense step by step. This is obviously another inspirational story.

Compared with James and Durant, who were established as the core of the league as soon as they entered the league, Antetokounmpo's start was certainly not very good, and he was better than a late bloomer like Curry. After Kidd's training, he grew into a point forward and greatly increased his offensive power.

Later, he even improved year by year, and slowly developed a three-pointer. According to his age, as long as he is not affected by injuries, what he will develop in the future is unimaginable.

The other is Rudy Gobert, the defensive core of the Jazz. He was selected by the Nuggets with the 27th overall pick in the first round and then traded to the Jazz.

Compared with Antetokounmpo, Gobert's partiality is more serious. Even on the defensive end he is best at, he also has the disadvantage of being unable to defend against big centers.

If the rationality of the lineup is not considered, Li Sheng can completely help the Thunder to obtain these two players. After all, their draft picks are not high, Antetokounmpo can definitely grab them, and Gobert can seek to trade up the draft picks.

In this way, according to the ideal state, the Thunder will have a super offensive and defensive lineup of Westbrook, Durant, Antetokounmpo, Ibaka and Gobert in three years.

In this lineup, there are MVP, DPOY, one defense for one team, just like no money. The lineup is absolutely luxurious.

But I also said that this is an ideal state. It is impossible to count on these two rookies in the first two years. We still have to play around the two of Dewey, so the lineup should also be matched around them.

No matter how a rookie is selected, it is difficult to be an immediate force, let alone affect the overall situation immediately.

Therefore, the real change should still be placed on the deployment of the lineup and the change of tactical play.

"I think Durant needs to be stepped up."

Bennett and Presti looked at each other, wondering what Li Sheng said?
Li Sheng smiled slightly, and continued: "If I were to be the head coach, Russell should take good care of his injuries. Next season is a good time for Kevin to win the MVP."

Li Sheng has always felt that Durant failed to reach his personal peak.

During his nine years in the Thunder, he basically stayed in his comfort zone, which has something to do with his training as a rookie.

Anyway, the Thunder's strategy is that you play singles and just shoot, so the Thunder has always been a famous singles team, including Harden who went out, are all singles masters.

Later, Durant enjoyed a wave of tactical benefits in the Warriors, sacrificing in personal statistics, improving key shots and defensive capabilities, but the overall improvement was not obvious.

As a result, I didn't expect that after leaving the Warriors and arriving at the Nets, they began to return to the Thunder mode.

In fact, Li Sheng feels that there is nothing wrong with this model at the moment, because the personal abilities of the two young men are indeed very strong, and they can support each other at their peak.

The following season was Durant's MVP season, and he also began to transform into a big ball-holding core, but he didn't play the Spurs who played team basketball to the abnormal level this season.

This may not necessarily prove that their singles ceiling is not enough. After all, Westbrook hasn't played much this season. Although he has performed well in his comeback, it does not mean that the impact of injuries does not exist, and the team's running-in has not yet reached the extreme.

The ultimate lineup of this lineup should be the Thunder that played the Western Conference Finals with the Warriors in the tiebreaker. This will be a rare time in the next three years when both the minors will be relatively healthy. Even the Spurs with 67 victories fell in front of them, and the Warriors with 73 victories were also forced into desperation.

It's a pity that G6 Tang changed his fate against the sky, and finally swallowed the defeat due to physical difficulties.

Li Sheng thinks that if the Thunder can reach the finals, it will be very exciting to compete with Zhan Ou's duo.

As for the ending, it's hard to say. After all, excluding the controversial part, Jan Ou's personal performance is quite amazing, but at least the Thunder did not have the obvious injury like Curry. With the Cavaliers' defense, it is basically a confrontational battle.

In this regard, Shuang Shao is not afraid, but there are no ifs in this world-at least there were no ifs at first, but didn't they come by themselves now?

"Kevin... MVP?"

Both Bennett and Presti were surprised by Li Sheng's words. After all, Westbrook's injury was reimbursed for the season, and the current injury is not optimistic, and no one can be sure about the performance of the new season. They are conservative about the team's record next season.

It’s not like the future now, with all kinds of excuses such as high-level statistics, personal heroism, and extra points for leading the remnants of the team. The MVP is basically not the best player on the team with the best record this season, or the top three in the East and West, which has greatly improved compared to last season.

Of course, the player's personal data must not be too mediocre. For example, the No. 04 civilian Eagle in the East or the Pistons in [-] have no special shots, and they are not particularly outstanding in the team.

With the current poor record, even if they are confident that Durant can put up a good number next season, it is difficult to imagine the MVP.

Li Yong smiled and said, "I've calculated the Thunder's current lineup. Even if Russell is eliminated, with Kevin as the core and around him, we will still be very competitive next season."

This competitiveness actually stems from the mediocrity of the league as a whole. Take the two teams in this year's finals as an example. Although the Heat are the defending champions, they have obvious internal flaws. The other core of the team, Wade, is also declining year by year.

The GDP of the Spurs is old and strong, and Leonard has suddenly emerged, but it is not enough to carry the banner, so the team is at the time of handover.

In their previous life, they completed their revenge against the Heat in 14. Li Sheng felt that this was more due to their unwillingness in the finals.

But now that I have "helped" them win this championship, I no longer hold back this breath in my heart. With Duncan's temper, he will definitely start thinking about how to transition next season and train more new cores.

This can also be seen from Popovich's attitude. He has an attitude of cultivating successors, and the meaning has been obvious.

This championship directly changed some of the Spurs' plans. It can be expected that Leonard will receive more training in the new season, and his performance in this playoffs has proved that he has the value of this training. How far he can go depends on whether he can continue to improve in the new season.

For the remaining strong teams, with James in the Eastern Conference in the past few years, other teams have not had a bright future, so only a few strong teams in the Western Conference need to be considered in the future, such as Texas Xiaoqiang, Spurs, Trail Blazers, Clippers and Warriors.

Not to mention the Spurs, Texas Xiaoqiang will usher in Howard in the new season, but his chemical reaction with Harden is not good; the Trail Blazers and Clippers are not capable enough, and the potential is not enough, so there is nothing to be afraid of; the Warriors are the number one enemy, but it will take at least 15 years.

Oh, by the way, there is also a Grizzlies. In fact, it is not good to say that the Grizzlies are particularly strong, but this should be the most threatening team to the Thunder besides the Spurs. It is not so easy every time they meet.

However, there is still talk of restraint in the playoffs, and the problem in the regular season is still not big.

"The current Thunder lineup can build a ball-holding core system with Kevin as the core, which is similar to LeBron James' one-star shooting. But considering the player's shooting ability, I think it is more practical to focus on pick-and-rolls and air cuts.

"Players need to add more movement off the ball, interspersed, create scoring opportunities through screens..."

With the configuration of the Thunder, it is impossible to achieve one star and four shots, not to mention the shooter. Durant does not have the vision and passing of James, and he cannot achieve that "one star".

In the future, the Warriors will not be able to pass and cut, because there are not enough people to handle the ball, and the ball quotient is generally low-well, this is true.

So we can only use simple tactics, increase pick-and-rolls and air cuts, and let the players run more.

There is no need to doubt the Thunder's athletic ability, and the players are generally relatively young, so there is still some plasticity. As long as they can be made obedient, cooperate more, and develop a tacit understanding, the effect will definitely be there.

After all, you are not required to do complex coordination like other warriors. You can’t even understand simple pick-and-rolls. What kind of NBA are you playing?
Next, Li Sheng picked up some of his ideas and said them out. These are actually nothing to keep secret, and they are not secret tactics. Everyone knows that. Li Sheng just wants to let them know that he does have a systematic idea and a direction for adjustment.

Only in this way can he increase his convincing power, otherwise even Bennett would have doubts.

After listening to what Li Yong said clearly and logically, especially Li Yong also focused on analyzing the future development direction of the league, as well as the future performance and development trend of each team, and of course including the probability of the Thunder winning the championship, Bennett and Presti exchanged glances.

I have to admit that although the guy hasn't coached a game yet, they are all a little convinced that he will be right.

Not only because Li Sheng's words are very organized, as if retelling the reality that he has witnessed with his own eyes, but also because he is very determined and confident, and this temperament can easily infect the listener.

In the end, Bennett had to sigh: "Li, I suddenly feel that we can really make a big scene."

"Then wish us success?"

"Wish us success!"

"Ha ha ha ha……"

The three raised their glasses at the same time, and then laughed together.

(End of this chapter)