After the game against the Cavaliers, the Suns began to methodically deal with Stoudemire's knee injury as they prepared to travel to Charlotte in the East to begin their road journey.

In the summer, Xiao Si had a slight discomfort in his knee, but after the examination, there was no major problem, and with Xiao Si's persistence, he still played the first three games and was in quite good shape.

Just didn't expect to play against the Cavaliers, Xiao Si still had an accident, and the next morning, the team doctor immediately took Stoudemire to the hospital for an MRI examination, and the results will come out 20 minutes after the examination. Leon and Cole accompany Xiao Si to the hospital, where they anxiously await the results.

And the results came out quickly, Xiao Si did not have any problems with his knee, it was a hard injury, a slight contusion caused by the fierce confrontation in the game, and the team doctor diagnosed that as long as he rested for two weeks, Xiao Si would be able to return to the game, and there would be no big problems.

Hearing this result, Leon and Kerr were greatly relieved, this is already the best result, as long as Xiao Si is not injured, then this season's Suns will continue to maintain the championship competitiveness.

Leon looked at Kerr and found that Kerr had dark circles on his face, it seemed that he definitely didn't sleep well last night, Leon said: "Now you can rest assured, now you should focus on signing Grant, I think he can appear on the court as soon as possible." ”

"I contacted Grant's agent last night, as well as Grant himself, and he'll be coming to Phoenix tonight to discuss the specifics of the contract tomorrow," Kerr said. And then the medical examination, the contracting, the estimation ... It is estimated that he will be able to catch up with Miami. ”

The Suns have four road trips to the East, the third of which is against the Miami Heat, which means that the first two games against the Charlotte Bobcats and the Atlanta Hawks will see the Suns face a shortage of forwards.

Kerr looked at Leon's face with some concern and said, "I think with your level, you can play in the NBA by pulling five random people from the street, and you see we won in the second half." ”

"I can pull five random people to play in the NBA, but it doesn't mean I can win," Leon said. And the Cavaliers because the first half laid the advantage, and hit the opponent by surprise. Now that the other party knows that we have injured Amare, they will definitely make targeted arrangements, which is difficult to say. ”

Leon's concern is justified, without Xiaosi, the Suns' offense collapsed a corner, even if they got a good result like this in 06, but now it's 08, another two years have passed, and Nash is two years older. Moreover, the team's run-in on the offensive side must have been interrupted because of this, they have been getting better and better, and in the first half of this game, they are playing the possession ability of a championship-level team.

But this little difficulty, of course, did not bother Leon.

In the evening, the team flew to Charlotte to prepare for their road trip to the East tomorrow, and for the West team, going to the East for a road trip is more of a tour than a challenge, especially against a strong team like the Suns.

Four opponents, Bobcats, Hawks, Heat, Magic, except for the Hawks, who are more mature and slightly threatening, the other three teams are completely at a disadvantage, and the Suns are still sure to defeat their opponents even if they let a Stoudemire.

On the plane, Leon sat in the front seat, holding a notebook in his hand to paint, he was ready to be a hands-off shopkeeper, the early operation is good, the late A passes, and then start the micro-manipulation when it comes to the playoffs, and now Xiao Si's injury has disrupted his beautiful plan.

He decided to start a training session tomorrow morning and take the whole team to practice the new tactical ideas to ensure that the team can play at a high level in the next games.

After arriving at the hotel in the evening, Fox Leon organized a few assistant coaches together for a short meeting to discuss tomorrow's training plan and some tactical arrangements for future games.

'I don't think we need to make any adjustments, it's a little injury and a no-brainer, the players have the experience and the ability to deal with it, just let them play as usual. As long as there is no shortage of Steve, the team's offense is not to worry about. ”

Brother Dan D'Antoni thinks Leon has overreacted a bit, but he has only missed two weeks, and he has missed a season before, so he doesn't need to make any special arrangements, just run.

Leon knows that Dan has always had some objections to replacing Mike and making him an assistant coach with Mike D'Antoni, so he often raises some objections when the team is in a meeting.

Mike D'Antoni said: "There's some truth to what Dan says, but I think maybe it's an opportunity, we got Dior out in '06 and now maybe we can experiment with other ways of playing. ”

"Two weeks, just two weeks, we experimented with a lot of play in the offseason, but in the end there were probably only one or two that really worked, let alone in the playoffs, and I think we've had enough of it this year," said D'Antoni. I think it's a good choice to start Turyaf and continue to play the way you are playing and get through this time. ”

Everyone else has expressed some of their opinions, which are roughly the same as Dan, thinking that the most important thing in the regular season is stability, and there is no need to make unnecessary adjustments for the absence of a player, just play normally, and several teams in the East are not strong.

Everyone talked for a while, but Leon kept silent, and seeing that everyone was talking about the same, Leon said: "I am unfortunate to tell you that I have asked everyone to come here for a meeting, not to discuss anything, but to inform you what we should do next." I hope you can understand, originally I wanted to continue to run in like this, but now the situation has changed slightly, and I have an idea that I need you to help me instead of opposing me. ”

Since Leon came to the Suns, he has always seemed more casual, and many things are let go of others to manage as before, but when he became serious, these assistant coaches remembered that this guy is also a championship coach, and his temper and iron fist are famous in the league.

Everyone stopped talking, Dan looked at Mike, Mike motioned him to shut up with his eyes, so Leon continued to talk about his plan, and his adjustment plan is actually very simple, is to let Turiaf start, but not let him be the main lineup, their main lineup will be Nash, Bale, Marion, Dio plus Dudley pure small lineup.

The Suns tried this lineup in '06, when they would use James Jones at the small forward position, but it didn't work too well, and most of the time D'Antoni still started with Kurt Thomas as a center, if it weren't for the fact that Thomas was also plagued by injuries.

Now León is coming back to do the trick, and D'Antoni is experienced, asking: "Do you just want to experiment purely or do you want it to become a regular tactic for the team?" If it's just a trial, I'd say I've used this lineup, and it didn't work very well because the interior defense was terrible. If it becomes a regular tactic...... Well, the evaluation is the same as the previous one. ”

Leon said: "I want to experiment and hope that he can become a regular tactic, believe me, Mike, although Amare's absence is a challenge, it is also an opportunity. You took this opportunity two years ago, you didn't take advantage of it last season. Let's try it, from the next game, you know, we've got a lot to do this season, we're nowhere near where we need consistency because we haven't won the title yet. ”

Leon finally persuaded the coaching staff with "coercion and temptation", and the next day in the Charlotte training gym, the whole team began to practice the small lineup; This lineup is actually familiar to the players, and it has been used occasionally in past games, so there is no problem of rustiness.

The trouble is that this kind of lineup used to be a little overdone and didn't stay on the court for a long time, and once it stayed on the court for a long time, the defensive problems would come to the fore. So the training session was mainly about defensive issues, and Leon came up with a defensive strategy that he had thought about for a long time and practiced for three hours.

Three hours is certainly not enough, but they still have enough sessions to complete this experiment, provided that Leon can withstand the failures and criticism.