start with scouting

Chapter 93 Believe in the process
Before leaving the United States, Su Yang specially wrote an automatic small program. Every day from [-]:[-] a.m. to [-]:[-] p.m., he randomly picks a time node and sends a message to remind Durant and others to keep training, so as to achieve the effect of being present at all times.

As for what Durant and others replied, he didn't read it, and would only call regularly to inquire about the progress.

After returning to China, he traveled around, visited major CBA clubs by the way, and communicated with local coaches.

During that time, he ran into Miss Jiang in Shanghai.

The two talked about the future development trend of the Internet. Ms. Jiang felt that it was time for the mainland to catch up with the British and American Internet, because 3G technology was about to be rolled out in an all-round way, and a large number of new applications could be quickly spawned by taking advantage of the huge market scale.

After flipping through the conversation, Su Yang couldn't help but look at him with admiration, and registered a software development company in China along the way.

In late September, he flew back to the United States after his tourist visit to fully prepare for the upcoming new season.

The team successfully completed the lawsuit, "Thunder" was confirmed as the new team name, and the Ford Center became the team's home court. The new training base was also open for use, with all kinds of equipment available, and a video analysis center was specially built according to his requirements.

Su Yang logged into the background of the website and checked the training check-in status of Durant and several people, and found that the completion rate was quite high.

Westbrook's shooting method has changed drastically. Suddenly, he looks a bit like Jordan's when he jumps up and down. Sometimes he can take a step back and take off, and he can forcibly get rid of the two-meter-high center to stick to the defense, relying on the strength of his waist and abdomen. shot.

Westbrook's biggest improvement is the unification of training shooting and actual combat shooting. It is no longer like before. Training is a normal force mode, and actual combat has become a zombie jump shooting mode. The usual training results will no longer be wasted in vain.

Although Westbrook's shooting percentage is only about 41%, it saves a lot of effort than before.

Durant has grown stronger and faster with the naked eye. Following Phil Handy, he practiced a low-sweeping attack, combined with a little tentative step technique, a bit like Carmelo Anthony. mean.

However, Durant's wingspan, height and pace are more dominant, and in many cases there is no need to fight against the layup in parallel.

Jeff Green's three-point practice is very good, the offense with the ball and the training without the ball are not neglected, he also writes and uploads tactical understanding notes by hand every day, and even offered to go around the front to defend more. most earnestly.

Half of the time Jordan was watching the video, various cover positions, various split runs, and the other half was practicing the content of the video. In the uploaded video, he expressed excitedly that he wanted to be a Howard who likes to play pick-and-rolls.

In general, several young players such as Durant did not abandon training in the summer and made progress.

Compared to the few youngsters, the few veterans in the Thunder team are really unlucky.

First, center Robert Swift suffered a broken right finger, then power forward Wilcox contracted an unknown virus, main point guard Earl Watson suffered a recurrence of his thumb injury, and center Petro suffered a tendon strain...

Faced with such a predicament, Su Yang felt that it was an opportunity to easily complete the transition from old to new.

On the 28th, the Thunder held a media meeting for the new season.

Perhaps because of the new city and the new arena, there were as many as 54 participating media. When Su Yang was asked about his goals for the new season, he emphasized again that Durant would become an All-Star and Westbrook the best rookie. Too worried.

After the news was released, some fans felt that he was making excuses for his poor record in advance and was afraid of exposing his strength.

When ESPN interviewed him on the phone, citing fans' speculation and inquiries, he bluntly said that it will be proved later.

But he also said that even if it proves later, there will still be fans who feel that he is sitting on his hands. For example, Phil Jackson has won 9 championships, and he will still be ridiculed by fans for not being able to win without O'Neal and Jordan. The fans just want to ridicule.

After finishing the interview, Su Yang put all his thoughts on the training camp, focusing on mixing and matching.

There are no complicated offensive tactics, just practice a set of European-style pick-and-roll offenses repeatedly, let the team play around Durant, Westbrook, and Green, and always ensure that one of the Thunder's three young players will be on the court in rotation, and try to train the three.

As the training camp unfolded, the Thunder also began to sell tickets for the new season. Perhaps because Oklahoma is a small city, there were no sports teams from one of the four major leagues in North America before. 13000 sets of season tickets were sold in three days.

The Ford Center can accommodate 19100 spectators. The Thunder initially reserved 4000 seats for the sale of package tickets, team tickets and individual tickets, and 1000 seats for visiting team players, media personnel and league staff.

With that result, the sales task was completed ahead of schedule, which surprised the ticket office and the board of directors.

The sales department immediately launched an after-sales follow-up survey. The results showed that nearly 45% of the fans were optimistic about Su Yang's coaching ability, and believed that Su Yang would make the Thunder from the bottom team to a strong team in the playoffs, just like he did when he led the Blazers.

Presti forwarded the results of the investigation to Su Yang, saying with a smile that it is best to meet the expectations of the fans, otherwise the consequences will be serious.

But Su Yang didn't take it seriously at all, at most he would yell at him to dismiss get out of class, could he still beat him up?
With that in mind, Su Yang led the team to start the preseason journey, and the opponent in the first game was the king.

Due to many veterans being injured and unable to play, and the need to replace the old and the new, he formed a lineup of four new and one old, center Jordan Jr., power forward Jeff Green, small forward Durant, shooting guard Damien Wilkins, point guard Willie Sbrook.

After the game started, he still didn't take the initiative to direct, and insisted on letting the players read and communicate by themselves.

He didn't point out which strategies needed to be adjusted until the game was suspended or during the intermission. He only hated that the video recording technology and tablet applications were not developed enough to play back on the spot with a tablet, and specifically pointed out to the players which areas needed improvement.

After the whole game, the Thunder lost with a 4-point disadvantage, mainly because they failed to defend Kevin Martin's 17 free throws.

NO.12, the Thunder faced the Warriors back-to-back at home and lost 13 points.

The defense of the two teams is very poor. The Thunder's three minors and Jordan scored in double figures. The Warriors have never scored in double figures.

NO.14, the Thunder rushed to Houston to challenge the Rockets, who had just formed the Big Three, in an away game.

Green was shown off by Scola on the offensive end, Westbrook was repeatedly frustrated on the offensive end, Jordan was beaten up by Yao Ming, and of the four young people, only Durant performed normally, but Artest was also defensive. It's hard.

In the end, the Thunder lost to the Rockets 77 to 89, and both offensive and defensive ends were crushed in all directions.

On the plane to Los Angeles, Su Yang led the coaching staff to review the game for the players, pointing out that the main reason for the loss was too many fouls, and the reason for too many fouls was mainly due to the inability to defend inside and poor outside habits. Also strike iron.

At the end of the analysis, Su Yang once again reminded that he needs to practice shooting, otherwise it will be too easy to be choked by the opponent.

With a three-game losing streak, the Thunder started a battle with the Clippers, and they lost 20 points, mainly because of the veteran Wilkins. Si played around.

Immediately following the second day, the Thunder finally defeated the Lakers by a very large margin and won a victory with difficulty.

But the Lakers are almost all players without contracts. Not to mention the fans and media ridicule, even Durant and others think they are just beating rookies, but if the Lakers send a few players who can play, the situation may be reversed.

Back in Oklahoma, the Thunder got five days off, and Su Yang replayed a preseason game every day.

A large number of problems have emerged, mainly due to the lack of tacit cooperation and the lack of integrity in defense.

On the 25th, the Thunder went to Arizona to challenge the Suns away and lost 26 points.

Nash taught the young Westbrook a lesson, proving that he can play well without relying so much on his body.

Just like that, the Thunder ended the preseason with a record of 1 win and 5 losses, which made some fans who bought season tickets quite dissatisfied.

In an interview, Su Yang was asked how he viewed the dissatisfaction of fans, and he replied that he should trust the process.
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Thanks to the backpack and MEL for the reward.

(End of this chapter)