super small forward

Chapter 276 276. Bickerstaff with Headache
"If you have Liu's athletic ability, I don't mind you being a free agent." Bickerstaff gave Nick Young a look.

Seeing Bickerstaff's angry eyes, Nick Young was terrified. Don't look at Bickerstaff being so kind to Liu Ren. In fact, he is very authoritative in the coaching world. After all, he was the head coach again , who also served as the general manager.

Now the Lakers only satisfy Bickerstaff with Whiteside, Green, Gasol, Liu Ren, and Antetokounmpo. Gasol was the core of defense when he was under Zen Master, although his athletic ability declined He has improved a lot, but his awareness of assisting defense in the interior and the deterrent effect of his body are still very strong.

Liu Ren, Green, Whiteside, and Antetokounmpo all have strong defensive talents and enthusiasm, and defense still depends on talent.

These four seem to Bickerstaff to be the kind of players who are naturally good at defense. Liu Ren and Antetokounmpo have super athletic ability and good defensive awareness. And rely on physical talent to return to the front of his defensive players at any time.

Green's defense is completely at the level of the best defensive player in Bickerstaff's view!He really couldn't understand why the team had such an all-round defensive player who could defend both centers and shooting guards. Why the team's defense ranked No. 14 in the league last season was unbelievable.

The biggest feature of Whiteside is the dominance of blocks and rebounds. This summer, Whiteside was not idle. He went to the former Bulls and Lakers star power forward Horace Grant to ask for advice to make his defensive ability better. To put it simply, it is to further strengthen one's choice of blocking timing.

With a huge body, coupled with good mobility and the expression that it seems that everything is not doing its best, Bickerstaff is not worried at all about the inside defense of the second team led by Whiteside. With such a big man, it is enough to be accompanied by a group of players who are active in defense and do not play blindly!

Although Thackeray's athletic ability made Bickerstaff very dissatisfied, fortunately, he has a good defensive attitude and is very obedient. Let him squat inside. He will never want to express himself too much like Nick Young and LaVine. One point makes Bickerstaff feel satisfied. The most important thing for a substitute is to be obedient!
With such five insiders, Bickerstaff feels that the inside talent of this team is simply overflowing too much!
However, Bickerstaff's outside line seems to be mixed. Liu Ren's defensive habits are a bit poor, and he always lets go of his defensive players to help defend. But now the league's small forwards except for a few like James and Anthony , Durant as the first scorer, most of the other players are 3D players, some of their points are not very important, no team wants to rely on 3D players to score and win.

The role of the 3D player on the offensive end is to open up the space and allow the team to play tactics. If the 3D player scores more points, it actually means that the tactics of other teammates are not playing well!

The most important thing is that Bickerstaff can see from the situation of Liu Ren playing against top small forwards last season, his single defense ability has become better and better as the season progresses, but it is because the team has no defensive system. It's getting worse.

The defense system is very important, and what's more important is talent, otherwise the league would have had a lot of defense masters, and there are too many players who rely on defense to gain a foothold. Except for D'Antoni's clear-headed coaches, other Coaches like players who are active on defense.

The first week passed quickly, and the Lakers players were divided into three groups to practice defensive running for the entire state, except for Green, Whiteside, Liu Ren, Antetokounmpo, Gasol, and Kobe, who has a lot of defensive experience. It feels good, like a fish in water. Surprisingly, everyone else is exhausted!

Every day is repeated, repeated, repeated, and repeated movements, which can only be described as boring.

This is also the reason why teams like the Spurs and the Pistons at the beginning of the century are not favored by stars, because the daily training is boring repetitive training and defense.

Bickerstaff built a defensive system for the Lakers based on the Nuggets' defensive system in the 90s. The two teams have a common feature, that is, excellent overall athleticism!

The Nuggets seem to have always built their team according to the track and field team, which is always composed of a group of players with outstanding physical talents. Bickerstaff was the head coach and general manager of the Nuggets back then, so he understands how to provide for such a team. The team builds a defensive system.

After Bickerstaff built a defensive system for the Nuggets, he retired as the general manager. The head coach he recruited was George Karl. George Karl is also a team that loves offense, but he just needs to have defense.

In order to cooperate with D'Antoni's offensive physical strength, Bickerstaff's defensive goal for the Lakers is to quickly rotate positions, and then get opportunities to counter fast breaks.

Generally speaking, the lineup of the Lakers is similar to that of the Nuggets back then. At that time, the Nuggets had a top shot-blocker like Mutombo, a defensive leader with excellent physical condition like Bryant Stich, and others. The players are very athletic, have a complete defensive system, and George Karl's fast offensive style of play, so they created the NBA's first black eight miracle.

……

After the first week of training, after Bickerstaff collected some of the players' problems, he handed over the team to D'Antoni to study how to improve.

Obviously the Lakers are the Lakers, and the Nuggets were the Nuggets back then. There are still big differences between the two teams.

"Finally we can practice offense!" Nick Young exclaimed excitedly.

"I think defense is also very fun. It's not bad to prevent the opponent from making shots in a row." Liu Ren laughed.

"Boss! That's you! I'd find it fun if I helped defend everywhere like you, but my job is to defend pitchers, do you know how boring that is? Either run along, or just stand there, it's so boring It's gone." Nick Young said angrily.

Defensive coaches are most afraid of people like Nick Young. A very important part of the defensive system is the positioning defensive player. They, they are the key to intercepting the opponent's pitchers and weak-side air cutters, just like the players who are good at defending. important!
Usually such defensive players are talented, hard-working players, and Nick Young is obviously not this type.

"No way, is it boring? I think CJ is having a good time doing it." Liu Ren said and glanced at McCollum who was overjoyed by Bickerstaff's praise.

Nick Young ran over and hooked McCollum's neck and said viciously: "Hey! CJ, why do you practice such boring things with so much energy?"

(End of this chapter)