On September 25th, the Trail Blazers gathered and started training camp early.

Liu Xiu patted Gasol's butt and said: "Mark, Kwame is gone. Now, you are the second in command of our team. Become the pillar of the prison team!"

The vice president on the side felt very relieved to see that the warden still admired his sister-in-law, but when did he seem to have heard this?

Anthony looked at Liu Xiu unhappily. That stupid guy was the second in charge. Could it be that his former leader of the mining bandits was the fourth?

That’s not true!

Feeling that Brother Dong's eyes were becoming increasingly unfriendly, Liu Xiu said, "Brother Dong, you are the boss of our team!"

Anthony was stunned and asked: "What about you?"

"Me? Of course I am the third child!"

Anthony couldn't help laughing when he heard this.

Last season, the Trail Blazers were eliminated in the second round. James won the regular season MVP and led the team to the Finals; Kobe defeated Liu Xiu head-on and reached the Western Conference Finals.

When James faced the Mavericks in the Finals, he averaged only 21 points per game and shot 39% from the field. He was guarded to death by Kidd and Chandler.

Over and over again, and so on, after the finals, Sports Illustrated gave a ranking of 'Personal ability: Kobe first, James second, Liu Xiu third'.

Unexpectedly, Kobe Bryant changed teams! This move by Sports Illustrated was purely for nothing and offended Liu Xiu.

Liu Xiu has publicly mocked Sports Illustrated several times this summer.

Ray Allen doesn't care about the boss, second, third, etc. He only knows that he has to work harder this year, otherwise there may be a group of people on the team who will surpass him.

But he can accept this situation, as long as he can win, but his competitiveness is at work.

Bosh...the position of boss has nothing to do with him. When he came here, he was already ready to be the fourth boss. Although he seems to be the sixth boss now, it doesn't matter.

As long as he wants to be in the news now, he will be interviewed every day.

This is enough!

Currently, the Trail Blazers have 14 officially contracted players. In the past two months, they have been favored by countless veterans and powerful players. Unfortunately, after they completed the contract extensions for Liu Xiu, Birdman, Outlaws and others, Tencent

The space has been used up long ago, even by the middle class.

But John Nash did a good job this time, taking advantage of the temptation of the championship and bargaining smoothly.

Shane Battier rejected a three-year, $9 million contract offered by the Spurs, Heat, Mavericks and other teams. The Trail Blazers used the biennial exception to sign Shane Battier for $4.4 million over two years.

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However, in the competition for Juwan Howard, the Trail Blazers lost, and the Heat signed the veteran with more than ten years of game experience at a minimum salary.

The Trail Blazers had no choice but to do the next best thing and sign former shot-blocking champion Theo Ratliff.

After the Bobcats sent away Chandler last season, Ratliff once again partnered with Dampier, playing 16 minutes per game, averaging 4.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.4 blocks. When Liu Xiu saw the team's signing, he thought it was okay.

Used as an internal backup.

Their inside line is indeed much weaker this year. If the Birds hadn't renewed their contract with a one-year minimum salary, it would have been difficult to find a backup center.

This is due to the delay in signing Bosh and the trade to acquire Anthony. Those cheap and useful backup centers, such as Dampier, Big Z, and Magloire, all three were snatched away by the Heat;

-Smith was signed by the Spurs with a minimum salary; Yoon Mahinmi was signed by the Mavericks; O'Neal was signed by the Knicks...

Tianzun, who had great hopes of signing, finally chose to retire.

Fortunately, I got Shane Battier in the end, Dampier, Big Z, O'Neal... they were all just floating clouds.

As for the coaching staff, the lineup has not changed. Mustache was originally planning to leave, but the management told him not to worry, wait, wait, wait, Anthony and Bosh are here...

Liu Xiu, Ray Allen, Anthony, Bosh, Gasol, the main substitutes are Dragic, Korver, Hill, Outlaw, Diaw, and Birdman.

Later, he also signed Shane Battier!

This is crazy...

In addition, the big dog owner gave him a 20% annual salary increase, so Xiaozhu chose to stay.

This year's lineup has become lighter inside.

Regarding the lack of depth, Mustache gave constructive suggestions - when Gasol is resting, the center position can allow Bosh and Birdman to rotate, and Anthony, Hill, and Diaw can all appear more on the court.

In the forward position.

During his time with the Pacers, Bosh once said - I will never play center.

This made the Blazers management and coaching staff hesitate. Isn't it good to let him play center when he just arrived?

As a result, Bosh immediately agreed - "I think I was born to play center. I have excellent inside steps, I can also shoot from a distance, and I am also good at pick-and-rolls..."

With Gasol here, he can only play center as a substitute. Bosh is not stupid. To put it nicely, he will be praised by Chinese reporters!

As for being ridiculed by American reporters... let's just laugh at him. It's better than before when no one paid attention to him no matter what he did in Indianapolis.

Position modeling is the development direction of contemporary basketball.

This has become very obvious in the past two or three years.

The most typical examples are the Celtics and Hawks, both of whom have multiple players who can play 3-4 positions.

Mustache admires position modeling very much, and Dior trained it with his own hands.

The adjustment direction of this training camp is clearer than last season, even the last season when we won 73 games. After two seasons of adaptation, although the lineup adjustment this time is quite large, we have a better understanding of where to adjust.

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Mustache and the rest of the coaching staff already know very well how to play the four tactical cores of Liu Xiu, Hill, Gasol, and Diaw, and just let others adjust around them.

Originally, Mustache, the coach, and the vice president were all worried about one person - Carmelo Anthony.

This guy is notoriously difficult to coach. After the management traded Anthony for Kwame Brown, Nuggets head coach George Karl cried with joy in front of the media, saying that Anthony was an uncoachable player.

But in the end, Anthony was the one who adjusted most actively.

There is no other reason, just because the teammate I partner with is Liu Xiu.

Since he decided to join the Trail Blazers, Anthony has been practicing catching and shooting like crazy. After officially joining the Trail Blazers, he made an appointment with Ray Allen to learn this, along with Korver and Gasol.

Running, this is still a blind spot in Anthony's ability, but he has been very active in learning tactical movement without the ball, moving in designated areas according to the position of teammates holding the ball to create opportunities to catch the ball, and reducing unnecessary dribbling after catching the ball...

...Genius is genius. As long as Anthony is willing, he can practice things that George Karl has nagged him for several years without letting him learn.

The needs of the Trail Blazers and the direction of Anthony's efforts are not to transform into pure off-ball play like Ray Allen. That would be a waste of Anthony's singles ability. Anthony is super-strengthening towards Hill during the Trail Blazers period.

Version transformation.

Time passes day by day, early training camp, training camp, preseason games...all pass by one game at a time.

The Trail Blazers' adjustment progress is very gratifying. Anthony adjusts quickly. Bosh is suitable for this style of play. The two new superstars have integrated without encountering any major problems. This has given the Trail Blazers coaching staff a shot in the arm.

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Ray Allen continues to be in good shape. Although he is 35 years old, in terms of physical strength and shooting accuracy, there is no visible decline compared to last season.

The three-point champion, together with the warden who was in full form at the start of the World Championships, are the double cornerstones for the prison team's coaching staff to build their tactical system and mentality.

Hill was happy to accept the role of a substitute. After three years with the Trail Blazers, he regained his health, won a championship, and enjoyed the joy of winning like never before in his career... He gave up his starting position for Warden.

He is willing to do so.

Even if everyone is saying that he seems to be in better shape this year than last year, and even if he himself feels the same way, he is still willing to give up his starting position and become a backup forward swingman.

It's a bit hard for the outlaws, haha, there is a powerful and comprehensive opponent on the bench!

Diaw is the one who gets paid to do things. Apart from the four major stars of the team, he has the highest salary. Moreover, unlike Steve Kerr, the Trail Blazers management does not dislike his high salary at all. For this reason, he has the highest salary.

I am willing to work hard for the Trail Blazers.

Dragic is the one who is visibly happier among the substitute players. The team does not continue to recruit veteran point guards as substitutes, which means that he has become the team's first substitute!

Gasol has made great progress. His progress was obvious in the middle and late stages of last season. Unfortunately, by that time, the Trail Blazers' tactical system had basically been adjusted, and the pressure of record was worried about affecting the team's play style that had gradually become tacitly understood.

, the coaching staff did not make tactical adjustments after discovering Gasol's progress, but during the training camp this season, Gasol is undoubtedly the core of the tactics in the eyes of the coaching staff.

Gasol did not disappoint. His performance in the training camp met the requirements of the coaching staff. In the preseason, he averaged 27 minutes per game and averaged 9.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1.5 blocks in 8 games.

, truly demonstrated a coping ability that is no weaker than that of his brother!

Gasol's biggest change is the one visible to the naked eye - his weight is 116 kilograms!

Compared with two years ago when Gasol first joined, he is 20 kilograms lighter.

This allows Gasol to not be held back in his brisk offensive coordination!

But the Trail Blazers team feels that the one who has made the most progress is not the young people, but Warden, who has turned 28 in the first half of the year!

With three points, the gap with Ray Allen has become even smaller.

The ability to step back and shoot, as shown in training and preseason games, seems to be no less than Anthony's.

In terms of running, catching and shooting, he is definitely not as good as Ray Allenby, but compared to Korver, who has made great progress, Liu Xiu's progress in this area is not inferior at all!

It doesn’t matter that he is still making rapid progress. The key is that he is still actively developing new capabilities and continuing to strengthen existing technologies!

Anthony saw that Liu Xiu wanted to learn everything and learned everything quickly. He ate, drank and played every day, and as a result, he made progress faster than anyone else.

This picture is really familiar!
To be continued...