Pippen's promise to join Atalanta's coaching staff to help Iguodala was not entirely an exchange for personal investment, and Teresa specifically asked Thibodeau for a report on Iguodala before contacting Pippen, which included lateral stats, game footage and the coaching staff's evaluation of Andre's classmates.

In particular, the video material is very carefully selected by Thibodeau, who cuts out Iguodala's good physical talent, hard work and positive attitude, as well as what he feels lacking in experience and skills, in fact, the coach and the player are also a two-way choice, the player chooses the coach to value the coach's experience and sense of direction, and the coach chooses the player to see his plasticity, this video material is the subtext of Thibodeau's interpretation of Iguodala's plasticity.

After Jiang Qi and the three of them discussed, they decided to give Pippen and Iguodala enough space, the first meeting was a separate meeting between the two, and the subsequent training session will also set aside corresponding time for one-on-one special training, for the No. 6 rookie Atlanta uniform group has great expectations, in addition to the player's own talent, Jiang Qi's memory also plays a considerable role.

Among the rookies of the 2004 class, in addition to Dwight Howard, who grew into a top superstar in the era of scarcity of centers, the most valuable players after that were Iguodala, Josh Smith and Lore Deng three swing men, these three players have good physical fitness, all-round skills and positive defensive attitude, Okafor and Al Jefferson are two big men who are more adrift in the league because of frequent injuries, and Devin Harris has nothing but speed. Martin needs to take up a lot of shots, Ben Gordon can only be considered a good pitcher, Tony Allen is a good defensive striker, and the offense is not as good as it should be, and as for Livingston, who is known as a talented point guard, injuries have completely ruined him......

Batman's first training session only told Iguodala one sentence, "Whatever the team needs most at any given time, it's your defense." ”

Subsequently, he asked Thibodeau to come to Crawford to do a 1v1 confrontation with Iguodala, and then after each round, he would correct the details of Iguodala's defensive movements.

"The person we have to defend is always the main scorer on the outside, and once we limit this person, half of the team's victory is in the pocket, so defense is the premise of winning." Pippen looked solemn, "In my opinion, there are only two tricks to defense, one is to master the most suitable defensive distance for yourself, and the other is to improve your own experience system as soon as possible." ”

"The control of the defensive distance depends on whether the details of your defensive actions are standardized and effective enough, as for the experience system...... That requires you to be familiar with the characteristics and habits of all the outside scorers in the league, and remember that videotapes are your best buddies! ”

Although Pippen only gave Iguodala a lesson, the test came sooner, and the night after the first training session, the Atlanta Hawks continued to host their direct opponent in the playoffs, the Washington Wizards, at Phillips Arena.

The Washington Wizards have been in good form lately, and since the start of the regular season, they have maintained a winning rate of more than 50%, and what makes Iguodala and the Hawks coaching staff even more solemn is the Washington Wizards' luxurious outside line.

Arenas, the big general who switched to point guard, can average more than 25 points per game, and his unreasonable shots from outside the three-point line are always extremely maddening, and the pull-up jump shot rate is also quite high after the cross-dribble is continuously changed backwards.

Scoring guard Larry Hughes, the 98-year-old No. 8 rookie, can be regarded as a fish in water after finding a backcourt partner like a general, Larry Hughes is a quality man, likes to dunk after breaking through, with a super firepower point like Arenas as an attraction, Hughes can find an outside breakthrough more easily, so he can contribute an average of 22 points per game this season, and Hughes is also the Wizards' outside defensive gate, with outstanding 1v1 ability, and an average of less than 3 steals per game is the league's best.

The small forward position is the All-Star player Antoine Jamison, Jamison's comprehensive skills allow him to theoretically play from the No. 1 position to the No. 5 position, pull to the outside line to shoot three-pointers, stand under the basket and be able to grab rebounds alone, the comprehensive scoring means are what Jamison is proud of, and it is also a booster for the Hawks' defense to face an escalation of difficulty, Antoine Jamison averaged 19 points per game.

In this way, the Wizards' three players combined will score at least 65 points per game, which is a rather terrifying statistic, and it is no wonder that Thibodeau has a solemn face all day.

Compared to the outside, the Wizards' interior seems to be much more mediocre, Haywood, a standard blue-collar with parallel champion Kwame Brown, looks naturally harmless, but the defensive ability of these two players is actually above the level, and it is also an obstacle to the Hawks' interior offense.

But in general, the Washington Wizards are almost a shooting team, and how to limit Arenas, the leader of the Wizards, has become a top priority to beat such a team, and this extremely difficult task falls on Iguodala.

You know, the current Arenas is definitely a top-level outside line that can be compared to the same characters like Tracey!

Veteran Van Exel's injury is still unhealed, Crawford continues to play as the starting point guard, Iguodala and Josh Smith appear in the starting lineup, one is Arenas, the other is in rotation, and the Hawks' defensive intensity is escalating. Inside Al Jefferson is a big forward, but against Kwame Brown, AJ is not superior in terms of physical fitness, otherwise Brown will not be the champion, and the Frenchman Dio was directly pushed to the center position, but he will be more pulled to the high position as a center, so Haywood will be more uncomfortable.

The Washington Wizards didn't change anything, with Haywood, Kwame Brown, Jamison, Hughes and Arenas all in between.

Haywood won the jump ball, and Arenas took control of the ball to start the Wizards' first-round offense, and it was Iguodala standing in front of him.

"You have to remember that the tape is your best friend!"

This is what Pippen has repeatedly emphasized, Iguodala is a good child, so he watched the Wizards' footage more than a dozen times, especially the offensive footage of Arenas in it.

He carefully maintains a defensive distance, Arenas likes to shoot abruptly, but this does not mean that the general will not break through, the general's first step is not super speed, but it is fast enough, especially the foreplay of cross-dribbling and shaking the center of gravity is very high-frequency, and you need to be careful.

From the point line with the ball, Iguodala responded with a pressing defensive stance, more aggressive, more focused, and deliberately widening the lateral distance of his body to ensure that he could keep up with Arenas' possible breakthrough in time.

The general suddenly dribbled to the right and broke through, and Iguodala keenly noticed that he didn't step on this step, so he focused on kissing and used his long arm span to limit him, and then saw Arenas in front of him retract his steps and jumped up...... Sure enough, it's a feint!

Iguodala's physicality was on full display at this moment, and the tip of his right finger struggled to touch the arc of Arenas's high throw.

"Rebound!" Iguodala shouted to his teammates, and in the first round, he won!

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