Durant's shot was more accurate than Hayes had imagined.

He values Durant more now, no wonder he can be the scoring champion, such height and arm span, as long as he can shoot, he can't be easily guarded. As for why Durant was not accurate in the game, it was a matter of timing his shot, and Durant often reluctantly pulled up his shot when the defender was in front of him. He was so excited, as if he would be capped if he shot a little slower.

The most important thing in shooting is rhythm, and it is the rhythm of the whole body, from bending the knee to jumping, as long as you can catch this feeling, you can shoot the ball even with your eyes closed.

Durant's mid-range shooting is particularly accurate, and the three-point shooting is slightly worse, although it is not as good as Hayes, but it is already close to the level of an ordinary shooter. At least last season, the Bobcats had a better shooting ability than players, and only Bagnani's hand could compare to Durant's.

What surprised Hayes even more was still to come, and that was Durant's defense.

In the first matchup between the Dream 8 and the sparring team, Durant was sent to defend Kobe, and as a result, Kobe Bryant shot 1-of-7 in that quarter.

It was an open training session and there were a lot of fans in attendance. Durant's play made Kobe Bryant very faceless. However, Durant was very low-key when it came to the effectiveness of defending Kobe Bryant, and he was not complacent about his defensive ability. He thinks his real effective defense is only two or three balls, and the rest of the shots are Kobe Bryant's own inability to find an offensive feeling. This should have something to do with Kobe's finger injury.

The sparring team played well, and the best performers were Durant, Mayo, and Rose. When training together, the rookies learned a lot from the stars. James, Anthony and others are also willing to give some of their experience to the rookies. After all, they are the future of American basketball.

Hayes didn't teach Durant much, which meant that Jordan told him something in the first place. When it comes to the Bobcats' rookie, the person Hayes most wants to see is Brook Lopez. Unfortunately Brooke didn't come, but it was his brother Robin Lopez who came. Robin Lopez is a pure blue-collar worker, with average offensive ability and decent defense, and can limit Howard a little, but when he encounters Stoudamire, he can only be exposed.

Hayes is looking forward to meeting Brook Lopez. In his previous life, Lopez suffered a lot with the Nets as a traditional center rare in the league. The Nets suck, and they still have Devin Harris on the outside, a pseudo-core point guard who only knows how to break through and shoot waves. As a result, Lopez's talent was not fully realized. Even so, he was able to score 18.8 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.7 blocks in his second season.

Lopez's specialty is a low-post turnaround jumper and a mid-frame shot, and he has good dribbling skills and is quick in terms of foot movement, but he doesn't have many tricks. Hayes wondered if Lopez had been trained to become a "big dream foot", and I don't know what it would become, would he become the league's No. 1 technical center, as strong as Duncan? Lopez's rebounding is certainly not as good as Duncan's, but in terms of footwork, Hayes is still confident that he can teach him to improve, after all, on the same team, there is time.

In the next few years, Lopez and Durant are likely to be Hayes' two most important helpers.

The newcomers to the sparring team have even entered the NBA, and they have already shown great potential. There was a game in the confrontation that was almost won.

In addition to Durant and Rose, there are also Love, Aldridge, Horford and others.

Lefou's big white rebounding is very strong and can fight with Hayes. Hayes is only slightly better at judging, and is on par with Le Foou and Hayes in the card position. However, Lefou's defense is too poor, his feet move slowly, and he doesn't have many blocks when defending. If he is allowed to defend Hayes alone in the game, Hayes is confident that he can easily score 60 points.

The best defenders are Aldridge and Horford. Aldridge moves fast, is good at blocking and pick-and-roll, changes defense in a timely manner, and has good physical fitness, but his strength is slightly inferior.

Horford has good speed and strength, can resist people on the inside, and can follow out in time to defend. His disadvantage is that he is only 208cm tall, but with the outlier of Hayes, people who are more than 205cm tall play inside, whether it is a fan or an expert, they no longer feel short.

In the confrontation game, Hayes played passionately, but he was the most stable person in the Dream 8 team. The success rate of one-on-one singles is super high, and a few rookies want to cry. If the master is trapped, he will choose to pass the ball and drive the whole team's attack.

In the past few days, Coach K has determined the starting lineup for the Olympic Games.

Hayes first established himself as a starting line-up, inside power forward. He is too well-rounded, and although he is only 198cm tall, he is still the best choice to start.

And then there's Kobe. Needless to say, Kobe's offensive ability can also help the U.S. team with his entanglement defense.

The starting veteran K coach at point guard chose Billups. Chris Paul and Deron Williams are more capable of scoring and excelling individually, but they are not consistent enough and like to break through too much, often not knowing what to do. Billups mainly relied on open three-pointers from the outside, did not grab opportunities, and must choose to divide the ball after the break, which can play a more effective role in the team's offense.

The center veteran K chose Dwight Howard, and Stoudamire was more of a power forward. The offense is strong and the defense is weak, and there are too many people in this team who can attack. Coach K is more inclined to players who can defend.

The starting point of the small forward position is LeBron James, Anthony has a lot of offensive means, but James is more ferocious, his tank breakthrough in the NBA is not many people can block, and in the international arena, the player is less physical, and it is even more obvious. His singles are also a weapon for the U.S. team.

Coach K is confident of winning the Olympic title, and this time the U.S. team is perfect.

In previous editions, the Dream Team was the most afraid of joint defense.

The NBA only has a popular 3-2 combination, and all defenses are variants of this formation. The other 2-1-2, 2-3, and 1-3-1 joint defense baskets must have someone under the basket, but the NBA league has a "defensive 3 seconds" rule, that is, defensive players cannot stay in the three-second zone for more than 3 seconds, so the NBA's joint defense, in fact, is left with 3-2 joint defense, and there is every reason to call the NBA's joint defense a "pseudo joint defense".

On the international stage. The Dream Team has a lot more defensive tricks to come up with, and they can choose according to the different styles of the opposing team. For example, in the last Olympic Games, 23 is generally anti-breakout, and the two people at the front end can "close the door" to clamp him when the opponent breaks through, and even if they come in, they will be blocked by two or one person at the back end, and the passing route can only go backwards. In the last Olympics, the United States suffered a big loss, and NBA players such as Iverson and Marbury who broke through were not afraid to deal with the double bag, but it was difficult for them to break through in the face of the joint defense of the entire team. That year, opponents limited the U.S. team's outside play in this way. In the end, the U.S. team won only one bronze medal. This is already relatively lucky, if it weren't for Duncan going to the Olympics, it is estimated that he would not even get a bronze medal.

This time it was different, the United States sent all the first-line stars.

They can easily tear apart the opponent's defense, and the superstars of Dream Eight have the ability to read and attack the city, which may become the biggest guarantee for Dream Eight to win gold, because most international teams have a maximum of 7 strong players, and the substitutes who appear after that have a significant difference in strength, and the 12 members of the Dream 8 team are all top players.

The Dream 8 team is very distinctive.

The first is rebounding. Hayesga Howard's interior height may not be enough, but the rebounding ability is definitely not to be said. Bosh and Stoudeyere are also good at grabbing rebounds.

Secondly, most of the American players are well-rounded. There is only one Howard in the regular center, but there are many all-round fighters. Stadamire and Bosh can play both inside positions, and James and Anthony can also play as power forwards. Hayes, the most godly, can play 5 positions.

Kidd, who competed at Sydney 2000, was the most pertinent in his assessment of the Dream 8, saying: "This team is very different from the national team at the 2000 Olympics, it's faster and more athletic. I remember in 2000 we were already very athletic, and Kobe, LeBron, Carmelo Anthony, all of them were tall and big in their respective positions. And no matter what position Hayes plays, it's a nightmare for the rest of the team. ”

Some say that this American team has only one pure pitcher, Ray Allen. That's true, but it's not accurate. Because when it comes to pitchers, in fact, the number and quality of Dream 8 can be called the strongest in history. Anthony, James, and Wade, the three leaders of the 03 golden generation, are all super scorers. And there are also "good people" like Kobe, Hayes, and Stoudeyer. It is normal for Delon, Paul, Ray Allen and others to score 30 points in a game when they are on fire. Dream 8: The only one who is not very good at attacking is only Howard.

These scorers have one thing in common: they are extremely capable of fighting from the outside, and they can even rival "Dream One".

The "Dream Team" of that year had Jordan, Bird, Pippen, and Drexler, and they were star-studded. But starting from "Dream II", no American team has gathered so many outside super attackers, and "Dream II" has Reggie? Miller, Dumas, Steve? Smith, Kevin? Johnson; "Dream Three" has "Penny" Haddawi, Hill, and Pippen. They're both very good attackers, but in terms of luxury, neither the outside attackers of "Dream II" nor "Dream Three" can compare to "Dream One" and this year's American team.

At that time, "Dream One" outscored the opponent by 43.8 points per game, and coach Chuck Daley once said: "In the future, the world will see the American team as strong as ours, but it is impossible to see such a golden combination again." Daley's "golden combination" is actually aimed at "Jordan + Bird + Magic", and he would definitely not have thought that in 15 years, there will be a combination of "Kobe + Hayes + James" in the American team.

On July 25, the Dream 8 team played a warm-up game with the Canadian men's basketball team.

Nash represented Canada in this match. With his efforts alone, he simply could not stop the attack of the American team. Coach K Sr. opted for an offensive tactic with Hayes at its core.

As soon as Hayes saw that the defender was a tall white man who looked skinny, he squeezed his back in, and easily arched inside to score a dunk.

Hayes then drew the opposing center to defend and gave the ball to Howard with a two-handed dunk. In the third round, Hayes attracted the defense and handed it to James, who followed up in the middle, and it was a one-handed dunk again! In the opening minutes, the score was pulled apart.

The difference in strength between the two sides is huge, and it is simply impossible to contend with each other. In the end, the Dream 8 team defeated Canada 143-102. Started the Olympic warm-up tour!

(To be continued)