Chapter 264 263. The Great Shark is Really Old
While the Bobcats added two assistant coaches, they also fired the original offensive tactics assistant coach Dan Issel.

The Bobcats' new coaching staff now includes head coach Carlisle, chief assistant coach Sam Vincent, player development coach Randy Brown, defensive assistant coach Paul Silas, and shooting coach Chip Engelland.

In terms of his selection of assistant coaches, Carlisle exposed his identity as a "Celtics coach."

Vincent is Carlisle's long-time partner. He joined the Pistons as Carlisle's assistant coach in 02.

Not only have the two been colleagues on the coaching staff for many years, they also sat on the bench together in 1986 and watched Big Bird, Fridge, and the Chiefs win the championship. They have had a good relationship for more than two decades.

Vincent has good professional skills as well. The chief assistant coach is basically equivalent to the 'deputy head coach' and has to do everything. Little Bickerstaff did a similar job before.

Paul Silas, a Celtics legend, won three championships as a player, was selected to the All-Star team twice, and was selected to the All-Defensive Team five times. He has 3 years of NBA coaching experience and many years of assistant coaching experience. When he was a head coach, his performance was poor in most seasons, but he performed well in the iron-blooded era at the turn of the century. He led the Hornets to the playoffs for four consecutive years and even reached the second round. His defensive achievements were excellent.

The Bobcats have been without a defensive coach for the past two years because Bickerstaff, one of the best defensive coaches himself, has taken on that part of the job.

But Carlisle needed such an excellent defensive assistant coach to assist him, and he had long seen the abilities of Paul Silas.

Offensive coach Carlisle doesn't need one, just like Bickerstaff doesn't need a defensive assistant coach.

Generally speaking, when a team changes its head coach, it should also change its assistant coaching staff, but Carlisle rejected Bickerstaff's suggestion to update the coaching staff a few months ago for two reasons.

One reason is that they are the defending champions, and it would not look good if not all the players were present to receive the rings in the opening game.

Another thing was that he needed people from the old coaching staff to help him take control of the team faster. Bickerstaff Jr. gave him a lot of help in this matter, allowing him to quickly understand every player.

After the offseason and training camp, Carlisle has truly taken control of the team. He was not in a hurry to change the coaching staff. He was eager to build a new system and needed assistant coaches who knew the players better.

But now that Bickerstaff Jr. has been fired and system building has slowed down, Carlisle took the opportunity to update the coaching staff.

Of the two people who were not replaced, Engelland is the top shooting coach, and Carlisle wants to have long-term cooperation with him, and it would be best if he becomes one of his own like Vincent.

Randy Brown is the boss's direct subordinate and cannot be touched, so Carlisle invited Vincent, with whom he has worked best for many years, and Paul Silas, with whom he has had a long-standing friendship.

On October 10, the Bobcats faced the Miami Heat in their last preseason game at home.

Local fans in Charlotte are looking forward to O'Neal's visit and hope to see an outstanding performance from the Big Shark.

As the preseason progresses, people have new views on the candidates for the top four in the Eastern Conference.

As a new upstart, the Bulls are naturally among them.

The Pistons have been in the Eastern Conference Finals for five consecutive years. Just like the Jazz in the 5s and the Spurs in the new century, they are stable and strong.

Although the Bobcats have not been doing well since winning the championship, a lean camel is bigger than a horse and they will not be excluded.

The original top four favorites were the Cavaliers and the Raptors, but as the preseason progressed, the Heat's popularity grew.

As we all know, O'Neal likes to brag, and the key is that many people always believe his bragging.

In an interview, O'Neal said that he has recovered his health this year and is as strong as before. He will return to the first team in the new season and regain his status as the league's top center.

Even the Bobcats fans believed this, after all, it was said by the invincible Shark.

Then...the Bobcats beat the Heat 104-87.

韦德打得还可以，出场27分钟，11投5中，加上7中5的罚球，拿到15分4板5助攻……三节被迫下班。

At the end of the third quarter, the Heat were already trailing the Bobcats by 60 points, 81 to 21.

It's impossible to defend against it and impossible to shoot into it.

O'Neal, who boasts loudly, scored 14 points and 11 rebounds tonight, the best score among all the inside players of both teams, but he only made 13 of 5 shots and 8 of 4 free throws to get 14 points.

The fans at the scene were very disappointed. Although they were rivals, no one wanted to see the Big Shark grow old. If that happened, there would only be one dinosaur left in the league today.

For the Bobcats, Zhang Yang played three quarters, 26 minutes, 14 of 7 shots, including 3 of 2 three-pointers, and 5 of 4 free throws, scoring 20 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, performing well.

When facing Wade's offense, he did not defend very well, limiting Wade's shooting percentage to less than 50%, mostly relying on help from the inside players behind him.

However, facing Wade's defense, his one-on-one performance was much better than last season. He had 7 one-on-ones, made 6 of 3 shots, and caused a foul in 1 one-on-one.

As age increases, physical strength naturally increases, shooting becomes more accurate, and technical foundation becomes better... When Zhang Yang faced Wade, he made better use of his height advantage. During the game, when the two stood together, Wade's height was ridiculed again.

身高196公分、臂展210公分的张杨，摸高达到了266公分，自称身高193公分、臂展210公分的韦德，摸高只有250公分……

...

After the preseason, the Bobcats got four days of rest and played their opening game at home on October 4st against the Cavaliers.

On the 27th, a rest day, Zhang Yang, Felton, Alan Anderson, Rondo, Okafor, Millsap, Afflalo and seven others gathered at Zhang Yang's farm to drink tea.

Alan Anderson, Millsap, and Afflalo sat down to rest for a while, then went to play cards, while the other four continued to sit and chat.

At first, each of them made progress after 4 months.

Felton's offense organization is still the same as before, more stable than usual and not surprising enough. His personal offense has improved a lot, his shooting is more accurate and his skills are also diversified.

Okafor continues to improve steadily, with balanced and comprehensive offense and defense, but nothing too outstanding.

Rondo is a little bit stronger, his passing and control are better, and his shooting after standing still and receiving the ball has a certain accuracy. In 7 preseason games, he took 10 three-pointers and made 3 of them, and he made 11 of 8 free throws.

Zhang Yang's personal scoring has become more stable and stronger, and his most outstanding performance is his defense.

Zhang Yang, who had never played a main defensive role, impressed his teammates in the first preseason game. After playing a few more games, he quickly became the best player in the Bobcats' perimeter defense. In terms of comprehensive perimeter defense, only Rondo and Hill were slightly better than him.

Zhang Yang was personally happy and helpless about this.

The good news is that now that he has become stronger and has excellent strength, he can play very good defense right away thanks to his better defensive fundamentals than his peers.

But if we have to say how good his one-on-one defense is, it's really hard to say. He is first-rate in defending technical players, but he is very bad at defending those who are particularly strong and aggressive in breaking through. For example, he really couldn't stop Wade last night.

Zhang Yang was being modest when he talked about his shortcomings, but Felton next to him started rolling up his sleeves, Rondo rolled his eyes, and even Okafor squinted at him - what? You, Zhang San, want to play like a crown prince as soon as you start to play the main defensive role?

The youngest best defensive player in history, Blacksmith, was 21 years old when he was selected to the best defensive team for the first time. The second youngest, Stone Buddha, was 22 years old. You are only 19 years old. You still despise such a defensive level?
It's obvious that he's showing off!

Seeing that his teammates were about to bully the youngest in the league, Zhang Yang quickly changed the subject and brought the conversation back to preparations for the new season.

Felton sighed: "The preparation stage is finally over. If I hadn't slowed down the pace of building the system, I really don't know if I could have persisted."

Rondo and Okafor nodded when they heard this.

Zhang Yang: "Rick wants to complete the system as soon as possible. I also want to do that, but this way of taking steady steps is more suitable for us at the moment."

Felton: "Yes, instead of letting Rajon and Paul directly serve as the core of certain tactics, let them play supporting roles in multiple tactics. They can better show their talent in organizing offense. Rick is very capable and has a good vision, but they play the game by themselves. They need to find a way that they are comfortable with first, and then create tactics for them. This is a more appropriate training method."

Zhang Yang, Rondo and Okafor all looked sideways - the fat boss has made progress again!

Zhang Yang: "But there is one benefit to Rick's efforts."

Felton: “What’s the benefit?”

Rondo and Okafor were also curious about what the youngest kid in the league had discovered that they hadn't noticed.
Zhang Yang: "Rick had high expectations for us, but many of us didn't perform as he expected, so he was forced to slow down the pace of building a new system... Although most of us didn't have this concept, we worked harder and more focused during training than before. This was actually a result of guilt and reluctance for not being able to meet the head coach's expectations."

Felton: "Oh! It's true. I didn't perform well in the game in shooting at the basket and close-range step-back shooting. Rick deleted this part from the tactics. I was very unwilling to accept it, so I practiced more every day. It turned out to be because of this."

Rondo and Okafor were also thoughtful...

After a day of rest, on the 28th, the Bobcats continued to prepare for training. The target of their preparation was not the opening game opponent Cavaliers, but the team cooperation tactics derived from the three-core main attack tactics. Although it is called team cooperation, it is actually a tactic based on the personal offensive abilities of Zhang Yang, Okafor and Felton.

As for playing the Cavaliers…just prepare the day before and on the day of the game.

The Bobcats management and coaching staff were very happy when they saw the Cavaliers, as the Cavaliers had basically achieved nothing during the offseason!

The regular season is about to begin. Today's training is not very intense, so we got off work at 4pm.

Hill was about to leave when he was stopped by Zhang Yang.

"Grant, I want to learn your breakthrough skills..."

(End of this chapter)