Time flies, and a month's intensive training time flies by in a flash.

Lakers management also sent away Nick Van Exel in the space of a month, trading rookie point guard Tyronn Lue from the Nuggets and second-year interior Tony Barty.

and signed the veteran two-way guard Derrick Harper, Derrick Harper can get 19.7 points, 7.1 assists and 1.9 steals in his peak season, which can be described as strong, and the Lakers signed Harper Sr., obviously with the intention of strengthening the depth of the bench.

Harper Sr. is also a type of player that Del Harris admires, with good defense, willingness to pass the ball, and a three-point hand, making him a good team player.

With the signing of Derrick Harper, the Lakers' recruitment work has come to an end, and they have formed a 14-man squad.

Point guards: Derrick Fisher, Derrick Harper, Tyronn Lue, Sam Jacobson

Shooting guards: Kobe Bryant, Eddie Jones

Small forwards: Rick Fox, Ruben Patterson

Power forwards: Robert Horry, Tony Barty, Corey Blunt

Centres: Shaquille O'Neal, Elden Campbell, Shaun Lukes

The 14-man squad is formed, and the new season has begun.

On 02/3/99, 2 days before the opener, Del Harris had finished his team's physical training and stepped up practice of blocking and pick-and-roll tactics.

"Shaq and Bryant have been very good together, but the movement of the other players needs to be improved." Bill Polka holds a tactical board and observes the training match in progress.

Qiao Hai is still the referee, and he is also observing this training match.

I have to say that Del Harris's coaching staff training is still very strong, in just one month, the Lakers have practiced many sets of blocking and dismantling tactics, single block and double block, secondary block and dismantle, three block and dismantle, blocking and dismantling without the ball, blocking and dismantling with the ball, etc., the Lakers' blocking and dismantling tactics have been enriched all of a sudden.

However, Qiao Hai is still not optimistic about the future of this set of blocking and dismantling tactics in the Lakers, and after a month of observation, he found the biggest problem in this set of tactics - Shaquille O'Neal's position is too far away.

Shaquille O'Neal is the dominant player in the penalty area, but in order to play the pick-and-roll, O'Neal has to often pull to the outside, but this has invisibly weakened O'Neal's threat and containment on the inside.

Of course, if you really want to play blocking and dismantling tactics, if it is Qiao Hai, he will increase the frequency of blocking and dismantling tactics, and increase the number of times O'Neal appears in the penalty area to a certain extent.

At the same time, tilt the center of gravity of the ball to Kobe Bryant, enhance Kobe's containment and threat on the outside, and make Kobe Bryant the absolute core of this set of tactics.

But...... Helplessly, Del Harris is too superstitious about Shaquille O'Neal, the core of the whole tactic is still O'Neal, Kobe Bryant will get a certain amount of the ball, but most of the ball still belongs to O'Neal, in order to let O'Nealdo take the ball to attack, Del Harris even asked O'Nealdo to shoot in the middle distance.

Of course, O'Neal's mid-range firepower is still there, but it is far from being as good as his penalty area deterrence, so in order to play this set of blocking and dismantling tactics, Del Harris is a little reluctant to play this set of tactics, which is the main reason why Qiao Hai is not optimistic about the success of this set of tactics.

But it seems that Del Harris is very confident in this set of blocking and dismantling tactics, and after practicing the tactics this day, Del Harris directly waved his hand, announcing that he will have a day off tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow will return with all his staff, ready to start a difficult shrinking new season.

The players are on vacation, but the coaches are not, as they still need to have a pregame conference to set up for the Houston Rockets, the opener's opponent.

It's still a conference room, the last pre-season meeting made Qiao Hai's senses very bad, but Qiao Hai at least had a say in the last pre-season meeting, and this pre-game meeting, Qiao Hai was directly excluded.

Del Harris presided over the meeting, Bill Polka and others expressed their opinions one after another, and although Qiao Hai raised his hand, he was directly ignored by Del Harris.

"Clyde Drexler retired, but this season the Rockets brought in Scott Pippen, so the Rockets are still a Big3 lineup, and we need to pay attention to their interior, the combination of Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley is strong, so, I suggest that Elden (Campbell) start, strengthen the interior defense, and let Elden go against Hakeem Olajuwon......"

Bill Polka came up with his idea, and Del Harris kept nodding his head, and it was clear that the two of them were on the same page.

Indeed, just looking at the lineup, Hakeem Olajuwanga's Charles Barkley combination is what the Rockets rely on the most, with one of the two being a center and the other being a power forward, forming an alternative two-tower lineup, but Bill Polka completely ignores the Rockets' perimeter.

From the perspective of Qiao Hai, a traverser, the outside lineup of the rocket is not bad.

Scott Pippen naturally needless to say, although Scott Pippen played very average this season when he joined the Rockets, but at least it is a strong point on the outside, in addition, the data shows that there is a future star scoring guard in the Rockets - the old cat Catino Mobley, plus the rookie Michael Dixon, who scored 18.2 points in his peak season, the Rockets' outside scoring points are not small.

Qiao Hai wanted to raise his hand to remind, but Del Harris didn't even look at it, and directly clicked on another assistant coach to express his opinion.

"Strengthen the interior defense and let Kobe Bryant defend Scott Pippen......"

Del Harris's coaching staff was so hot that even Cortlambis couldn't interject, Qiao Hai and Cortlambis looked at each other and smiled, and the two made an excuse and walked outside the door of the conference room, each with a cigarette......

"What do you want to say when you raise your hand?" Cortambis noticed Qiao Hai's raised hand, so he actually wanted to know Qiao Hai's thoughts.

Qiao Hai smiled: "It's nothing, I want to remind Del that the outside line of the rocket should not be underestimated, if you hoard the inside line with heavy troops, be careful of the outside line of the rocket burst." ”

"Outside line? Who else is there on the outside but a Scott Pippen? ”

"Michael Dixon, he's a lottery pick, the position is still the Rockets' scarcest point guard, and Catino Mobley, I've followed this rookie, and although he wasn't selected until the second round, I think he's a lotto-caliber rookie, and he can't be ......underestimated either."

Cortlambis shook his head, in terms of tactics, Cortlambis believed in Qiao Hai's judgment very much, but now, for Qiao Hai's vision of judging the player's ability, Cortlambis was a little disbelieving.

He, like Del Harris, doesn't think these two rookie players can threaten the Lakers.

Qiao Hai also sensed Cortlambis's disbelief, and he smiled and said the second question.

"Actually, there's another problem, defense."

"Defense?"

"Yes, preseason training, the team has not practiced any defensive tactics, and this game is also a counterpoint defense tactic, but can the opposing defense really prevent the Rockets?"

Qiao Hai asked a question, and Cortlambius was stunned.

If you think about it, there is indeed a problem.

Hakeem Olajuwon is not a one-on-one defense can be prevented, and Charles Barkley is the same, although one of them is 36 years old, the other is not yet 36 years old, they are old, but the decline in form is not large, and the strength is still at the end of the peak, which is not something that Elden Campbell can defend at all.

Shaquille O'Neal is also not known for his defense, so there will be more problems on the inside after the adjustment.

But the second question raised by Qiao Hai made Cortlambis more determined: Qiao Hai is good at tactical arrangement, but the judgment of the player's ability is amateur level.

……

After Cotlambises and Qiao Hai left the conference room, there were only Del Harris's own people in the conference room, and after several people discussed tactics, they talked about Qiao Hai.

"I don't know what that Chinese Joe wants to say."

Bill Polka was a little disdainful: "Whatever, a hairy boy, always mentioning this and that, what does he know?" ”

"That's right, a kid who is only 23 years old, he doesn't have much experience, but he has a lot of ideas, if you want me to say, a coach of this age, just sit next to it and listen......"

Del Harris smiled and clapped his hands: "Okay, okay, let's not talk about it, a coach like this who is inserted by the board of directors, just ignore him......"