Start coaching the Thunder, starting with Westbrook

Chapter 28 The Alphabet

"Did you hear what you said just now?"

Brother Antetokounmpo froze for a moment, then turned back and scratched the back of his head hesitantly: "Coach..."

Li Sheng interrupted directly and asked: "After listening, what do you think?"

Brother Antetokounmpo laughed dryly: "Listen, I don't quite understand..."

There are two meanings here, one is that the language is not yet fully familiar, and the other is naturally what Li Sheng said, which is too far away from the current Brother Antetokounmpo.

He is a player, not a coach, how can he control the team's tactical arrangements and other rookie matters?
What's more, he didn't know what Li Sheng meant by asking him like this, what did he want him to say?
If you want to comment, of course it is impossible for him to say nothing. After all, he has also played professional games, and he is in Europe, so he must not lack basic tactical skills.

It's just that in a foreign country, I'm used to being cautious in my words and deeds, so naturally I won't confess myself easily.

But Li Sheng smiled when he saw this, and it was not difficult for him, and asked the main question again: "I know why, will I arrange you to control the ball in these three games?"

Brother Antetokounmpo was silent, he couldn't say, Li Sheng wanted to see him laugh on purpose.

After all, Antetokounmpo was chosen by him anyway. If the performance is not good, everyone can still have a little fault tolerance for the newcomers, and you, a head coach, must accept the most criticism from the outside world.

In fact, after watching Barkley's show, he also knew that Li Sheng must be under more pressure than him.

But Li Sheng always acted very calm, at least he didn't show anything on the surface, which also made him a little admired in his heart.

As for feeling that he was implicated by Li Sheng, I still thought about this kind of thinking at first, but then gradually faded away.

He is a very competitive person, not to mention that he is here not only for himself, behind him are his parents, brothers, their whole family, and he bears their expectations, so he should show better performance due to circumstances and reasons.

This is not for Li Sheng, but for himself.

But the psychological pressure still exists all the time, saying that he wants to stop thinking about it, but how can he do it, those distracting thoughts have been entangled in his mind, making him feel like he is tense when he is playing, and there is no way to completely relax.

Sometimes tension can bring motivation to people, but many times it is only a pressure that affects people's thinking and behavior.

The more you think, the worse your performance, and the worse you think, you get caught in a vicious circle.

He also knew that the coach would come to him sooner or later to talk about his problems. After all, the two of them share interests and share weal and woe. It’s just that Li Sheng seemed to want to guess the riddle with him, and refused to directly point out his problems.

Antetokounmpo scratched his head and said, "I'm sorry, coach, I..."

"Let me ask you, how do you feel about your performance?"

"Not good," Brother Antetokounmpo shook his head, and then added: "It sucks!"

Li Sheng suddenly smiled and said, "Then you should be able to realize what is your biggest weakness right now?"

Antetokounmpo hesitated for a moment, but tried to ask: "Is it because the confrontation is too bad?"

He also knows that he is too thin now. Facing these big muscular bullies who have been in the professional arena for many years, his breakthrough skills are greatly restricted, so there is no way to organize and connect teams, but what can he do.

Given the conditions of his family before, it would be great if the brothers could grow up smoothly.

Later, after I went to play, the food got better, but because I was still growing and developing, my height kept jumping up, so the horizontal change was naturally not so fast.

Playing in Europe does not have so many physical monsters in the NBA, at least he will not be as embarrassing as he is now.

He is not strong enough, he can't stand firmly after a slight bump, and sometimes he can't even protect the ball well.

"Future" Durant lost weight to protect himself after a serious injury. As a result, his shooting is getting better and better, but his ability to dribble and protect the ball has dropped a lot because he is too thin.

Then the favorite to win the championship before the start of the game was disgracefully swept out in the playoffs, which also put him under tremendous pressure from public opinion.

The current Antetokounmpo is naturally not as good as Durant at that time, but the "treatment" he received was not very good.

Because not only his own mentality was influenced by outside public opinion, after the TNT program aired, it quickly attracted the attention of many people, and now many people know him before watching him play.

Players are very sensitive on this point. They know that if they want to get a big contract, they need to be famous, and if they want to be famous, they must have exposure. If they want exposure, of course, they must first play against opponents with high attention and perform well.

So in these two games, the opponent Antetokounmpo tried his best to defend him-because the offense basically had to misplace him, and Antetokounmpo's mobility can also effectively interfere with the speed-type defender. In addition, there is Gobert inside, it is not easy to score.

Although the highlight of defense is definitely not as good as offense, but because Antetokounmpo has now become the "star player" of this summer league, the hottest topic is a fight with the Cavaliers' unexpected No.

In this way, it will naturally make Antetokounmpo's performance even more unbearable. It is difficult to see a targeted defense against a certain rookie player actually appearing on him.

Of course, it’s also because it’s really easy to guard against. After all, Brother Antetokounmpo will be able to eat all kinds of tricks in the future, but now he is still in a situation where he knows everything but is not good at it.

In a place like the NBA, you don't have to know everything, but you definitely can't have outstanding ingenuity, whether it's shooting, defense, breakthrough, or "dirty".

And if you want to become a star, or even a superstar, outstanding scoring methods are essential, and even many superstars have their own signs, such as James' tank breakthrough, Curry's three-pointer, Harden's penalty... umm...

Li Sheng shook his head with a smile after hearing Brother Antetokounmpo's words, and then asked: "You should have watched that show, and you know how O'Neill described you?"

Brother Antetokounmpo's face was a bit ugly. After all, a 19-year-old boy with a strong blood was called a coward and a coward. Even if the other party was an NBA legend or a senior, he would definitely be upset.

Li Sheng's voice suddenly raised his voice: "Since we all know, why did you reduce your breakthrough in these two games and avoid their confrontation? You are not an act of a coward, so what is it?
"If you want me to say that your biggest problem now is that you don't choose to face it directly, but avoid it. Do you think you are a smart way of playing? But let me tell you, you are not the only one who can't fight in the NBA. Why can they still have a way to score, but you can't?

"It's very simple, it's because you're not playing smart enough!
"A really smart player will choose the style of play that is most beneficial to him, instead of being afraid like you and directly rejecting it. Do you think you can't even break through the opponent's inside line? Can't you pass others because they are stuck in your breakthrough line? Is your ball control just good-looking?"

(End of this chapter)