The Whip of the God of Basketball

After the game against the Cavaliers, the Suns were preparing to head to Charlotte in the East to start their road trip while beginning to deal with Stoudemire's knee injury in an orderly manner.

In the summer, Stoudemire had slight discomfort in his knee, but after the examination, it was not serious. With Stoudemire's persistence, he still played the first three games and was in pretty good condition.

Unexpectedly, Stoudemire had an accident against the Cavaliers. On the morning of the next day, the team doctor immediately took Stoudemire to the hospital for an MRI examination. The results will be available 20 minutes after the examination. Leon and Cole accompanied Stoudemire to the hospital, where they were anxiously waiting for the results.

The results came out quickly. There was no problem with Stoudemire's knee. It was just a minor injury caused by the fierce confrontation during the game. The team doctor diagnosed that Stoudemire could return to the game as long as he rested for two weeks. And there won't be much of a problem.

Hearing this result, Leon and Cole were greatly relieved. This is already the best result. As long as Stoudemire is not injured, the Suns will continue to remain competitive for the championship this season.

Leon looked at Cole and found that there were dark circles on Cole's face. It seemed that he must not have slept well last night. Leon said: "You can rest assured now. Now you should focus on signing Grant." , I hope he can appear on the court as soon as possible."

Cole said: "I have contacted Grant's agent last night, as well as Grant himself. He will come to Phoenix tonight to discuss the specific details of the contract tomorrow. Then there will be a physical examination, signing, and I guess... I guess he can catch up with the contract. Miami game.”

The Suns have four games on their Eastern Conference road trip, the third of which is against the Miami Heat. This means that in the first two games against the Charlotte Bobcats and Atlanta Hawks, the Suns will face a shortage of forward personnel.

Cole saw some worry on Leon's face and said: "I think at your level, you can pull five people from the street to play in the NBA. And you can see that we won in the second half."

Leon said: "I can randomly bring five people to play in the NBA, but it does not mean that I can win. With the Cavaliers, we established an advantage in the first half and caught the opponent by surprise. Now the opponent knows that we injured Amare, There will definitely be targeted arrangements, it’s hard to say.”

Leon's worries are justified. Without Stoudemire, the Suns' offense has collapsed. Even if they achieved very good results in 2006, it is now 2008, and two years have passed. Nash Two years older. Moreover, the team's offensive integration must have been interrupted because of this. They had already been getting better and better. In the first half of this game, they were showing the field control ability of a championship-level team.

But of course this little difficulty can't trouble Leon.

In the evening, the team took a flight to Charlotte, preparing to start their Eastern Conference road trip tomorrow. For Western Conference teams, going to the Eastern Conference for a road trip is more like tourism than a challenge, especially for the Suns. A strong team.

The four opponents are the Bobcats, Hawks, Heat, and Magic. Except for the Hawks, who are relatively mature and slightly threatening, the other three teams are completely at a disadvantage. Even if the Suns allow Stoudemire, they are still confident enough to defeat them. opponent.

On the plane, Leon sat in the front seat, holding a notebook in his hand and drawing. Originally, he was ready to be a hands-off shopkeeper. He would run the business well in the early stage, pass the A in the later stage, and wait until the playoffs to start again. Micro-management, now Stoudemire's injury disrupted his good plan.

He decided to hold a training session tomorrow morning and lead the team to practice new tactical ideas to ensure that the team can perform at a high level in the following games.

After arriving at the hotel in the evening, Fox-Leon organized several assistant coaches together and held a short meeting to discuss tomorrow's training plan and some tactical arrangements for future games.

"I don't think any adjustments need to be made. The players have the experience and ability to deal with such minor injuries and absences. Just let them play as usual. As long as Steve is not missing, there is no need to worry about the team's offense. .”

His brother Dan D'Antoni thinks Leon is overreacting, as he was only absent for two weeks. In the past, he missed a whole season, so there was no need to make any special arrangements, he just started running.

Leon knew that Dan always had some objections to him replacing Mike and letting him and Mike D'Antoni serve as assistant coaches together, so he would often raise some objections during team discussions and meetings.

Mike D'Antoni said: "What Dan said makes some sense, but I think this may be an opportunity. We let Diaw play in 2006. Now maybe we can try other players' other styles of play."

Dan D'Antoni said: "Two weeks, just two weeks. We tried a lot of play styles in the offseason, but in the end there may only be one or two that can be used, let alone the playoffs. I think our style of play this year is rich enough. Let Turiaf start, continue the current style of play, and get through this period, I think it is a good choice."

Others have expressed some of their opinions, and they are generally similar to Dan. They believe that the most important thing in the regular season is stability. There is no need to make unnecessary adjustments for the absence of a player. Just continue playing normally. Several players in the Eastern Conference The team is not strong.

Everyone chatted for a while, but Leon kept silent. Seeing that everyone had said the same thing, Leon said: "I'm sorry to tell you that I didn't ask you to come here for a meeting to discuss anything." , but to inform you what we should do next. I hope you can understand. Originally, I wanted to continue to adjust slowly like this, but now the situation has changed slightly, and I have an idea. I need your help. And not against me.”

After Leon came to the Suns, he always seemed relatively casual, letting others manage many things as before. But when he became serious, these assistant coaches remembered that this guy is also a championship coach, and his His temper and iron fist are well-known in the league.

Everyone stopped talking. Dan looked at Mike, who told him to shut up with his eyes, so Leon continued to talk about his plan, and his adjustment plan was actually very simple, which was to let Turiaf start, but not him As the main force, their main lineup will be a pure small lineup of Nash, Bell, Marion, Diaw and Dudley.

This kind of lineup was tried by the Suns in 2006. At that time, they would use James Jones at the small forward position, but the effect was not very good. Most of the time, D'Antoni still started with Kurt Thomas at center. If it weren't for Thomas, he would also be affected. If injured.

Now that Leon is going to do this again, D'Antoni is experienced. He asked: "Do you just want to purely experiment, or do you hope it can become the team's regular tactic? If it is just an experiment, I would say this lineup I have used it before, but the effect is not very good, because the interior defense is too bad. If it becomes a regular tactic...well, the evaluation is the same as the previous one."

Leon said: "I not only want to experiment, but also hope that he can become a regular tactic. Believe me, Mike, although Amare's absence is a challenge, it is also an opportunity. You seized this opportunity two years ago, You didn't take advantage of it last season. Let's try it, starting from the next game, you know, we have a lot to do this season and we are far from the point where we need stability because we don't have a championship yet. "

Leon finally convinced the coaching staff through "coercion and inducement". The next day in the Charlotte training hall, the whole team began to conduct training exercises with a small lineup; this lineup is actually very familiar to the players, and they have occasionally used it in past games. They are all used, so there is no unfamiliarity problem.

The trouble is that this kind of lineup used to be slightly overdone and would not stay on the court for a long time. Once it stays on the court for a long time, the defensive problems will become prominent. Therefore, the training session mainly addressed defensive issues, and Leon proposed a defensive strategy that he had already thought about and conducted a three-hour drill.

Three hours is definitely not enough, but they still have enough times to complete this experiment, provided that Leon can withstand failure and criticism.