Leon's worries were not unfounded.

On January 4, the Celtics, who welcomed the Miami Heat, the second guest in the Southeast Region, suffered a heavy defeat at home. At 69:91, the Celtics didn't even score more than 70 points, and the Heat's strangled defense made the Celtics completely lose their crosshairs, and the team suffered the worst defeat of the season.

Speaking at a press conference after the game, head coach Carroll said: "The team is in a really bad state, and I can understand that there will be one or two games a season where you feel like the team is so bad that you don't deserve to play in the NBA, but it's still about how we should play in the future and how we can learn from our failures." ”

Leon sat next to Carroll in the press conference without saying a word, and after the game against the Magic, the team continued to practice passing and secondary fast breaks, and on the surface it seemed that the training effect was still very effective. However, in the middle of the game, the players seemed to enter the throes of tactical transformation, and the team's attacking rhythm was a mess throughout the game, and everyone seemed to be hesitating, looking at how far away they were from their teammates and where they should stand when they counterattacked quickly.

Unfortunately, Leon and Celtic didn't have much time to adjust, and the day after the game, the team headed to New York for back-to-back games. On the bus to the away side, all the players were closing their eyes and recuperating, back-to-back games would be a huge drain on physical strength, and last night's fiasco made everyone feel bad.

Leon was in good spirits, sitting in the front row with a playbook in his hand and pondering the tactical content, and next to him was the team's video editor, Jimmy Young, who was sleeping with big headphones listening to music.

Since O'Brien's resignation, Vogel has left with O'Brien, and Jimmy Young has become the team's sole videographer. Jimmy Young has short blond hair, a tall and thin build, and a bit of a funny look, looking like a typical Irishman.

The car was a bit bumpy on the road, but the team could actually take a regional plane to New York, although the two cities were not too far apart, but since the 911 incident, anyone who has taken a plane to New York has to weigh it.

So the Celtics also decided to take a car to New York like they did in the 60s, so Young was woken up while sleeping in Zhengxiang. He rubbed his eyes, took off his headphones, looked at his watch, and saw that he was still a short distance from New York. He couldn't sleep anymore, turned his head to look at Leon next to him, and saw that he was still reading the tactical manual.

"Don't look at Fox, you won't get motion sickness, will you?" Yang looked at Leon's serious look, sometimes he still didn't understand, a tall, handsome and strong person like him didn't go to the bubble girl to the party, and stared at a few tactical manuals and massive videos every day. Young is a very good video editor, but he doesn't have much love for basketball itself, he just cuts and collects the footage that the team needs based on experience, which is the biggest difference for him Vogel.

Hearing Jimmy's words, Leon took his eyes off the playbook, collapsed on the backrest and closed his eyes to rest, he said: "I don't get motion sickness now, I get motion sickness." ”

Leon's "ball-sickness" made Jimmy laugh, and he found that Leon was cold and serious on the surface, but sometimes quite humorous. After laughing, he said to Leon: "Don't worry too much, everything has a process." I don't know much about tactics or anything, Vogel does, but I know how hard it is to get a bunch of guys to change their style of play and adapt to a new style of play, especially in the middle of the season. It's like breaking a straight man, the sooner the better. ”

Leon didn't bother to pay attention to Jimmy's garbled analogy, he knew that Jimmy's words made some sense, but it didn't help solve the problem. The most beneficial thing Leon learned from Auerbach was straight-line thinking, when a problem arises, and doing whatever it takes to solve it, thinking is the straight line that connects these two points. As for other objective difficulties and subjective interferences that go around and around, they all need to be pierced by straight line thinking.

"Why don't you take it out and discuss it? It's not a good habit to do it all by yourself. Head coach Carroll, who was sitting on the other side of the aisle, said to Leon. Since the beginning of the new year, Carroll has been in charge of the team's offensive training to Leon, and he has focused more on the personal development of the players and the on-field command, as well as all the other complicated matters that the head coach has to face.

"I think it's the right choice to have the team focus on the second fast break, but in terms of formation, I think there are some minor issues, and I have adjusted the traditional second fast break formation to shorten the distance between the players and reduce the three-point threat on the wings, with the intention of reducing the chance of passing errors and increasing the chance of independent selection in the attack. But...... I always felt that there was still some problem, but I couldn't say what the problem was. Leon was proficient in almost every tactical board and movement, and his lack of practical experience came to light when it came time to put two different types of tactics together.

The second fast attack emphasizes that the opponent has returned to the defense, but the defensive formation has not yet been formed, and the use of fast attack is a direct and efficient way to score. The second fast break is often complementary to the first fast attack, and in the case of the first fast break is unsuccessful, use quick tactical coordination to beat the opponent when they are still looking for a defensive object and forming a defensive line.

Fast breaks and secondary fast breaks are the most common tactical scoring tactics for any team, but few teams elevate them to the level of a team's tactical strategy, just as Pitino elevated full-court pressing to the basic Celtics-wide defensive strategy. Leon sees the current situation of the Celtics' overly talented backcourt, but there is no master of distributing the ball, and such a rapid advance of the second fast break is theoretically very suitable for the current Celtics.

The formation that Leon just mentioned refers to the most commonly used offensive formation in the secondary fast break, with four players on either side of the bottom corner and two 45-degree three-point lines, with a big man in the low post on one side. At the heart of this tactic is that the big man who cuts inside has to penetrate the heart of the enemy as quickly as possible to become a containment force, and then the other four players have to open up the formation on the outside to give each player enough space to attack. The starting style of the tactic is often that a player in the bottom corner uses the big man to cut inside to the other side, while the ball is transmitted and transferred on the outside, and the player who cuts in to complete a strong and weak side conversion. After that, you need to consider your next choice based on the opponent's defense and the position of your players.

Generally speaking, no more than three passes will be made for the offense to be completed, because even if you can't run enough space, you can go straight to a player to single.

Leon's modification of this basic tactic is to pull the position of the player in the bottom corner of the weak side inward, and the position of the player at 45 degrees on the weak side is also closed inward, so that the original four players outside the three-point line have become two outside the three-point line and two near the three-point line. The advantage of this is that it closes the gap between the inside playmaker and the weak-side player, and once the opponent is trapped, the likelihood of making mistakes in a wide range of transfers is reduced. And Leon doesn't think the team needs to ambush four three-pointers on the outside, and proper internal pressure can enhance the team's impact on the interior and make up for the team's serious lack of offensive ability on the inside.

The idea is very good, but there will always be all kinds of surprises in practice, at least in the current two games, the Celtics' second fast break, or more dependent on the individual performance of the players, Leon's emphasis on the two principles and the new offensive formation, did not play enough.

Carol listened to Leon's words, licked her lips and nodded, then shook her head, pursed her lips harder, and said with difficulty: "Your idea is very good, but ...... To be honest, I don't have any opinion......" Carol's words made Jimmy, who was also listening carefully, laugh out loud, and after laughing, he put on his headphones and continued to listen to music, in fact, he didn't understand what Leon said.

Carol is certainly not a straw bag, but Leon's description is too abstract, and his words are vague, and only those who have a strong abstract imagination and memorize all the tactical maps and tactical changes in their minds can communicate with Leon. Carroll's strength lies in discovering the individual technical abilities of the players, rather than studying tactics.

Seeing Carol say this, Leon looked at Dick Hart on the other side, and the old man looked asleep with his eyes closed, not wanting to participate in the topic at all. He felt that he couldn't talk to Leon about tactics without a tactical board and videotapes, and he still had such a strong abstract imagination when he was older. What's more, Leon is quick and fast, and Hart can't keep up.

At this time, Leon missed Vogel a little, although he and Leon have always been at odds, and he is also a person from Pitino and O'Brien, but he has always had a unique way in tactical study, and if he is there, he may be able to play it with Leon.

"But I know someone who can definitely discuss this with you, and you can ask him for advice when you have the chance. Let me see the schedule...... In a few days, his team will be visiting Boston, so you can study it then. Carol looked at the schedule and said to Leon.

"Yes, I know who he is! Ask him well, and he won't mind. Hart, who was pretending to be asleep on the side, immediately bounced up when he heard Carroll speak, and he looked at the schedule and seemed to know who Carroll was talking about.