The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 345 Start a small stove
Starting with Gan Guoyang's entry into the league in the 1984-1985 season, the importance of the three-pointer has been gradually becoming more prominent.

In the 1985-1986 season, the NBA averaged 3.3 three-point attempts per game. Although the number of attempts was still not high, it was clear from some important games that the three-pointer was playing an increasingly important role.

For example, in the Finals, Larry Bird relied heavily on three-pointers during the comeback phase. He often unleashed unexpected three-pointers, putting a lot of pressure on the Trail Blazers.

The team with the most three-point attempts in the 86 season was the Los Angeles Lakers, averaging 5.4 attempts per game, followed by the Mavericks, Bullets, and Portland Trail Blazers, all with more than 5 attempts per game.

Besides Gene Shu, coaches from various teams are developing some simple three-point shooting tactics as a weapon to catch up in crucial moments.

Unlike the first few seasons when the three-point line first appeared, when three-pointers were only a last resort for players and whether they made it or not depended entirely on luck.

Some young, ambitious coaches have already sensed the importance of the three-pointer in offense. The three-pointer is not just one point more than two points, nor is it just a fancy skill to please the audience. It also means more offensive space, higher scoring efficiency, and more tactical options.

In addition, three-pointers have repeatedly played a crucial role in the playoffs and finals, and can even determine the final outcome.

So starting this summer, players and coaches alike have begun to pay attention to this new offensive method.

It was foreseeable that the three-point shot would experience a mini-boom in the 80s during the 1986-1987 season.

Gan Guoyang certainly knows the importance of three-pointers. He has never missed three-point training and is the best three-point shooter among inside players in the league.

However, he currently finds it difficult to use the three-pointer as a regular weapon; it can only be used occasionally as a deterrent and to play a crucial role in key moments of crucial games.

Unlike Vandeweghe, he was one of the first scorers in the NBA to actively attempt three-point shots. He had excellent shooting talent and was tall with long wingspan, making him difficult to defend.

During training, both he and Jim Paxson had good three-point accuracy. In the 1982-1983 season, Vandeweghe was one of the players in the league who attempted more than 50 three-pointers.

After joining the Trail Blazers, he has taken on a lot of ball-handling and isolation plays on the perimeter, and since Coach Jack doesn't like three-pointers, Vandeweghe has actually taken fewer three-point shots.

Last season, Dr. Jack started designing some three-point plays, but they were mainly for crucial moments. During regular time, only Gan Guoyang dared to throw up three-pointers without fear of being scolded.

Gan Guoyang asked Vandeweghe to practice three-pointers hard in the summer. Vandeweghe had a slight doubt in his heart, wondering what if Dr. Jack disagreed.
But then I thought, I can just say that Forrest Gump made me vote, and Dr. Jack disagrees, what can he do?

With Gan Guoyang's guidance in this regard, Vandeweghe decided to adjust his summer training focus, working hard on defensive footwork and three-point shooting.

Gan Guoyang continued to hone his low-post skills at Pete Newell's Big-man training camp, but he soon discovered that there wasn't much that was truly valuable to him at the camp.

The most useful skills are footwork and low-post tactical observation, which are the key points that Gan Guoyang focuses on learning.

Currently, Gan Guoyang's low-position attacks are still quite formulaic and rely heavily on strength and explosiveness. Although his speed is extremely fast and difficult for opponents to defend against, speed is not necessarily the best.

Pete Newell points out: "While speed makes you difficult for your opponents to defend, it also leaves your teammates with no time to move, no time to read the defense, and no time to break down the opponent's offense. Slowing down to observe requires higher skills and better intelligence."

This is what Gan Guoyang most wants to improve: how to initiate team attacks in the low post, and how to use footwork to complete efficient attacks under the basket when the team's attack fails.

So after Gan Guoyang trained for three days at training camp, Pete Newell decided to give him extra coaching, as having him do basic training with the others would be a waste of time. The cost of this extra coaching was that Gan Guoyang had to assist Washington and Newell with some training exercises—such as using a large mat to guard players in the low post.

Goodness, Gan Guoyang has found a fun job. He carries a big mat and is like a bulldozer, pushing anyone he sees. No one can budge him.

Olajuwon was pushed face-first into the dirt by him. Just as Olajuwon was trying his best to hold on, he pulled out a chair, causing Olajuwon to fall on his butt. It was a great revenge.

Pete Newell had to remind Gan Guoyang that this was a big men's basketball skills training camp, not a push-and-pull game club. He should be normal and give everyone some room to survive.

When the training camp ended in the afternoon and everyone else left, Pete Newell would keep Gan Guoyang behind to give him a tactical lesson.

Newell is a very experienced and highly qualified coach who has a clear grasp of the development of basketball tactics.

He told Gan Guoyang, "Jack is a very good coach with a wealth of knowledge, but as head coach, his job is demanding. He has to consider issues from a holistic perspective, and he might overlook some details. Moreover, he has never truly coached a top-tier center who operates from the low post; he prefers to have the center move to the high post. That style of play is indeed more flexible, and it creates more space on the court. But as you know, the three-pointer is on the rise. You were at last season's coaching seminar, and everyone was discussing the three-pointer and the strong-side ball movement."

"In the past, coaches needed to put centers in the high post to create space for others. But with the advent of the three-pointer, we discovered that having perimeter players shoot threes was also a good way to create more space. This was a trend, just like in the 60s when we discovered that having big men on the perimeter and smaller men in the paint could create more space. That's when we started creating and utilizing high-post center tactics. In the 70s, the pick-and-roll rules changed, and Bob Knight started using pick-and-rolls extensively, creating the movement offense. In the 80s, the three-pointer, along with low-post monsters like you, Olajuwon, and Ewing, would also change the tactical landscape of the league."

"Your ability to learn basic offense is impeccable. Honestly, I've never met anyone who learns moves so quickly. Basically, after you finish your lessons with me, you'll have mastered all the low-post offensive moves. I also admire your game; your passion and energy are unparalleled, burning the entire league like a flame and reducing the Celtics to ashes. But if you want to integrate better with your teammates on offense, you need to be calmer, slower, more observant, and understand how a half-court offense unfolds..."

In the small classroom, Peter Newell began to explain in detail the various tactical details, key points, and inherent logic of positional attacks from the beginning, using a whiteboard.

Although Gan Guoyang knew all of these things, having trained with Coach Bellman since high school and listened to Jack Ramsey's tireless explanations during his time with the Trail Blazers, Pete Newell was the first to break it down completely, explaining everything from the beginning to the end, from the invention of basketball in 1896, to how various tactics took shape in the 20s, how it developed in the 40s and 50s, and how it changed in the 70s and 80s.

This was only the first lesson. In the second and third lessons, Pete Newell singled out some tactics and analyzed various situations in detail, like a math teacher explaining geometry.

Gan Guoyang was originally a very quick learner. After Newell's detailed guidance, he immediately felt: I can be a coach too!

In fact, Gan Guoyang had this feeling long ago. The main thing about being a coach is management, and tactics only account for 30% of the role.

If you don't know how, you can ask a teaching assistant. Now you don't even need to ask for teaching assistants. If I study hard, it's not that difficult.

After a week of training, the Big Man training camp came to a successful conclusion. Gan Guoyang did not stay in Los Angeles for long, but instead went to Washington with Drexler and Vandeweghe, where President Reagan wanted to meet them.

After the training camp ended, Newell called his old friend Stu Inman: "Sonny learns very quickly, he's very quick to grasp things, but a week isn't enough. He needs to digest and practice more. He's a big star now, very busy, I'm afraid he won't have that much time."

"I'm not worried about that. He's a basketball fanatic."

Why don't you come to Los Angeles to meet him?

"Oh no, there's no need, there's no need..."

(End of this chapter)