(It was late yesterday, but it was sent early today.) ）

On December 1, 1984, after playing a game against the New York Knicks, the Trail Blazers finally ended a six-game road trip to the East and flew back to Portland on December 2.

In six tough away games, the Trail Blazers have a good record of 4 wins and 2 losses, and continue to lead the Western Conference standings with a 16-4 record.

Still, this long trip to the East caused some problems for the Trail Blazers, who had a smooth start to the season.

In the first three of the six games, the Trail Blazers won relatively easily, but the battle with the Pistons became a turning point, and Gan Guoyang's impulse caused the Trail Blazers to lose a lot of strength, in addition to losing the game with the Pistons, they also returned home with a big defeat in the next game with the 76ers, suffering their first consecutive defeat of the season.

"The culprit" Gan Guoyang returned to Portland early for a separate training session, waiting for the day when he would join the team.

Finally, on December 3, the day after the Trail Blazers returned to Portland, the entire Trail Blazers team, after a well-rested experience, began full team training again at the training center.

"1-4 high attack, pay attention to the reverse run, pay attention to the cover, pay attention to the wings, Gan your pass should be faster! To judge the opportunity quickly, Clyde and Colt's chance is already out, and you have to pass it in time. Or you can get the ball into Van Dewki's hands and then you have to do a cover for him at the top of the arc before we can continue. ”

In the tactical drill training, Ramsey's roar echoed in the gymnasium, and he was still not satisfied with Gan Guoyang's high-position response ability, and Gan Guoyang's passing judgment still had many deficiencies.

Gan Guoyang also reluctantly stopped, accepting Ramsay's criticism and guidance, he knew that he still had a long way to go in the technique of passing strategy, at least he had to memorize all the tactical routines.

In Ramsay's offensive tactical system, the center forward position is extremely important, the center must be an all-rounder, able to attack, defend and pass, and play a role on the field as the tactical axis of the whole team.

After Bill Wharton retired, Ramsey tried to put Sampson in such a role, and eventually he found that Sampson was a typical man who could do anything, but nothing was top-notch, and he could only be a 70-point version of Bill Wharton at best.

After Gan Guoyang came to the Trailblazers, Ramsay's intention to train him as a second Bill has never been broken, although he also admits that Gan Guoyang and Bill actually have many differences, but he still hopes that Gan Guoyang can do as good as Bill, or even better than Bill.

Gan Guoyang doesn't think so, although he also thinks that it is very meaningful to create opportunities for his teammates in high positions, but he still hopes to use scoring to give the team enough help at critical moments.

Now listening to Ramsey's continuous emphasis on the tactical essentials of 1-4 high-post offense, Gan Guoyang can't help but be a little impatient, he still prefers to practice low-post tactics instead of always standing at the top of the arc like a point guard.

"Okay, let's start to rehearse the tactics of the next game against the Suns, and finally back at home, we have to put on a good show." Ramsey finished his tactical drills and began to prepare for the next game.

"We're going to split into two teams, and you're willing to join the second team to simulate the Suns' offense."

Generally speaking, when conducting intra-team confrontation training, they will be divided into one team and two teams, and let the two teams simulate the opponent's style of play, and then the first team will respond.

Since Gan Guoyang was still suspended and unable to play in the next game, Ramsey placed him on the second team and asked him to mimic Suns power forward Larry Nance.

The Trail Blazers won both games against the Suns, with Gan becoming a key player in both games.

In the first game, the Trail Blazers and Suns played overtime, and Gan Guoyang's crucial goal in overtime gave the Trail Blazers the victory, and Larry Nance scored more than 40 points in that game.

So in the second game, Gan Guoyang defended Nance and suppressed Nance's play, and the Trail Blazers won another victory against the Suns.

In this third game, Gan Guoyang couldn't play the main defense of Nance, and all he could contribute was to play Nance in the simulated confrontation and help the tactical preparation of the first team.

For Larry Nance, Gan Guoyang, who has played against him twice and has one-on-one defensive experience, is still a little familiar.

In the offense, Nance and Gan Guoyang are completely different players, with the same height as a big forward, one plays as a center and the other as a small forward.

However, it is not particularly difficult to let Gan Guoyang play small forward, his excellent dribbling ability and good basket attack play are very similar to Nance.

Ramsey is more worried about this game, that is, the Trail Blazers may not be able to withstand the impact of Nance on the inside without Gan Guoyang, and once Nance is opened, the Trail Blazers will not have a good time.

Playing against the 76ers, they just couldn't contain Moses Malone, which led to the team eventually losing the game.

Gan Guoyang is very happy with this task, because he will be facing Mitchell Sampson as the acting starting center on the field.

Sampson's defense is good for the Cavaliers on the inside, but he's not good for dealing with old oilers, not physical men, like Larry Nance, who is his hard work.

In the first round of the playoffs last season, Sampson was unable to contain Larry Nance, which led to a 2-3 upset loss to the Suns in the first round of the Trail Blazers, which directly led to a big trade for the Trail Blazers in the summer.

"You're going to attack from the middle, cut inside after the pick-and-roll, cut in from the outside." Ramsey is also familiar with the tactics of his old rival Suns, Nance is not very strong with the ball, but he is very good at receiving the ball and cutting inside after blocking and dismantling.

Sampson just couldn't handle Nance and was often beaten into a sieve.

Gan Guoyang made a block at 45 degrees to Colter on the right side, and then cut inside from the baseline, and Colter made a ground-hitting pass to pass the ball from Sampson and Valentine's sandwich.

After Gan Guoyang received the ball, he didn't hesitate, the basket was already empty, he jumped directly, a beautiful one-handed split dunk!

However, Gan Guoyang didn't feel much after the goal, because Sampson didn't defend at all.

"Okay, Gan, don't be so excited, although you can't play, you can save some energy in training." Ramsey looked at Gan Guoyang's beautiful dunk and said expressionlessly.

Gan Guoyang also found it very boring, but what was even more strange to him was that in the previous defense, the Trail Blazers always insisted on not changing defenses and not pinching after blocking and dismantling other teams.

In other words, according to the original defensive routine, Valentin should have squeezed past Gan Guoyang to chase Colt, and then Sampson clung to Gan Guoyang and did not relax.

This is the most traditional and conservative anti-pick-and-roll strategy, which tries to rely on the player's individual ability to complete the defense of the opposing player, ensuring a good position and not being ashamed.

The advantage of this defensive strategy is that the defense is not easy to mess up, everyone has clear responsibilities, continuity, resilience, and will not be easily broken down by the opponent.

The disadvantage is that this kind of defense lacks intensity and variety, once the opponent finds a target, the opponent will play to the death, and it is likely to beat the Trail Blazers to death.

In the five games lost by the Trail Blazers, except for the overall strength against the Lakers, the other games against the Nuggets died in English, and against the Pistons and the 76ers died in the interior hole.

On the one hand, these losses made Ramsey realize the important role of Gan Guoyang in defense, and on the other hand, Ramsey also made Ramsay think about how to successfully defend the opponent's interior attack without Gan Guoyang.

The first thing that comes to his mind is to pinch the ball carrier after the pick-and-roll.

This was a risky defensive strategy that Ramsey rarely used, and the NBA at the time, because the defensive systems of individual teams were immature, and any flanking tactics could cost dearly.

"Why did you use a pinch? Does this work? Gan Guoyang asked Ramsey with the ball.

"It may work, it may not work, but if we insist on not changing guards, I'm worried that our interior line will be under too much pressure. In that case, we just can't let the opponent's pass to the inside line. Ramsay's move can be called a bottom-of-the-pot draw.

"If I'm here, we won't have to go into such trouble, I can stop Nance." Gan Guoyang said "unashamedly".

"There are no ifs in the world, and even if you can play, it doesn't mean you can lock up Larry Nance, and sometimes you underestimate the NBA pros." Ramsey said disdainfully to Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang doesn't care, he just talks about it, he still has a number of NBA players' abilities, and it's really not that he can lock it if he wants to.

Even if the player sits at the end of the bench, there will be a day when he can't stop it, which is unguardable.

"Okay, let's keep practicing, we have enough games against the Suns, some things to pay attention to, everyone understands, tomorrow is our home game, everyone cheer."

The training continued, and Gan Guoyang, who could not appear at home in the next game, was unusually serious, and he simulated the Suns players to be happy, crazy fast, blocking and dismantling, and breaking through from the front.

He also tried his best 100 percent defensively, which made his teammates on the first team of the Trail Blazers a little uncomfortable.

When he slapped Sampson's layup, Vanderwich couldn't stand it anymore and said: "What's the matter, Gan, I haven't played for too long, and I have been venting all my energy in training?" ”

Gan Guoyang smiled and said; "I'm trying to make 'Larry Nance' a little bit stronger so that when I face the real Larry Nance tomorrow, someone doesn't get beaten too badly." 、

The person Gan Guoyang said was naturally Mitchell Sampson, but what he said was so open-mouthed that even Vanderwig's face changed when he heard it, and he couldn't help but look at Sampson next to him.

Sampson's face was naturally very ugly, he didn't expect Gan Guoyang to be so arrogant, even if he was ruthless in training, he would say such things unscrupulously.

"You'd better be careful, stinky boy, if you don't know how to respect others, then others won't respect you!" Sampson said fiercely.

"I only respect people who have strength, not guys who don't have any level but always put on a stinky shelf." Gan Guoyang replied unceremoniously.

"What do you say? You repeat! Sampson, who was holding the ball in his hand and preparing to serve in the backcourt, threw away the basketball and walked in front of Gan Guoyang, with a flash of fire in his eyes.

"I don't like guys who don't have the strength to put on a stinky shelf." Gan Guoyang did not back down and went-for-tat.

"What are you doing! Don't get me in trouble during training! Ramsey, who was on the sidelines, saw that the situation on the field was not right, and immediately yelled, and the other players also came up to persuade him.

After all, this is not a game against other teams, but training within the team, Gan Guoyang can't give Sampson a punch, and he won't do this kind of troubled thing.

But Gan Guoyang was by no means impulsive to argue with Sampson, he thought about it when he was at home, he wanted to use an opportunity to destroy Sampson's authority.

On the young team of the Trail Blazers, the oldest player is Kenny Carr except for coach Ramsey, but he is a wandering role player with a bold personality and a big brother, but not the core of the team.

Van der Vicky is currently the strongest individual player in the team and has the most tactical role in attack, but he is an outsider, with a gentle personality and no heart for being the boss.

Drexler was the ultimate true boss of the Trail Blazers in history, but despite his pride, he was also a gentleman and a gentleman, and now he cares more about starting opportunities than anything else.

Only Mitchell Sampson, a veteran who was the No. 1 pick in 1978 and has been playing for the Trail Blazers, is the nominal core player of the Trail Blazers.

However, not to mention ability, Sampson is relatively boring in personality, and many times he does not have the ability to unite his teammates, and he is not as good as rookie Gan Guoyang in this regard.

Therefore, Gan Guoyang decided to "seize power" internally and seize the position of the core of the team, just like when he was in Gonzaga and Palo Alto.

The training continued, Ramsey didn't know Gan Guoyang's little abacus, thinking that the relationship between the two was not good, so it was okay to come like this.

When the team was done, Ramsey went back to the office, and some of the other players went back to the locker room for physiotherapy or showers, and some went to the gym for some strength training.

Gan stayed on as usual to practice his mid-range shooting, along with Drexler, Vanderwiczy, Jerome Cautie, Colter, and Sampson.

Sampson never stayed to practice before, which is one of the reasons why Gan Guoyang is unhappy with Sampson, he thinks how can a team boss not practice hard? How can you not be the last one to leave the training gym?

When he was in high school and college, Gan Guoyang was the duty of the old man who acted as the janitor of the training hall, and he was responsible for opening the door early in the morning and closing the door at night.

And this time, Sampson stayed because during training, Gan Guoyang said to him, "Stay and fight alone after the end, I'm going to tear you apart." ”

In this regard, of course, Sampson couldn't back down, he also saw that Gan Guoyang had been unhappy for a long time, and wanted to take this opportunity to teach this young man a lesson.

Gan Guoyang looked at Sampson and couldn't help but think of the scene in Palo Alto, where he went to the training gym on his first day and beat Vicis in heads-up, and since then, he has become the well-deserved core of the Vikings.

"Then let's get started, old man."