The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 484 The Meat Grinder (Real)
(The previous chapter was posted incorrectly and has been corrected. If you don't see it, just refresh the page.)
Dick Motta didn't really like Gan Guoyang from his rookie season onwards.

In the game where Gan Guoyang shattered the backboard, Motta compared Gan Guoyang to a lion or tiger in a circus, suggesting he was a plaything for fans' amusement rather than someone who actually played basketball.

As time passed, Motta finally understood that Forrest Gump was indeed a tiger, but he wasn't a plaything for amusement; he was a beast that came to dominate the league and teach the old-fashioned coaches how to play basketball.

Motta witnessed firsthand Jack Ramsey's transformation and compromise.

How the Portland Trail Blazers transformed from a light, fast combination of cavalry and infantry into the heavy, mounted shooting team they are today.

Before the match began, when Jack Ramsey tried to come over and greet his old friend, Motta refused, waving his hand to indicate that he didn't want to shake hands with him.

Wes Unseld came over to shake hands with Ramsey and apologized, saying, "Dick thinks he's an assistant coach and shouldn't shake hands with the head coach. Sorry Jack, good luck tonight."

Ramsey thought to himself, "What's wrong with this old geezer now? He's an assistant coach, so what? He won't even shake my hand anymore."
Motta did this because he forbade his players from having contact with Agam, so he naturally had to set an example by not shaking hands with his old friend Ramsey.

It's clear that Motta has made a huge commitment to building a completely new Bullet Team.

Last year, the Mavericks' unexpected first-round playoff loss to the SuperSonics broke Motta's heart.

In fact, the Mavericks did not intend to replace Motta. They still recognized Motta's coaching ability, and the Mavericks' core roster is very young, so they can definitely achieve even greater success in the new season.

But Motta had spent too much of his life in Dallas, and after the season ended, he told reporters that he might leave Dallas and wanted to try a new coaching experience in Phoenix, New York, or somewhere else.

These words were leaked to Dallas media by reporters, and Dallas fans believed that Motta had betrayed the team. Talk show hosts and news columnists criticized him harshly.

Team owner Carter wants Motta to hold a press conference to clarify that he will not leave the Mavericks.

But Motta told Carter in his office that he wouldn't clarify anything. Instead, he immediately held a press conference and announced that he would retire from his position as head coach of the Mavericks.

This stubborn old man was never threatened and didn't like to play by the rules. He never revealed what he was planning at the time of his death.

After leaving the Mavericks, he didn't go to the Suns or the Knicks, but instead returned to Washington for a second stint—he was very interested in assisting Unseld and mentoring Charles Barkley.

His biggest goal is to lead the team back to the NBA Finals and then defeat the Trail Blazers and Forrest Gump, or the Lakers.

When an individual or a team has tangible goals, they are more motivated to do things.

And this goal must be specific, not vague.

It's like a writer saying, "I want to succeed," but the goal of success is too vague.

If he changes it to "I'll try to earn 500 yuan today," then if he works hard and writes several thousand or tens of thousands of words, he can earn that amount of royalties.

To go even further, if he wants to earn more, he needs to write more and write better, which will bring him closer to success.

Motta set Barkley and Bullets' goals as Forrest Gump and the Trail Blazers.

He did not identify Jordan, the Bulls, or Bird, the Celtics, or the Pistons as targets.

For a bullet to generate sufficient momentum, the target must be high enough and conspicuous enough.

Moses Malone stood in the center circle, ready for the jump ball. He looked at Gan Guoyang on the other side, a strong fighting spirit surging within him.

He hadn't been like this in a long time; since winning the championship in 1983, Moses had never been able to recapture his peak form.

Although his stats are still quite good and his performance on the court is acceptable, he will never have an MVP-level season again.

He is only 32 years old this year and is still one of the most popular centers in the league.

But against a new type of center like Forrest Gump, he's like an old tractor facing a Peterbilt 379 with a 12-cylinder diesel engine—this guy, like 007's car, will extend two missiles from the side to deliver a fatal blow.

Gan Guoyang's two long-range shots at the All-Star Game changed the outcome of the game, bringing shame to the East team and making Moses Malone realize that the gap between himself and the new number one center was widening.

As a tractor, he doesn't have many functions; he only knows how to cultivate the narrow space of the three-second zone, tirelessly fighting for rebounds and drawing fouls.

He was encouraged by the words of Dick Motta and Unseld before the match: "You have your way of playing, as long as the final result is victory."

Malone lost the jump ball to Gan Guoyang, and the Trail Blazers launched the first attack.

However, both teams scored their first goals quite late, failing to score in the first two minutes.

From the start, Bullet used extremely tough defense, with Ma Long constantly fronting Gan Guoyang in the paint to prevent him from receiving the ball.

Because of Dick Motta's presence, they used their most effective interior defense strategy against Gan Guoyang: the center half-guarded him, and the help defender harassed him with all his might, preferring to leave the outside open rather than let Gan Guoyang get an easy shot off.

Gan Guoyang passed the ball to the outside shooters three times at the start of the game, but none of them made a shot.

All three shots were three-pointers.

This is a drawback of three-pointers. While they are indeed efficient over a long period, their success rate can be particularly poor in a specific timeframe or game, depending on shooting touch and defense.

Inconsistency is the Achilles' heel of three-point shooting.

The Bullets controlled the defensive rebounds firmly and then slowed the game down considerably. The Washington Bullets, one of the league's lowest-scoring and fewest-possession teams this season, are very confident in their half-court offense.

The Blazers had the same number of bullets, but the Blazers relied on a positional warfare system centered around Gan Guoyang, combining internal and external tactics.

The bullet's strength lies in offensive rebounds in the paint and one-on-one plays on the perimeter.

The Bullets' offensive strategy can be described as very simple and brutal: shoot from the outside and steal from the inside.

They have the league's best offensive rebounds and the league's worst assists.

This is a new system designed for the Bullets by Dick Motta and Unseld, and it is completely tailored to the characteristics of the Bullets' personnel.

The team has two rebounding monsters in the paint, two scoring experts on the wing and guard positions who can score but can't pass, and no player on the team has more than 5 assists.

The player with the most assists is substitute guard Muggsy Bogues, who averages 4.9 assists per game.

With this kind of personnel, it's really asking too much of them to launch quick counterattacks or coordinate tactical plays.

Let's just grind it out, fight on defense, fight for rebounds, fight for every detail of the game and our willpower.

Dick Motta devised the strategies, and the bear-like Unseld executed them. The entire team reshaped their winning culture with military-style management and iron discipline.

The most noticeable change at the Bullets after Dick Motta arrived was that Charles Barkley lost weight.

This guy has shed his baby fat from his rookie days, and with some extra fat, he looks even more muscular and fierce.

His first point of the game came from an offensive rebound.

Gan Guoyang was focused on dealing with Moses and couldn't attend to Barkley, who then scored on a putback.

Strictly speaking, the Bullets' two inside players are not a twin towers.

Barkley is short; he could even play at small forward.

Moses is not a center either. At 6'10", he looks slightly shorter than Gan Guoyang, and he can defend very far out.

This makes it difficult for Gan Guoyang to run two in a row.

The Bullet once had a tradition of having two inside players, namely Unseld and Hayes.

Unseld is also a short center; he's essentially a super role player.

Unlike the Rockets' twin towers, the Rockets' twin towers are completely focused on offense and defense around the inside, with resources entirely concentrated on the twin towers.

If Gan Guoyang focuses on one project relentlessly while also taking care of another, the rocket's resource allocation will become unbalanced.

The Bullet's two inside players consist of a small forward who can play on the perimeter and an offensive rebounding king who is also a master at drawing fouls.

Most of the bullets' offense was initiated from the outside. King and Jeff Malone, two one-on-one specialists, took the shot freely. If they made the shot, great; if they missed, they would steal the ball inside. If all else failed, they would let Moses and Barkley take the one-on-one.

With this resource allocation, Gan Guoyang can't single-handedly control the twin towers like he would with a rocket; it's too scattered.

Especially when you add offensive rebounds, which are a highly unpredictable offensive weapon.

One Moshigan Guoyang can be dealt with, and one Bakrigan Guoyang can also be handled.

But with the two of them combined, and still charging forward with all their might, holding them off wouldn't be an easy task.

Both sides engaged in a fierce battle in the paint during the first quarter.

The Bullets' bench also features Ball, Mahone, and Allari, giving them a very rich depth in the paint. This lineup is clearly aimed at Atkinson, as well as Detroit and Boston.

The score was incredibly close, with the Trail Blazers scoring 15 points and the Bullets 14 in the first quarter.

Gan Guoyang grabbed 6 defensive rebounds in the quarter, but Barkley and Malone also grabbed 4 offensive rebounds.

Even worse, he was fouled by Moses Malone just over three minutes into the game.

This will significantly impact Gan Guoyang's subsequent defensive choices. In high-intensity games, he must be cautious, otherwise getting two fouls too early would be disastrous.

Fortunately, the Trail Blazers are not a one-man team led by Gan Guoyang.

Drexler capitalized on the gaps in the outside shooting and made consecutive shots.

Porter also used a screen to drive to the basket and score, helping the Trail Blazers take the lead in the first quarter.

Bullets didn't care about that, and Rick Mahon came on in the second quarter.

Unseld gave the order: "Keep attacking Forrest Gump. Our goal tonight is to keep him under 30 points!"

(End of this chapter)