Chapter 261 260. Hill: Compared with Zhang San, I don’t seem to be that talented

The tactics that the Bobcats tested in actual combat tonight were two of the three most basic types of tactics under Carlisle's new system - the first was Zhang Yang launching an offense with a high-post single play; the second was Felton launching an offense with a breakthrough using a screen.

Carlisle’s system building sequence is clear - team offense can go wrong and be corrected later, but star play must be done well from the beginning, this is the foundation.

Another basic tactic is for Okafor to initiate the offense from the low post. Facing the twin towers of Yao Ming and Ben Wallace tonight, this part of the tactic will not be used.

Zhang Yang and Felton did not waste their offseason. The former honed his basic skills and techniques, becoming more aggressive in singles. While strengthening his shooting, Felton actively expanded his shooting space and his strength has steadily increased. Basic tactics were practiced the most during the training camp, and when they attacked at the beginning of the game, their teammates cooperated very well.

The core center was hungover and weak, and his performance was poor, which had a great impact on the Bulls' entire team's defense.

In order to partner with Yao Ming, Ben Wallace deliberately adjusted his playing style and moved farther, and other teammates also adjusted their defense accordingly. When Yao Ming accelerated his movement, he shot off the ball and could not prevent Felton and Zhang Yang from attacking the basket. Ben Wallace and Luol Deng had to retreat from further away, and after Zhang Yang and Felton broke through, they only needed to pass the ball to Hill. Hill could make mid-range shots and pass the ball, and could complete the coordination and handling very well.

After two rounds of cooperation, the conditions were met for Zhang Yang to score in a high-post single and Felton to shoot from the outside with the help of a screen.

After a few possessions, Bulls head coach Scott Skiles called a timeout.

After chatting with Yao Ming for a few words, Skiles looked at Yao Ming's awkward look and didn't know what to say.

He didn't expect that Yao Ming, the superstar in the league who he thought needed the least worry from the head coach, could be so unreliable at times.

But he had a question, so he asked, "How come you're the only one with a hangover when you two were drinking? Are bad kids so good at drinking?"

Yao Ming: "He didn't drink. He was only 19 years old. How could I give him alcohol?"

Scales: "Didn't you have a couple of drinks with him when you got married? I saw it with my own eyes."

Yao Ming: "In our country, people can drink alcohol at the age of 18."

Scales: “…”

Do you really have to be so law-abiding? Who would know that you were drinking at home? Get that bad boy drunk, and then you can exchange your money. Now you are the only one who is hungover and depressed...

Scales only complained in his heart, but he couldn't say it out loud. He couldn't teach others to break the law...

...

Carlisle made personnel adjustments. Felton and Zhang Yang continued to partner in the backcourt, Hill moved to the power forward position, Okafor moved to the center position, and Mike Miller replaced Perkins as small forward.

After the substitution, Carlisle looked at the opposite side, and as he expected, the other side replaced Yao Ming.

It's just a preseason game. Yao Ming is not in good physical condition today, so let's replace him and let him rest. It would be a waste of time to protect such a big center so carefully and let him get injured unnecessarily.

Nocioni was also replaced at the same time, and the Bulls replaced him with a combination of Hinrich, Sefolosha, Luol Deng, Joe Smith and Ben Wallace.

If Yao Ming is in the starting lineup, Nocioni, who has poor mobility, will be sent on the field. Yao Ming will stay under the basket, while Ben Wallace and Luol Deng can go to the outside to clear the ball. Hinrich will defend alone at the top of the arc, and the four-on-one defense will be steady.

When it came to the second lineup, Nocioni and Yao Ming were replaced with Sefolosha and Joe Smith. Sefolosha showed excellent defensive talent in his rookie year and was very stable. Joe Smith is a defensive master who has been famous for many years and is known as the poor version of Garnett.

In addition, with guard Chris Duhon, who can shoot, defend and organize offense, the Bulls' core rotation lineup of eight people has given Carlisle a headache in the first preseason game.

On the opposing bench are veteran center Malik Allen, second-year center Tyrus Thomas, veteran guard Adrian Griffin, and rookie center Aaron Gray, who showed good combat effectiveness in the summer league...

When Zhang Yang came back on the court, he saw that the opponent's second lineup was also in a dilemma. It was almost the same as the starting lineup that the Bulls used against Wade in last season's playoffs!

But after he stepped onto the court, he didn't care about it anymore. Let this matter give the management a headache and make Carlisle lose hair, but playing well is his job.

This time he did not go to the wing, but came to the top arc to wait. It was Felton who went to the wing to follow Sefolosha!

Zhang Yang just took the initiative to suggest switching defense for Hinrich!
Carlisle agreed after a little hesitation. This was one of the things he wanted to do in the new season - Zhang Yang is 19 years old, and it is time to try to develop defensive abilities for one-on-one defense tasks.

This summer, he watched all the game videos of the Bobcats in the past two seasons, and watched some key games repeatedly. He saw the excellent defensive awareness that Zhang Yang showed when he was occasionally responsible for defending the opponent's offensive spearhead, as well as his excellent defensive basic skills in his sophomore year.

It’s just that Zhang Yang was too young in those two seasons. Considering all aspects, it was a more appropriate choice to let him play the role of a pure scorer.

But during this year's offseason and training camp, Carlisle observed that Zhang Yang's physical performance was no weaker than Felton. Since he has such defensive talent, training Zhang Yang's defensive ability naturally has to be put on the agenda.

Felton was naturally happy to return to the wing. On defense, he was only good at defending shooters and blocking cutters on the wing. It was indeed difficult for him to defend the opponent's offensive player with the ball at the top of the arc. As for whether his younger brother could defend well... he was full of confidence in his younger brother's talent!
After the timeout, the Bulls served the ball in the frontcourt. Hinrich received the ball and saw that it was Zhang Yang who was guarding in front. He was a little surprised - this youngest FMVP in history, can he be defended? Let's try!
Hinrich didn't call for a pick-and-roll, but directly broke through!
Zhang Yang made accurate defensive predictions and moved sideways at the moment when Hinrich really started to advance, blocking Hinrich!

Although Zhang Yang was not as tough as Felton and Deron, he was still much stronger than Hinrich, who was 193 cm tall and 86 kg. Hinrich seemed to have hit a wall head-on and staggered.

Fortunately, Hinrich had a solid foundation, and he held the ball firmly. Following the rebound force, he took a step back to the left and grabbed the ball... but he was stuck! He couldn't jump!
Zhang Yang was originally just using his height and wingspan advantage to block Hinrich's shooting space. When Hinrich grabbed the ball, he immediately pressed forward.

Joe Smith on the left side of the free throw line quickly went up to respond, but Hill let go of Joe Smith and clamped Hinrich who was stuck in the ball.

Hinrich turned around and stuck out his butt to try to stop Zhang Yang and Hill from stealing the ball. Joe Smith ran out of the three-point line, Hinrich quickly passed the ball, and Zhang Yang quickly reached out and grabbed the ball!
Hill cooperated very well and got the ball in the first place... He was hugged by Hinrich and the referee whistled.

Hinrich used a tactical foul to stop Hill and Zhang Yang from starting a fast break. This defensive choice was excellent, but he was more surprised by Zhang Yang's defense at this moment. He thought that Zhang Yang's mobility, height and wingspan were not bad in defensive talent, and his basic skills might also be good.

But wasn't this a bit too good of a defense? He was just careless for a moment, and was killed by the opponent!
Hill was also surprised by his new teammate's defensive performance.

During the training camp, he also saw Zhang Yang's very good defensive basics in personal training and team training games. He was outstanding among players in their 20s, but only among players who could not drink. Compared with real defensive masters, the gap was still quite obvious... His defensive footwork was better than Zhang Yang's.

Zhang Yang has good defensive awareness and strong offensive reading ability, which Hill also knows. This can be seen from the fact that Zhang Yang is always in the right position when defending without the ball.

But Zhang Yang's defensive habits were so good that Hill couldn't believe it.

Just now, after Zhang Yang stuck to Hinrich, he did not rush to grab the ball. He just stuck to Hinrich to limit his jump, used his height to limit his vision, and used his arm span to interfere with Hinrich's passes to the wings. After Hill double-teamed him, Zhang Yang did not act impulsively to avoid being fouled by Hinrich. Only when Hinrich passed the ball and was sure that he would not be fouled did Zhang Yang decisively attack to steal the ball... Was it a coincidence?

The fast break was stopped by fouls and the Bobcats fell into a positional offense.

Felton received the serve and advanced to the frontcourt, then passed the ball to Zhang Yang who was leaning against Sefrosa in the high position.

After receiving the ball, Zhang Yang rushed towards Sefrosa, knocked back the 22-year-old and slightly thin Sefrosa, turned around and shot... and made it!
Sefolosha is actually quite good at defense. Although he is only in his sophomore year in the NBA, he started playing in professional leagues in 01. He played in the Swiss First Division for one year, the French Premier League for three years, and Serie A for one year. In his rookie year last season, he had very mature defensive capabilities.

What a coincidence, Zhang Yang 'just' played against Sefolosha for 6 games, and he knows Sefolosha's defensive strengths and weaknesses too well. When facing an opponent whose defense is solid but not strong enough, he can just go for it.

Zhang Yang's high-post back-to-back shot made Jordan, who was watching from the sidelines, very pleased - Grove's expensive monthly salary was not in vain! Bad boy Jack's offense became cleaner and neater.

When the Bulls attacked, Hinrich advanced to the frontcourt and tried a fake move, but the opponent was so steady that he only used his height and wingspan to interfere with his shot.

Hinrich gave up on continuing to play one-on-one, which was not his forte. He also didn't care about the embarrassment of not being able to beat the youngest player in the league in one-on-one, and waved to Joe Smith for a pick-and-roll.

Zhang Yang and Hill switched defense, and although they failed to stop Joe Smith from cutting in, they followed the opponent closely and completed the front cut very well, not giving Hinrich the opportunity to connect directly with Joe Smith.

On the other side, Ben Wallace pulled out to help Luol Deng block Mike Miller when Hinrich and Joe Smith were playing pick-and-roll.

Okafor switched defense immediately to cut off Luol Deng's space to receive the ball, but failed to stop Luol Deng from cutting in.

Hinrich's breakthrough and quick stop jump shot was blocked by Hill, and the ball was passed to Luol Deng who cut in.

Zhang Yang made up for Luol Deng as soon as he entered the basket... He couldn't hold on, and Luol Deng took advantage of Zhang Yang to score two points.

Although he failed to defend the ball, Hill was still shocked when he saw Zhang Yang defending two players in the paint... There really is such a genius! A player who has never officially played a single defense role, but has a defensive habit that is no worse than him who has played for more than ten years!
Hill, who has always been praised as one of the most talented people in history, now feels that he is not that talented...

On Zhang Yang's side, there was no sound of the veteran's heartbreak. He immersed himself in the game and did what he was supposed to do.

Although the outcome of the game is not important, he wants to win when he plays, just like when he plays League of Legends, he doesn't want to lose even when playing against AI.

Moreover, in his opinion, the purpose of the preseason games is to test tactics, so of course he has to give it his all and let his coaches and teammates know what kind of performance he can perform, how to assign him a tactical role, and how to cooperate with him!
...

At 9:58 p.m., the final whistle sounded, and the Bobcats easily defeated the Bulls 98-86 to win their first preseason game.

张杨打了29分钟，17投9中，其中三分球1中1，加上4中3的罚球，拿到22分4板2助攻2抢断。

Sefolosha and Luol Deng defended his outside shooting and one-on-ones outside the three-point line very well, but they were not good at defending mid-range. Sefolosha was fast enough but not strong enough, and Luol Deng had a clear advantage in strength but could not defend him from breaking through and making a jump shot.

The main reason was that Ben Wallace didn't dare to expand his defense too far, and Zhang Yang had very good shooting conditions within the range of one step inside or outside the free throw line.

In fact, in the second and third lineups, the Bulls' performance was not much worse than that of the Bobcats. They just lacked a singles output point like Zhang Yang. When Okafor or Felton was the main attacker, Hinrich and Luol Deng could also handle it.

The biggest gap was in the starting lineup... Yao Ming only played for a few minutes at the beginning. If Carlisle had not already started practicing the passing and cutting tactics around Mike Miller's long-distance running in the final quarter, the Bobcats' score might have been towards 110+.

Yao Ming's inability to play has a huge impact on the Bulls as a whole, and it's just a preseason game. The Bobcats coaching staff and players didn't take this victory seriously. They cared more about the players' individual performances.

After returning to the hotel after the game, the Bobcats management and coaching staff held a meeting to review the game, discuss player performance and tactical coordination, and prepare for the next preseason game.

Not only Hill was amazed by Zhang Yang's defensive talent, but Carlisle, Bickerstaff, Bickerstaff Jr., Randy Brown... and others also praised Zhang Yang's performance in the first preseason game.

Even Jordan was complaining about Zhang Yang's defensive habits tonight...

But they were not as surprised as Hill. He entered the NBA at the age of 17, averaging 15+ points per game, and won the FMVP at the age of 19 and one month. Zhang Yang has a full offensive talent and a defensive talent. Is there any problem? No problem, they are used to it.

What really delighted them was Hill's actual performance. He could shoot, take on some ball control, defend the 2-4 position, and assist. The key is that he didn't see a decline in performance after playing for 25 minutes. It is estimated that he can maintain his form in another seven or eight minutes. The continuity may be weakened in the regular season, but so what? This 200 million is worth it!

In addition, they have one more happy worry...

Carlisle: "I didn't expect Paul to have such a good talent for assists..."

(End of this chapter)