field coach

Chapter 9 Amazing Preseason
"By the way, there is one thing I want to tell you about Rodman." Michael DeWeese suddenly said to Guskas. "What's up?"

"As long as he plays normally, other off-court performances including training, don't worry about him at all."

"Ah? This?" Guskas said incredible, he has never seen players treated like this. "Is this privilege excessive?"

"Matt, believe me, as long as Rodman is happy, it is more important than any training."

"Okay then..." Guskas left sullenly.

Michael DeWeese looked at the back of Guskas and felt a little sorry, because this season was Guskas' last season in the Magic. Michael DeWeese originally wanted to give Guskas, the first head coach in the history of the Magic team, an unfettered season, but it was still inevitable to intervene forcibly in some aspects.

The pre-season preparations are proceeding in an orderly manner, and the credit of head coach Matt Guocas is indispensable.

Although Guucas is a traditional old-school coach, under his training, the Magic's offense is unexpectedly good. Although the defense is not so satisfactory, overall, as a newcomer who has just entered the league, Guucas is considered a relatively qualified coach.

After the players basically arrived, Michael Davis followed the whole team for training. In just one day, he impressed all his teammates with his superb skills, including Nick Anderson, Skiles, Scott and other old team members, as well as the "madman" Sprewell who just arrived.

As the saying goes, there are only wrong names and no wrong nicknames. Madman lives up to his name. On the first day he arrived, he looked like the boss and my second child. He was extremely dissatisfied with his draft pick and believed that he should be selected in the top three at the very least. If he was not afraid of O'Neal's strength, he even thought that the Magic should sign him with the No. [-] pick.

Of course, this kind of arrogance did not last long. Michael DeWeese, who had a clear understanding of his own strength, stood up without hesitation. After a bullfight, Sprewell, whose leg was about to be shaken off, followed Michael DeWeese obediently, and never mentioned the draft pick again.

Soon, the preseason began, and Guskas began to experiment with the power of the lineup. In the first game, he faced the Hawks with the "human film essence" Dominique Wilkins. The Magic narrowly beat the Hawks by 102 points 99-3. Of course, this is also the reason why Wilkins only played 23 minutes, but the starting players of the Magic did not play much time.Wilkins played 23 minutes and scored 15 points and 3 rebounds. He stayed on the sidelines early and stopped playing. The sixth man of the team, Adam Basefe, scored the Eagles' highest score of 19 points and 6 rebounds in this game. He is the No. 5 pick in this year's draft.But this gentleman only averaged 4 points and [-] rebounds per game in his career. . . .

On the Magic side, the average playing time of the other main players except O'Neal is only about 28 minutes, while O'Neal and Sprewell both got 34 minutes of playing time in this game.As the first NBA-level game of their careers, both of them were very active.

But sometimes being active does not necessarily mean good performance. The first touches of O'Neal and Sprewell ended in mistakes.

O'Neal's back play with the ball was directly cut off by Wilkins, who contributed a wonderful fast break dunk.Sprewell was even more outrageous, his offense with the ball hit his feet directly while dribbling.

Michael DeWeese laughed out loud off the court, and Sprewell on the court blushed, wishing he could find a crack in the ground to get in.But after Michael DeWeese smiled, the two of them did not have such a big pressure, and their performance gradually became normal.

The main center of the Eagles, Kevin Willis, has been a champion of the vertical and horizontal league for many years. Last year, relying on his career-high 15.5 rebounds, he ranked second in the rebounding list. Dennis Rodman, who was playing against the Magic at the time, ranked first.

Kevin Willis relied on his outstanding performance last year to win a place in the Eastern Conference All-Star. This is also one of the few All-Star seasons in his career.These data show that Kevin Willis is at the peak of his career.

Kevin Willis is facing the No. 92 pick in the [-] draft today. He originally thought he could easily deal with this young shark who had just entered the league. O'Neal's first performance with the ball convinced him even more.

But for the second time, when O'Neal met him with the ball, O'Neal just took the ball and hit it, and Kevin Willis only felt that he was run over by a mountain. Before he realized what happened, a huge black shadow appeared above his head.

"Bang!"

Kevin Willis was dunked!
As a veteran star in the league, how could Willis swallow this breath, he will ask for the ball in the low post in the next round.After he got the ball, he started to hit O'Neal with his back, but found that the opponent was motionless.Helpless, Willis could only turn around and barely make a shot. The ball hit the frame and the rebound was easily won by Rodman.

Facing the All-Star center, instead of being at a disadvantage, O'Neal faintly suppressed the opponent?

At the end of the first quarter, O'Neal made 5 of 4 inside shots and 2 of 0 free throws. He scored 8 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist in a single quarter. His performance was perfect.

Halfway through the first quarter, Guskas replaced Nick Anderson and Skiles with Cole and Sprewell, and the Magic lineup became O'Neal, Rodman, Scott, Sprewell, and Cole.

Because O'Neal and Rodman on the inside are both rebounding kings, and Cole and Scott on the outside are the best three-pointers in this era, and Sprewell's three-pointer ability is not weak.

O'Neill made waves on the inside, and Sprewell on the outside was not to be outdone. Although his personality was a bit mixed, the advantage was that he didn't have the attribute of stage fright at all.

After a period of training and running-in, Sprewell also has a full understanding of the strength of his teammates.After Wilkins failed to hit the basket, Sprewell didn't even think about it. He lowered his head and rushed to the frontcourt. After halftime, he looked back and shouted: "Dennis!"

Then, a cute orange basketball came in front of him.

After two steps into the three-point line, Sprewell sprinted with the ball, and a wonderful folding dunk won the cheers of the audience.

"Good job!" His teammates patted his head one after another.

However, the biggest power of this lineup is not the offensive conversion, but the half-court three-pointer.

As we all know, the rebounds of three-pointers are generally long rebounds, but who is the person with the keenest sense of long rebounds?

Dennis Rodman: "With all due respect, everyone here, including those who have retired, you are all garbage."

There may be someone who can compete with Rodman in rebounding, but that person has retired. His name is Moses Malone, and he is recognized as the king of offensive rebounds.

But in Michael DeWeese's view, Moses Malone's rebounding strength is still not as good as Rodman's. After all, in the 90s, in the slow-paced, high-confrontation, low-shooting situation, it is an incredible thing to average 18+ rebounds per game for two consecutive seasons. It has 2 more rebounds than No.4. What is this concept?
So, in a certain offensive round, Michael DeWeese made a gesture to the sidelines, signaling everyone to play a new tactic.

Cole nodded, and when the main point guard of the Eagles, Mucci Blaylock, looked at Cole nervously, trying to interpret what the tactics were, Cole looked around and made that tactical gesture.

Then Scott ran to the left corner, Sprewell ran to the right corner, O'Neal pulled out a pick and roll, and Rodman settled in the paint.

"??????" Mookie Blaylock had a question mark on his head. Is this posture intended to play a triangle offense with Rodman at the core?

"Are you kidding me?????? Let O'Neal pull out the pick-and-roll?" He was strictly blocked by O'Neal, and then Cole pulled out the space before Willis made up for it. . . .Pulling it up is a three-pointer.

"Clang!" The ball missed.

Although Mucci Blaylock didn't understand why the Magic played such a simple tactic with great fanfare, they still habitually asked for the ball to advance.But I saw that the Magic still had the ball.

"Where's the rebound?" It turned out that just after Cole shot a three-pointer, Scott suddenly rushed in from the bottom corner, and firmly resisted Wilkins who was stuck with Rodman from behind, and then Rodman easily won the offensive rebound.

Just when the two people in charge of marking the bottom corner of the Eagles retreated to fight for rebounds, no one on the Eagles noticed that Sprewell was still standing quietly in one corner, without moving.

After taking the rebound, Rodman didn't even look at it, and directly threw the ball to the bottom corner where Sprewell was. There was no one in the two-meter radius of Sprewell. He took off calmly and shot.

"Clang!" The ball still didn't go in. . .

At this time Willis has retreated to the basket, he stuck Rodman, ready to let Wilkins take the rebound.Just as Wilkins jumped high to protect the rebound, a bigger shadow grabbed the rebound in front of him.

"what?"

Officially the core of the Magic's new team this season-Shaquille O'Neal.After O'Neal got the ball, he didn't attack again, but continued to throw the ball to the bottom corner.

Scott catches the ball and makes a shot.

"Dang!" The ball slammed into the outer ring with a kind of vigor that would not stop until the frame was smashed crookedly.

Then, to the dismay of the Eagles, the offensive rebound belonged to the Magic. Rodman relied on his excellent sense of rebounding, and arrived at the rebound point about two years earlier than Willis. When Willis arrived, Rodman had already passed the ball.

Until Cole finally made the damn three-pointer at the top of the arc, it was already the fifth time the Magic had made this offensive. The first four three-pointers missed one, but the Eagles didn’t get a single rebound.

"Perhaps the league's insiders will change from the three major centers to the four major centers." Wilkins looked at the celebration of Cole and his teammates, as if he had scored a lore, and stood beside him with his hips on his hips, shaking his head depressingly.

(End of this chapter)