Chapter 639: Chapter 197: This Is a Massacre!
This leaves people with a good impression!
Players who played for the Lakers last season have different feelings, similar to the moment when Jason Williams and Zhang Hao called Kenny Anderson "Boss" again at their reunion.
Even the Magician, Zhang Hao politely called "Mr.", and the newcomers Barkley and O’Neal were also called "Mr.", indicating that Kenny Anderson holds a special place for Zhang Hao...
Kenny Anderson always kept an eye on O’Neal and other teammates, noticing O’Neal’s silence and the others not saying much, he was inwardly pleased and responded, "I got it, what about the others?"
"The others... I’ve been in touch with the coaching staff these days. I’ve memorized and studied all the latest tactics given to me by the Lakers’ coaching team, they might change afterwards, but the framework is set. We can start familiarizing ourselves with the team’s tactical framework. Without the coaching staff, we start with small area collaborations. Like Mr. O’Neal’s iso plays, needing good perimeter passers and a space-oriented lineup, we can practice a bit..."
When Kenny Anderson voiced his opinion again, O’Neal finally snapped back to reality, and then he heard Zhang Hao’s words.
"The training camp hasn’t even started yet, and you’ve already worked all this out?" O’Neal heard this and indeed felt a bit of respect. Although he doesn’t put in effort, he does feel guilty without any intention to change, but it doesn’t stop him from admiring those who work hard.
This is so... relentless.
Though he dislikes Zhang Hao, O’Neal’s dislike stems purely from their past rivalry where Zhang Hao caused him trouble multiple times, especially during their matchups. Just recalling, he wants a real-life PK with Zhang Hao.
However, regarding Zhang Hao’s seriousness, diligence, and strictness, O’Neal has no doubt. If he weren’t like this, how could he conceive of a devious "Hack-a-Shaq" tactic?
"Mr. Xiao, if we run a high post play, you’re the tactical core, I’ll play mid-range, Mr. Barkley can have penetration or post-up opportunities, Doug can iso..."
"For wing-focused offense, I along with Mr. O’Neal, Mr. Barkley, and George can form pairs. At this point, we’ll rely on you, Mr. Johnson. I know you’re really good at this.
If we have a shooter-focused offense, it should be played when Boss Kenny is on the court, frontcourt responsible for distraction, saving energy, can also act as a change of pace..."
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"Before the coaching team returns, we can practice small area collaboration more, see which combinations work well and which don’t, we abandon those and consider more possibilities.
There’s a tactic in the Tactical Manual requiring us to play full-court press, but I think it’s unnecessary. Mr. Barkley and Mr. O’Neal can play that way but it would waste too much energy. We could opt for defensive set plays after retreating.
I’ve analyzed it, our tactics might be quite flexible because our lineup is strong with many possibilities. I believe Coach Harris can integrate our small area collaboration into the tactical framework..."
Zhang Hao talked non-stop for half an hour, the teammates progressed from "listening to Boss’s arrangement" initially, to surprise, shock, respect, and ultimately... listening attentively, mentally preparing for the new season.
Even O’Neal, although he recognized Zhang Hao’s tactical abilities, did not anticipate Zhang Hao could truly make such a complete arrangement!
Even some NBA head coaches don’t have this capability, right?
Many NBA head coaches create a bunch of tactics, making players practice each one, learning the results afterward, especially with new coaches or lineups, it often undergoes a lengthy adaptation phase.
But Zhang Hao, a 19-year-old second-year player, can sort out in advance who should focus on which collaboration and which lineup suits which rhythm... not just that, he even actively eliminated some tactics.
Moreover, the eliminated tactics were precisely those O’Neal disliked!
Besides this, meticulously listening to Zhang Hao’s words, he found that, compared to others, his tactical part was often the simplest, summarized in a sentence: "Pass the ball to O’Neal, score"...
The training volume Zhang Hao arranged for him was absurdly small!
Originally, after the Magician’s speech, it should be the teammates’ first gathering for self-introductions, etc. This morning he didn’t intend to start training right away. Today wasn’t even supposed to be a training day, just a gathering, possibly going out for fun in the afternoon, having a group meal in the evening, followed by training in two weeks...
Who would have thought Zhang Hao genuinely believed it was for training, and made arrangements for it!
Crucially, Zhang Hao actually absorbed the base version of the Tactical Manual prepared by the coaching staff over the past 10 days! Even the few training camp contract players had training tasks arranged by Zhang Hao!
Also, because Zhang Hao demonstrated seriousness combined with his consistent motivating abilities, the teammates, regardless of their physical readiness, were mentally prepared and even inclined towards the readiness for the new season.
O’Neal was still in shock. The Magician on the side, quietly went to make a call, canceled the reservation for lunch, prepared to order delivery... considering it, he still kept the reservation for dinner, ensuring the new teammates wouldn’t be too exhausted by Zhang Hao, the training fanatic. He planned to conclude training at a certain time in the afternoon, since they had just assembled. Others may not be maintaining training, directly increasing intensity could lead to easier injuries than improvements.
Unconcerned about this half-day.
But support is needed. The Magician thought Zhang Hao was "too aggressive," so he decided to control the pace himself.
Today’s situation was completely unexpected for everyone, who could have thought Zhang Hao and others weren’t even on the same channel?
Precisely because of not being on the same channel, Zhang Hao unintentionally hit the right notes. He believed they could immediately dive into training, and with Kenny Anderson back, it felt like returning to ten months ago, when he, as the backbone of the Brooklyn Nets, habitually guided teammates tactically and in training...
Determining the pace after, the Magician started warmup preparations, leading by example. Sixteen players were warming up with the help of trainers, except for one person not knowing what to do.
This time, it was O’Neal’s turn...
Everyone else was assigned tactical roles in small collaborations. O’Neal certainly had roles too, but those roles in his tactics didn’t need training!
After regaining clarity, O’Neal was puzzled, "Being so nice to me? Are you trying to win me over by not giving me training content? Let me see, my tactical roles are low post catch and post-up, catch and dunk in fast break, being aware of catch and distributing to follow-up and wing shooters in a shooter-focused fast break..."
Indeed, these are styles he’s comfortable with and can handle easily.
But he doesn’t believe the second-year player, who came up with "Hack-a-Shaq" against him, would be so kind!
Suddenly, O’Neal had a eureka moment!
"So it’s that! These simple tactical roles don’t need training... he’s trying to halt my progress! So that he can surpass me in strength!
Wait, what did he call Anderson earlier? Boss?
Despicable! By specifically calling someone else ’Boss’ to mislead me, he wants to trick me into believing he doesn’t want to be the leader?
Not assigning me training? I will train! I will improve! Don’t think I’ll let you succeed!"
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