start with scouting

Chapter 92 McMillan Is Myself

After finishing the draft, Su Yang deliberately stayed in New York for an extra day to recruit players for the Summer League.

Perhaps because the recruitment information was announced in advance, when he checked the mailbox, he found that as many as 58 people had applied.

Some of them are undrafted players like Anthony Morrow, and some are players like Sean Livingston who need to prove themselves again. They all firmly believe that if they can play under the guidance of Su Yang, they will get the best opportunity to show their talents.

Su Yang didn't think much about it. After recruiting Morrow and Livingston, he forwarded their resumes to Presti, emphasizing that they could sign them with a basic salary depending on the situation, but Presti was so busy that he only replied Said that he would find time to understand.

On the 29th, Su Yang flew directly to Orlando from New York according to the team's arrangement.

Durant and Green rushed to Orlando at the same time. Westbrook didn't even hold a media conference in Seattle, and rushed to Orlando by special plane.For such behavior, the team's explanation to the outside world is to participate in the Orlando Summer League.

Explanations can be explained. Fans and the media all know that the critical moment for the Supersonics to relocate positively.

Su Yang didn't worry about the relocation at all, he just took the first-generation Thunder Three Young Masters to practice tactical moves.

The whole process was quite boring. Those exquisite tactics, because there was no corresponding intensity of defense, were like shaking their fists at the air, and Westbrook hinted many times that they could solve the problem without such trouble.

Durant didn't quite understand either, and he took the initiative to mention the few tactics in the Rookie Challenge, saying that they were enough.

Su Yang explained patiently at first, saying that the team does not have a big man organization like Horford for the time being, and is trying its best to cultivate Green into that role, so it will be more troublesome now, and then he gradually became a little irritable, and let Snyder make a bad face when he changed hands.

But he sat down, looked at the bewildered expressions of Westbrook and the others, and felt amused in his heart.

"I didn't expect that one day, I would turn into the inexplicable appearance of McMillan. I also wanted to suppress the players' nature. The reason is still to be good for them. It doesn't matter if they don't understand. Just practice first... "

After calmly thinking, Su Yang cheered up again, and patiently explained to Westbrook and others why they had to look far away, because the team's goal was very ambitious. Don't give up just because of some minor interests in front of you, and innovate the training method by the way.

He worked closely with the video department, worked overtime and stayed up all night, selected some cases in NBA history that turned the situation around or won directly because of excellent tactics, and played it to the players before each training session, and then imitated the practice.

With the actual application of tactics and the passionate background narration by assistant coach Brooks, Durant, Westbrook and others have a deeper understanding of the importance of tactics, but they still think that a pick-and-roll can solve many problems.

Su Yang didn't object. He only said that a game needs to be played for 48 minutes, and a season needs 82 games. If you want to win the championship, you have to win 16 games in the playoffs. If you want to win two or three consecutive championships, use tactics to score will become increasingly important.

Snyder and other assistant coaches discussed with Su Yang in private, and felt that it was too much for the players to do it for a long time.

Su Yang admitted that he was right, but he emphasized that young players should first plant the seeds of tactical importance in their hearts, and try to do it step by step. Now it is just in the rebuilding period, there is time and environment, and later adjustments will only be more laborious.

Anyway, it is determined not to allow Durant, a group of talented young people, to be greatly restricted in scoring ability due to lack of offensive tactics on the stage of the finals, let alone allow that situation to last for nearly ten years.

After eight days of practice, after the initial training, Su Yang and others were exhausted, and they just wanted to go to bed early every night.

Fortunately, the training effect has improved visibly with the naked eye. Durant and the others can already run many tactics smoothly, especially the European-style pick-and-roll offense that is mainly practiced. There is rarely any chaotic movement without the ball.

On the [-]th, the Orlando Summer League started, and the three of Durant played against the New Jersey Nets.

The game was held at the Magic training base RDV arena. The announcer called the three Durants the Sonics players, but the three Durants were wearing black jerseys with white stripes. The team name was NBA and the team address was Oklahoma.

Because the negotiations between the Clayton Consortium and the Seattle city government broke down, Supersonics owner Clayton has decided to relocate the team to his hometown of Oklahoma, but has not announced the new team name or confirmed the new jersey.

Several announcers at the scene joked that Supersonic would change its name to Thundercat, but it might encounter copyright disputes.

When the game was going on, Su Yang stood on the sidelines and watched, and the team was handed over to Snyder to command, so he didn't worry too much.

According to the original idea, every time Westbrook dribbled the ball forward, Snyder didn't say what tactics to play, but Westbrook's reading of defense was still relatively poor, and he didn't organize well several times. Stamped, but said nothing.

It was not until the timeout or the intermission that Snyder caught Westbrook and others and explained how to play.

And Su Yang stood next to him, occasionally giving Westbrook and the others a mean look of "you know how powerful you are".

However, Snyder got angry again, and after the game started, let Westbrook and others handle it by themselves.

Just like that, after the game was over, they lost to the Nets by as many as 20 points and made one more turnover.

Su Yang pulled the whole team to watch the replay of the video. Westbrook slapped his forehead many times, saying that he should play better.

In the following three days, the team lost to the Pacers, Magic, and Heat. They did not reflect the strength of Durant's trio at all, but each time they lost fewer and fewer points. Kill was fouled.

The game is not open to the public, and even the media rarely get interview opportunities, which is an internal training.

However, there are still some media who secretly posted the news of Durant's three-person losing 4 games in a row to Twitter and other social media, which soon caused many fans to laugh, thinking that choosing Westbrook was a wrong decision, and that Su Yang's true level was completely exposed.

On the last day of the Orlando League, the organizer announced that it would be open to the public, and many media were present to film.

The Durant trio also ushered in the final battle, and finally beat the Bulls by 27 points, slamming the whole way.

According to media news reports, many fans were surprised that the Durant trio could run such smooth tactics, but they also believed that the main reason for the victory was the absence of the Bulls' absolute main force Rose, who was bullying the rookies.

After the Orlando Summer League was over, Presti issued a notice and the team entered the offseason.

As for the reassembly time, we have to see the preparation progress of Oklahoma, which cannot be determined for the time being.

Su Yang originally wanted to apply to take the team to Las Vegas to participate in the Summer League there, but the team's management personnel changed drastically, and it was too late to prepare. The NBA officials also chose to refuse because the team name and jerseys had not yet been determined.

The trip to Las Vegas was in vain. Durant and Green were ready to return to campus to continue their studies, Westbrook returned to Los Angeles, and Morrow and Livingston also chose to leave because they wanted to seek more opportunities. The team scattered and go.

Inspired by Durant's return to school, Su Yang asked Presti to apply for a sum of funds, and then found domestic programmers to outsource. In a few days, he created a website for the team's internal use, which was used for uploading, downloading and statistics.

He uploaded all the previously edited videos, regardless of tactics or techniques, to the website.

He also set goals for several main players, requiring Xia Tian to watch those videos, but he didn't tell them that the backstage would count the number of times and the duration. If the player didn't watch it, or just perfunctory, he would increase the amount of training after the training camp started.

He also asked several key players to upload practice videos and communicate more with Phil Handy and other trainers.

Sometimes, he felt like he was going to be a Pat Riley kind of training freak, trying to squeeze out the potential of players.

But he didn't set the standard too high, mainly to let the main players keep training and not to play fat.

When everything was settled, he flew back to China in late July to start his visit and vacation trip.

(End of this chapter)