unfinished glory

Chapter 126 The Third Season

On September 9, the training camp for the new season began.

According to the practice of the Spurs, the first day is to take new teammates to see some of the team's situation, physical examination and take makeup photos.

Li Chongxiao has been in this team for two seasons, and he is already familiar with everything.Except that the position of the locker has been moved a lot to the front, nothing else seems to have changed.

After greeting the newly joined teammates, he came to the training ground and started routine practice.

This summer, he has more practice time than before, and the experience of two seasons has given him more confidence in the league and himself, and his training is more targeted.

On the first day of the new season, Popovich did not arrange confrontational training. It was more about letting the players calm down and recover the physical fitness lost in the summer.

Since there was no confrontation, Li Chongxiao practiced shooting. He made 200 shots from beyond the three-point line without missing a single one.

Although Popovich doesn't like him, he has to admire Li Chongxiao's shooting, which is unmatched in the league.

Moreover, the data of the team's physical examination shows that only Duncan and Li Chongxiao have changed the most, and it can be seen that they worked hard during the offseason.

While his body remained the same, Li Chongxiao mainly increased his strength, and the number and weight of bench presses increased significantly.

The change in Duncan is that he lost weight. He suffered from plantar fasciitis and finally listened to the advice of doctors and kinesiology experts.

A change in weight, for an insider, means a change in style of play.

In the next training, Duncan obviously showed a different style of play from before. He reduced his back-up play and replaced it with inside cuts, hooks and turnaround jumpers after pick-and-rolls.

This made Popovich very uncomfortable. Most of the Spurs' glory in the past few years was based on Duncan's dominance in the interior.Whenever the team's tactics can't be played out, they rely on Duncan's gouging one goal at a time in the interior.

As Duncan loses weight, the deterrence of the inside will inevitably decrease, and the Spurs must prepare early.

But now that the game is about to start, there is no good deal to do, so we can only change some tactics.Popovich regretted for a moment that he did not exchange Li Chongxiao for Bosh.

Fortunately, the three outside guns have all improved, Parker and Ginobili have become more mature, and Li Chongxiao has made a qualitative leap.

After a summer of hard training, Li Chongxiao strengthened his offensive skills.

In the internal match, facing Bowen's defense, he played more calmly than before, and no longer needed to rely on his physical fitness to make some strong shots.

In most offenses, he has learned to use rhythm and feints to gain space for shots.

For example, in a certain round, Li Chongxiao faced Bowen with the ball at the top of the arc. Before doing it, he couldn't get rid of the opponent's defense. He could only dribble the ball quickly, break in, or dribble a little, and then face the defense. jump shot.

Although this can be attacked, it is not the best choice.

What he does now is to dribble the ball in a calm manner, make fake moves that seem to be throwing and rushing, and test the opponent's defensive focus to choose the next move.

When Bowenka broke through the route, he pretended to break through, cheated the opponent's center of gravity, opened the distance, and shot calmly.

When Bowen is defending a shot, in addition to fake moves, he can further shorten the distance between the two and pass the opponent through speed.

Basically, it can be said that Li Chongxiao's face-to-face footsteps have been scaled. According to the way of last season, the next regular season is a great opportunity for him to improve his proficiency.

Watching Li Chongxiao play with ease on the offensive end, Popovich's mood was uncertain.

On the one hand, the growth of players will inevitably lead to the strengthening of the team's strength. Before Duncan's transition was still a headache, and now the solution has jumped in front of him.

On the other hand, he was a little hesitant about Li Chongxiao's use.Last season, his growth virtually reduced the space for Manu Ginobili and Parker, who he had high hopes for. It is hard to say that this has nothing to do with the poor performance of the two in the season.

It's just that the competitive relationship between players has always existed, and most of them rely on their strength to speak. Popovich will not suppress Li Chongxiao.

For Li Chongxiao's progress so much, he should have been prepared in his heart, but his prejudice kept him subconsciously ignoring it.Now a potential perimeter superstar is in front of him. If he can't see it anymore, he will be a little blind.

But some actions during the offseason caused a big rift between Li Chongxiao and the team, and Popovich was going to find ways to make up for it.

His way of compensation is to let Li Chongxiao return to the starting lineup, thinking that since Li Chongxiao doesn't care about money, then give him status.

According to his understanding of Li Chongxiao, wouldn't this be easily forgiven?
It can only be said that once prejudice and stubbornness are entangled, people will lose their wisdom and it is easy to make wrong judgments.

Popovich, who thinks he has resolved his internal conflicts, kept experimenting with various tactics throughout the October preseason in order to achieve a balance.

After repeated verification, it was not until before the start of the regular season that the Spurs determined the main routine of this season, which is push rhythm, high support, pick-and-roll and three-pointers.

Duncan's activities at the basket became less, and most of the time he used his passing and high-quality screens to serve as a screen wall for Li Chongxiao, Ginobili and Parker, creating three-point opportunities for his teammates.

In this way, Oberto was put on the starting lineup, partnered with Duncan, guarding the inside, while doing some dirty work for Duncan, on the other hand, his good inside offense can also be used as a point to help teammates contain the opponent's defender.

The small forward is still Bowen. His top-level defense and above-level three-pointers are roles that any team likes.

In the new tactical system, Li Chongxiao's position as the starting shooting guard is unshakable. His three-point shooting ability is the top in the league. Not only can he provide sufficient outside firepower, but he can also open up enough space for other teammates.

Since last season, the pick-and-roll between him and Duncan has been the basic tactic for the team to score points.This season, he has strengthened his offensive skills, just to make up for the shortcomings of Duncan's reduced offensive ability after losing weight.

The last part of the starting lineup is none other than Parker, a guard who is not top-notch in organization but has excellent offensive ability, just right for a team like the Spurs with a super insider.

In the bench lineup, Ginobili acts as the team's sixth man, which is also a change in Popovich's tactics from last season.

Li Chongxiao and Ginobili's independent offensive ability are not weak, but the former is stable and the latter is spiritual.With Duncan's offensive ability declining, there is a lack of stable scoring points in the starting lineup.

Putting Ginobili on the bench, on the one hand, can avoid his weakness of poor physical strength, and on the other hand, it can also drive the Spurs' second team.

(End of this chapter)