Studying game footage after a game is something that many coaching staff often do, especially when it comes across games that are worth studying. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info For example, if the team loses or the team wins, or the coaching staff sees that the team has made a lot of mistakes during the game, or when the team is strong in attack or defense.

The game against the Bulls is one of the games that the Spurs can study, because the Bulls are the representative team that has a good defense.

So on the second day of the game against the Bulls, the Spurs coaching staff, who were not playing, sat down together to study the video with the Bulls.

The game was undoubtedly a stalemate, at least for the first two quarters or so, and the turning point came at the end of the third quarter.

After the Spurs coaching staff watched the video of the whole game, Popovich fixed the picture on the picture of Li Yang yelling at Noah after completing the dunk against Noah's defense, which was also the biggest turning point of the game.

"What do you think of Young?" Popovich asked as he turned to his assistants.

Several Spurs assistant coaches glanced at each other, not seeming to understand what Popovich meant.

Li Yang has a lot of potential, his physical talent is very good, and he is very energetic and positive on both ends of the floor, which is something that the Spurs coaching staff have agreed on, otherwise the Spurs would not have chosen to sign Li Yang with a formal contract, you know, they have always wanted to sign the Australian big man to supplement the interior line.

Of course, Li Yang's biggest shortcoming is also clear to the Spurs coaching staff, that is, his single offensive means and very poor projection ability.

It is precisely because they are very clear about Li Yang's obvious advantages and disadvantages that the assistant coaches of the Spurs don't know what Popovich is asking at this time.

"His performance on the pitch was a bit unexpected. ”

Lead assistant coach Mike Budenholzer was the first to answer, speculating that Popovich might be asking about Li Yang's performance in this game.

Mike Budenholzer has been with Popovich for the longest time on the coaching staff, and his guess was so accurate that Popovich was quick to signal him to continue.

Mike Budenholzer continued, pointing to Li Yang on the screen and said: "Young is very good at taking chances on the court, he has more energy on the court than in training, including his reaction when he finishes a great performance, when was the last time someone on our team yelled at an opponent? I don't think I remember exactly, of course, pop, I mean the players, your opponent is the referee. ”

"Whoa!" said Mike Budenholzer, and the room burst into laughter, including Popovich himself, for whom yelling at both the player and the referee is a normal thing.

Sometimes fans even say that it is normal for Spurs players to be very restrained on the court, because Popovich has finished yelling at what should be yelled.

After everyone laughed, Mike Budenholzer continued: "Of course, it's not a bad thing, it's normal for young players. Well, let's talk about his performance on the court, he didn't have too many problems defensively, he did a good job on the offensive end, he did well in terms of tactical execution, but today he missed three offensive shots under the basket. ”

Mike Budenholzer pauses at this, and he thinks he should be talking about what Popovich is most concerned about.

Sure enough, Popovich immediately took over and said, "When Lee rushes inside, he's going to be very lethal, but the opponent may soon know that, Brett, if it were you, how would you defend Young?"

Popovich set his sights on Brett Brown, the assistant coach in charge of the team's defense.

"Arrange for a player with excellent physical confrontation to defend Yang's breakaways closely, and the post player pays attention to the defense, cuts Yang's passing lanes, forces Yang to attack the basket himself, and gives him more physical contact when Yang shoots. ”

Brett Brown gave his own answer without thinking too much, as the coach in charge of defense in the Spurs team, Brett Brown is very accomplished in defense, plus the observation during this period of time makes him very familiar with Li Yang's technical characteristics, so it will not be difficult to come up with this targeted defensive strategy.

"Young missed three shots under the basket today?" Popovich nodded slightly as he listened, and then asked Mike Budenholzer.

"Yes. Mike Budenholzer nodded and said, "Young doesn't seem to be particularly consistent with his layups after physical confrontations, but whether it's because of a lack of power or a poor grasp of the power of the shot, or both, we need to wait and see." ”

"Yang's upper body strength is not too bad, but it is not too strong either, and he needs to build some muscle and strengthen his upper body strength training to ensure that he can shoot more consistently when there is a physical confrontation. The team's strength and conditioning coach, Matt Herring, also said at this time.

In addition to the strength of his upper limbs that needs to be strengthened, Yang himself doesn't seem to realize that he lacks stability in his shots when he has physical confrontations, so once he has physical confrontations, he does not deliberately adjust his shots, and I think this is also a reason. Because in the game, Young can often use his speed to get a direct dunk opportunity. ”

Mike Budenholzer said again, and after a pause, he added, "But, this is the NBA." ”

Popovich nodded, motioned for himself to listen to the words of several people, turned his head to look at the team's legendary shooting coach Chip England, and then quickly turned back and said: "Chip, I won't ask you, Young's shooting stinks, probably no one can not see it." ”

"Damn, how can this guy have so many shortcomings, I think I'm starting to regret agreeing to RC to sign him because we're going to have a whole bunch of headaches going on. ”

Popovich shook his head and said, but no one present would take this sentence seriously, if Li Yang did not have outstanding talent, did not have such excellent comprehension and positive attitude, maybe they might still think that Popovich's words were true, but now, they would not believe a single punctuation.

"I'll leave this headache to you. Popovich quickly continued, "Do you need to see more clearly through some actual combat?"

"Yes, if we can, we'd like to look at a few more games from Young to do the training plan. After Popovich said this, assistant coaches Brett Brown and Chad Fuscier and strength and conditioning coach Matt Herring all nodded, the former two are responsible for player development within the team, and the latter is responsible for the physical aspects of the players.

"How many games? no, that's been too long!" Popovich shook his head, "We've got to make him a big improvement before the team is rested in April, yes, before April, and you'll see why." ”

"So, I think you'll have to start training on him after the next fight. With that, Popovich turned to Mike Budenholzer and asked, "Our next game is against the LAC (Los Angeles Clippers)?"

As soon as Mike Budenholzer heard this, he knew that Popovich was going to give Li Yang more playing time in the next game to accept the test of actual combat, so he immediately nodded and said: "Yes, they did a good job of interior defense." ”

"Well, Will, Kawhi seems to be a little tired after All-Star Weekend. Popovich turned to the team's trainer and team doctor, Will Severn.

Will Severn, who was working with Popovich on his rotation plan, quickly understood what Popovich meant, and he immediately replied, "Yes, Pop, I think Kawhi needs to rest for a game." ”

"Okay, since Ke Huai has a sore throat, let's let him rest. Popovich casually made up a reason.

The Spurs' coaching staff has seen Popovich find reasons more than once, so it's not surprising at this time, but they doubt that fans will believe it, after all, Kawhi Leonard's sore throat has nothing to do with playing because he doesn't speak.

Of course, they also know that Popovich did not think about the question of whether anyone believed it at all.