"Defense is a team effort. When you attack, you can go solo, your points are the team’s points. But in defense, you must understand that your mistakes are also the team’s mistakes. Don’t think that just because you’ve fulfilled your duties, you’re off the hook. In defense, everyone has to be responsible for everyone else."
Bird’s approach is correct, and Gan Guoyang would not argue with him face-to-face. He would reflect on the defensive issues with his teammates.
However, in private, Gan Guoyang joked and asked Bird, "Why didn’t you think defense was a team effort when you played basketball? You always dragged us down."
Bird always replied with a "F**k You" to Gan Guoyang, then said he just wasn’t physically gifted, and that even if his abilities weren’t great, a good attitude was enough. A good attitude doesn’t mean a bad defense. Besides, poor defense from an MVP doesn’t count, right? I contributed more in offense and whatnot.
Bird was coaching for the first time, and his mindset was still somewhat impatient.
Back when he was with the Celtics, he led the team to 60 wins in his first season.
That was a team with many great veterans: Dave Cowens, Nate Archibald, Pete Maravich, Chris Ford.
The Celtics were a wholly team-oriented team. They ranked sixth in the league in average points allowed, being one of the best defensive teams.
As long as Bird was around, the Celtics’ defense was always online, even as they gradually declined in later years, they didn’t become a sieve on defense.
Therefore, Bird couldn’t stand his own team’s defense having problems, couldn’t watch the perimeter get beaten over and over again.
But remembering the 20 US Dollar bet in the first half with Gan Guoyang, Bird decided he still needed to hold back and not go yelling at the players.
Wait until the next game. If he can’t hold back next time, then he’ll yell.
Gan Guoyang’s experience was different from Bird’s. In 1984, when he first arrived at the Trail Blazers, it was a team that just knew offense and had mediocre defense.
Before Gan Guoyang arrived, they couldn’t go far in the playoffs because their defense was too terrible.
On the perimeter, Drexler was lazy, Valentine was short, and Vandeweghe was even famous for not defending.
Gan Guoyang’s only defensive partner on the inside was Mychal Thompson.
In such harsh conditions, Gan Guoyang managed to hold the fort in the Three Second Zone, slowly pulling the Trail Blazers into championship-level defense.
Today’s situation is almost identical, with a good defensive partner inside, PJ Brown, while all the perimeter players are offensive dynamos.
Therefore, Gan Guoyang has the confidence and patience to slowly elevate this team’s defense.
Before that, Gan Guoyang needs to first calm some of Van Exel’s restless emotions.
As the second half of the game is about to begin, Gan Guoyang wraps his arm around Van Exel and says, "We can’t play like we did in 1994. We need to follow some rules. However, I’ll still give you enough freedom to showcase yourself, as long as you can sit calmly on the bench, OK?"
Van Exel nods. He is certainly dissatisfied that his starter position was taken by Terry Porter.
Porter is an accomplished veteran, but currently, ability-wise, Van Exel is definitely surpassing Porter in offense.
The team relied on him to hold things together during the two seasons Ah Gan wasn’t around. Now that Ah Gan is back, he has to sit on the bench, feeling a hundred percent unappreciated.
But since Ah Gan said so, Van Exel can only hold it in, saving his energy and drive for when he comes off the bench.
As the third quarter begins, the Trail Blazers have ramped up the intensity, Bird’s scolding at halftime worked.
The Grizzlies tried to break through inside. They played well in the first half, but it was all about shooting from the outside.
This kind of offensive efficiency can’t win a game. Anyway, it’s the new season’s first home game, and the Grizzlies want to win.
As a result, the dormant Bryant Rivers from the entire first half forcefully attacked Gan Guoyang at the low post continuously, contributing to two turnovers.
Gan Guoyang stole the ball once, knocking it away before Bryant Rivers had a steady grip; another time, Bryant Rivers turned and knocked over Gan Guoyang, getting called for an offensive foul.
When PJ Brown helped Gan Guoyang up from the floor, he smiled and said, "Boss, you can draw offensive fouls now too."
Gan Guoyang smiled and replied, "I also need to keep up with the times."
Gan Guoyang didn’t used to draw offensive fouls much; he preferred face-to-face hard defense.
Before the 1990s in the NBA, drawing offensive fouls wasn’t really a common defensive habit.
Later, slick European players like Divac and Sabonis came to the NBA and brought some of those deceptive defensive tricks.
Divac was a master at drawing offensive fouls. Even someone as big as him would often fall over at the slightest contact in the paint, making the offensive players quite upset.
Rivers shook his head when he was running back on defense, planting himself firmly during positioning like he had grown into a tree, refused to budge no matter how hard he was hit.
But once on offense, with a ball one-on-one against someone, he fell over at the lightest touch, really messing with the mindset.
So far, Bryant Rivers’s stats are 0 points, 4 rebounds, 0 blocks, 1 assist, along with 3 turnovers and 2 fouls.
He’s already stopped thinking about confronting Ah Gan, aiming to just make one point; staying scoreless is just too embarrassing.
The Trail Blazers’ defense has improved, but their offense showed a problem - turnovers are too frequent.
Now it’s Gan Guoyang’s turn to be intolerant. Compared to not tolerating bad defense, Gan Guoyang finds frequent turnovers even more intolerable.
To him, turnovers are like a stain on a white bedsheet driving him crazy; he does not allow himself to make careless turnovers and hates seeing his teammates make a lot of them.