On Oct. 12, the Trail Blazers will play their first preseason game at Memorial Coliseum, where they will face their old rival in the same district, the Phoenix Suns.

In the morning, Gan Guoyang went to the West District early to find Sabonis as usual, and the two ran to the training hall together.

Along the way, Sabonis seemed a little excited, and for the first time he said more than Gan Guoyang.

He has a good foundation in English, but after the "chatter" of Adelman and Gan Guoyang in the past few days, plus watching more TV and listening to the news at home, his English level can be described as a day by day.

Now he has been able to use some slang that he couldn't understand before, and he is finally no longer confused about Gan Guoyang's tricks and trash talk, and sometimes he can even respond with a sentence or two, which often makes Gan Guoyang laugh.

Sabonis has been asking Gan Guoyang what kind of team the Phoenix Suns are, what kind of characteristics they have, and what their interior level is.

Gan Guoyang originally wanted to tell him that it was just a preseason game, and there was no need to bother so much, but thinking that this was his first official appearance, he still said: "Phoenix Suns, they focus on offense, you can rest assured, their inner line is pure soft persimmon (pushover), whatever you want!" Do not worry. ”

“pushover？” Sabonis didn't quite understand the meaning of the word, Gan Guoyang made a crushing motion with his hand, and Sabonis nodded.

Having said that, this is for Gan Guoyang, in fact, for Gan Guoyang, except for a few teams in the entire league, the interior of other teams is soft persimmon, not to mention teams like the Suns who have been rebuilt and shifted their focus to the outside.

Unlike Ramsey, Adelman is a tactically open coach who is willing to give his players a lot of freedom on the court.

But basic tactics still need to be practiced, and players need this kind of tactical practice to cultivate good tactical literacy and tacit understanding in coordination, otherwise the result of free play on the field will be a mess.

"Watch your pass! One pass is very important, don't be too steady, here you can let go of a little bit, in this case, you can go straight to Drexler, or depending on their movement, Cauchy is the second choice, Potter is the third choice, if you ask for stability, give the ball to Cauchy, and strive for a better chance of transitioning the attack and defence. ”

In the fast break training, Adelman reminded Sabonis that Sabonis's pass is indeed very, very beautiful, and the technique and accuracy are first-class.

But Sabonis hasn't really played for the Trail Blazers after all, and he's still more used to the fast-break style of play in Europe, and once he can't make an attack, he will pass the ball to the point guard organization.

In this case, he underestimated Drexler's speed and ability to get away, and at the same time failed to notice Cauchy's movement, passing the ball to Porter, who was standing not far away.

If it is replaced by Gan Guoyang, this ball must be directly a super long pass to Drexler.

"It would be nice if Kiki was still around, Kiki and Paxson on the field, they must have liked a passer like Sabonis." Gan Guoyang said while watching them do fast attack training from the sidelines.

When Vanderwich was still there, he and Paxson formed a fast-down combination, and they were the best at making a fuss on the baseline, in this case, Sabonis passed to the point guard, and the point guard then distributed the ball to the side, which was a common counterattack routine for the old Trail Blazers.

Now, the sharp knife formed by Drexler and Cauchy is better at direct impact or long pass penetration, and is more aggressive, but relatively lacking in variety.

"Okay, Gan, as far as I can see, Sabonis's passing skills will become the Trail Blazers' No. 1 long setter sooner or later. Gan, you said that if Sabonis was playing better and better, would your assists fall below one? Assistant coaches Bellman and Gan Guoyang on the side said.

Gan Guoyang was also stunned when he heard it, his average assists per game last season was 1.7, which was already a record high, but it was still pitiful.

At the same time, Olajuwon's assists rose to 2.1, although he was still at the same level as Gan Guoyang, but he had begun to slowly surpass Gan Guoyang.

Because with Ralph Sampson's continuous injuries, Olajuwon has become the only core point of the Rockets' interior line, and it is imperative to improve the ability to move the ball, even if it is to catch ducks on the shelf, practice will be practiced.

But for Gan Guoyang, Adelman doesn't need Gan Guoyang to assist, he just needs points, rebounds, and blocks to be OK.

"No, Mr. Bellman, I'm sure my assists will go up this season and we're going to play the best basketball we can be." Gan Guoyang looked at Bellman and said.

Bellman just wanted to laugh at him, but the words came to his mouth and swallowed again, because he suddenly remembered that Gan Guoyang told him more than a year ago that he wanted to increase his average steals per game to more than 2.

As the longest time with Gan Guoyang, Bellman feels that Gan Guoyang's idea is a bit fantastical, after all, there are not many guards who have reached 2 steals per game.

However, in the 1988 season, Gan Guoyang tied with teammate Drexler for fifth place in the season steals list with an astonishing average of 2.5 steals per game.

Since then, Bellman has realized that he still underestimated his most proud disciple.

The reason why Gan Guoyang wants to improve his steals is actually very simple, in the summer training with Olajuwon that year, under the witness of Drexler, Olajuwon made a bet with him that whoever has a low number of steals in the new season will treat the other party to ice cream for a month.

In 87, Olajuwon averaged 1.9 steals per game, and in 88 it rose to 2.1, where did you think Gan Guoyang could average 2.5 steals per game.

The consequences of the bet are of course very simple, in July in Houston Olajuwon invited Gan Guoyang to eat ice cream every day, and Gan Guoyang wanted to vomit after eating it.

However, this also shows Gan Guoyang's determination to work hard at all costs to achieve his goals, and at that time, in order to improve tackles, his training content added a lot of guard-style training, and the center training did not decrease at all.

Therefore, Bellman also believes at this moment that Gan Guoyang will definitely do what he says.

………………

At seven o'clock in the evening, the crowd in the Memorial Coliseum was surprisingly large, and it is rare for a normal preseason game to have such a large number of spectators, and it is clear that everyone is coming to see the newcomer to the Trail Blazers, Sabonis.

"This guy is huge, and I think we've got another Mark Eaton to our squad." Some fans on the sidelines said when they saw Sabonis warming up on the field.

"I think he's a little more flexible than Eaton, and I don't know how many blocks he can average every game in the new season."

"I'm bet, four, oh no, three, he probably won't have that much playing time."

"I guess it's two, Gan alone can give three to the other party, and if there are three more, others don't have to shoot on our inside."

So far, most fans have thought of Sabonis as an interior defensive gate like Mark Eaton, and they had no idea what kind of change he would bring to the Trail Blazers on the offensive end.

But at this time, on the field, Gan Guoyang was busy catching up with his old friends.

"Rookie, what are you going to drink after the game?"

"No, I don't drink. When did you become an alcoholic? It's not like you. Don't tell me you're in the habit of smoking and drinking......"

"Oh my God, can you put away your preachy look, you look like your Secretary of State Schultz, I tell you, even if I drink all the brandy now, I can still blow you all up."

After Gan Guoyang finished speaking, he walked to the three-point line with the ball, and a super long-distance three-point shot, the ball hollowed into the net, attracting a burst of exclamation from the fans on the sidelines.

Chatting with Gan Guoyang was none other than Gan's opponent in high school, Sacramento High School point guard Kevin Johnson.

Although he entered college with Gan Guoyang, Kevin Johnson chose to complete four years in college to get a degree, and then participated in the 1987 draft.

The Cleveland Cavaliers selected the No. 7 player with the seventh pick in the first round, but Johnson did not have a good time with the Cavaliers, because the Cavaliers already had an excellent starting point guard, Mark Price, so Johnson, the No. 7 rookie, could only play as Price's bench.

So, before the trade deadline, the Cavaliers and Suns made a multiplayer big deal to send Johnson to Phoenix, and "Purple Lightning" became a swift rattlesnake in the Arizona desert.

After coming to the Suns, Kevin Johnson's playing time has increased, and his stats have also risen, from an average of 7 points and 3 assists per game to the level of a standard starting point guard with 12 points and 8 assists.

However, the Suns still finished ninth in the West and unfortunately missed the playoffs.

This summer, the Suns caught big fish in free agency with a naked signing for Supersonic power forward Tom Chambers.

In this way, the Suns dominated by Adams and Larry Nance are a thing of the past, and an inner and outer iron triangle lineup with Tom Chambers, Jeff Hornacek, and Kevin Johnson as the core has taken shape, supplemented by Eddie Johnson and Almon Gilliam, and a new Suns have risen in the west of the league.

………………

After chatting with his old friend, Gan Guoyang returned to the sidelines, took off his clothes, and began to prepare for this preseason game.

In his eyes, Kevin Johnson is no match for him, and in at least three years, the Suns are bound to rise, but not enough to threaten the Trail Blazers.

After a simple entrance ceremony, Gan Guoyang once again stood in the center of the court, although it was not an official regular season, but the journey of the new season was about to start here.

Gan Guoyang had never felt so well prepared, and he couldn't wait.

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