warrior godfather

Chapter 493 Popovich
Oakland, California.

In a slightly old training hall, the Spurs are training.

A day ago, the Spurs flew from San Antonio to the Bay Area to prepare for the Western Conference Finals against the Warriors.

Tomorrow, the Spurs and the Warriors will start the first game of the series. They didn't waste any time. After getting off the plane, they rested for half a day and immediately put themselves into training.

On the field, assistant coach Mike Budenholzer was loudly instructing the Spurs players to practice tactics. Popovich stood on the sidelines with his arms folded, watching the team with serious eyes for training.

The old coach is getting older and older, his energy is not as good as before, and he rarely goes off to direct training in person.

Anyway, Budenholzer has been with the Spurs for more than ten years, and he knows the tactics of the Spurs well, and he has a tacit understanding with Popovich. He is responsible for the training of the Spurs, and there is almost no difference between Popovich and Popovich. .

The Spurs' training is not complicated. As long as the GDP is still there, the Spurs' tactics will not change much. Even if they encounter the defending champion Warriors, Popovich only made some adjustments in the details, and generally still uses them. The usual tactics of the Spurs.

And he can't adjust if he wants to. The Spurs are mainly veterans, and their skills have already been finalized. Unlike those young teams, their tactics have great flexibility and there is a lot of room for adjustment.

Popovich was pacing back and forth on the sidelines, watching the smooth conduction of the GDP combination, but his brows frowned even tighter.

The Spurs were very lucky in the Western Conference semifinals. They met the Thunder without Westbrook and easily advanced to the Western Conference Finals. However, the Spurs' luck was also used up in this round of the series.

But this seems to be inevitable. The Warriors won the first two rounds of the series very easily, did not encounter effective resistance, and did not even play much at critical moments. Only one pass will do.

Popovich is worried about this.

After defeating the Thunder, he has been thinking about how the Spurs can win the Warriors.

But after thinking hard for so long, Popovich came to a conclusion that he couldn't accept-the Spurs' hope of winning the Western Conference Finals was very slim.

If you want to win the Warriors, how to limit Curry is an unavoidable problem, but Popovich is helpless against Curry.

The Spurs' perimeter defense is really bad, the front line is weak, and the guard line is weak. They can go to the Western Conference Finals, not only because their GDP strength is still there, luck is also essential, otherwise they are likely to be defeated by the Thunder in the second round of the Western Conference. eliminated.

If Westbrook is not injured, facing the Spurs' back line with Parker and Ginobili as the core, he will definitely kill the Quartet.

After all, the current Spurs do not have Leonard and Danny Green, two defensive champions.

Curry's threat on the offensive end is much stronger than Westbrook's. Defense against Westbrook can also be done by shrinking. May hurt yourself.

But if you want to limit Curry, you must expand the defensive formation to the limit. As long as there is a little contraction, Curry can severely punish the Spurs' defense with three-pointers.

The Spurs lineup is aging seriously. Duncan, the defensive core, is 37 years old this year. Although he has taken the initiative to lose a lot of weight, the reduction in movement speed is irreversible. How to defend against the Warriors' pick-and-roll is Popovich's biggest headache.

Everyone knows the horror of Curry's pick-and-roll. If Duncan squats, Curry uses the screen to hold the ball and shoot a three-pointer, which is no different from shooting an open spot.

And if Duncan switches defenses, the Spurs' inside defense will become weak, the Warriors can attack the Spurs' penalty area, and Splitter's frame protection is not enough.

Is it only possible to pinch Curry and prevent him from making mistakes?
But Curry's ability to break double-teams is also obvious to all. In the finals last season, under the attack of the Heat, he rarely made mistakes. Erstra couldn't bear it anymore, so he gave up the flank attack on Curry and changed back to single defense, but Curry immediately broke out.

During the offseason, a reporter found news about the Bulldogs. At that time, Zhang Yu was interviewed by reporters and said that Curry had been practicing how to break double-teams since he changed to point guard in his freshman year and never stopped.

After seeing this news, people were very surprised. Did Zhang Yu know that Curry could be strong enough to force opponents to attack him in the NBA?

But this also proves from the side that Curry's ability to break double-teams is hard practiced, and he has been practicing and will only become stronger and stronger.

Moreover, Curry's ability to play the ball is only one aspect. The support of other Warriors players is the fundamental reason why Curry is not afraid of being double-teamed.

During Curry's rookie season, Popovich once double-teamed him in the regular season. Later, when the Warriors faced the Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals, Carlisle also double-teamed Curry, which achieved very good results.

But that was because Curry had no helpers around him at the time, and Butler hadn't grown up yet. Later, when the Warriors faced the Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals, Clay and Green were just first-year rookies.

But now, Butler, Clay, and Green have all grown up and become Curry's right-hand men, who can give him strong support when Curry is double-teamed. Forced to change the defensive strategy.

On the bench, Leonard also performed very well. Zhang Yu made a bold change in the finals and let Leonard replace Green. On the basis of maintaining Chandler's inside deterrence, the Warriors' offense was maximized. Space, achieved very good results, reversed the situation of the game in one fell swoop, and regained the initiative.

And Leonard's progress is what hurts Popovich the most.

Two years ago, Budenholzer strongly recommended Leonard to him for the draft. Popovich had no interest in Leonard at first, but after repeated persuasion by Budenholzer, he finally Agreed, reluctantly parted ways, traded George Hill and the Pacers in exchange for Leonard.

As a result, the Warriors came out halfway and picked Leonard at the seventh overall pick, breaking Popovich's wishful thinking.

Popovich breathed a sigh of relief not having to send away the well-trained George Hill, but Zhang Yu's optimism for Leonard also made him a little uneasy, feeling as if he had missed a good player.

Later, Leonard's performance made Popovich more regretful.

Leonard showed excellent defense and corner three-pointers in his rookie season. He is a very high-quality 3D player and played an important role in the Warriors' way to the championship.

This season, Leonard has gone one step further, his defense has reached the top level of the league, and he can compete with super strikers such as James, Durant, and Anthony.

His scoring ability is also improving. Not only can he shoot three-pointers from the corner, but also the fixed-point three-pointers on the left and right wings. The effectiveness is not high, but after a whole regular season of training, its efficiency has been greatly improved, and it can already be used as a conventional weapon.

Excellent defense, accurate three-pointers, autonomous offense... Leonard continued to play like this, and Popovich seemed to see a new super striker rising.

The Spurs lacked a small forward with excellent offense and defense, so they have not been able to break through the West, which made Popovich more regretful.

GDP is getting old, and no one knows that Duncan can last for a few more years, and it is impossible for a star to join the Spurs. The Spurs can only hope to find a gem in the draft to fill the vacancy of the striker.

Now it seems that Leonard is the legacy, the top striker Popovich dreams of.

But he is now a Warriors player, and judging from the fact that Zhang Yu let Leonard play in garbage time in the regular season and used a lot of shots to hone the mid-range, he attaches great importance to Leonard. If Popovich wants to make a move, he has no chance up.

"Hey……"

Thinking of this, Popovich sighed and shook his head.

It doesn't matter if the Warriors only have Leonard, the key is that the Warriors also have Butler at the best lineup level, who is also good at offense and defense, and has stronger impact and independent offensive ability than Leonard.

In the series against the Clippers, Butler averaged 22.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game. He combined offense and defense, and averaged 6.3 free throws per game, crushing the Clippers' forward line.

The Spurs' striker is not much better than the Clippers. Butler may play no less than the performance of the last round of the series. Together with Curry, he will become a nightmare for the Spurs.

It would be great if I had Leonard in my hand...

Popovich couldn't help thinking that if the Spurs could trade Leonard back then, he would definitely train Leonard to be stronger than he is now. After all, the Warriors have Butler occupying the starting position, and Leonard can't get enough training .

In the Spurs, Leonard will be the starting small forward in his rookie season, and after a lot of games, he will only improve faster.

In that case, even if the Spurs still can't defend Curry, they still have the power to fight, and Popovich won't be as helpless as he is now.

It's a pity that the Spurs are destined to miss Leonard. He can only believe in GDP and the discipline and cooperation that the Spurs rely on.

He also knows that it is difficult to beat the Warriors, but he has no other way.

Perhaps the NBA has really entered a new era, and the Spurs are already the remnants of the old era, but Popovich firmly believes that teamwork and cooperation are still the true meaning of basketball. Even in the face of a powerful defending champion, he will not admit defeat.

Popovich restrained his divergent thoughts, glanced at the players who were training hard on the field, a smile slowly appeared on his face, walked up, clapped his hands, and shouted in an old voice:
"Hey Thiago, you were supposed to set a screen for Tony, get it? Like this, a back screen, that's the key to this offense..."

……

While the Spurs were training, the Warriors were also preparing for the game.

Compared with the serious and rigorous tactical training of the Spurs, the Warriors players are more engaged in personal technical training, mainly to maintain their state.

After eliminating the Clippers, Zhang Yu gave the team a day off. After resuming training the next day, Green sincerely apologized to Butler in front of the team, and Butler also forgave him.

The two settled down, at least on the surface.

In the training game, Green was very active in covering and passing Butler, and Butler would also high-five Green to celebrate after completing the cooperation, just like before the conflict between the two.

But people with a discerning eye can still see that the two only communicated on the court. After the court, Green and Butler became strangers and would not communicate.

Zhang Yu was not surprised by this. Maybe Butler sincerely forgave Green, but Green would never realize his mistake. In other words, he didn't think he made a mistake from the beginning.

He apologized to Butler only because he knew in his heart that Zhang Yu would never allow conflicts among the players in the team, so he pretended to be sincere.

Perhaps no one knows Green better than Zhang Yu. His bloodiness and toughness are all disguised, and he only has interests in his heart.

This can be clearly seen after he was stepped over the head by James, and he still tried his best to please James.

But Zhang Yu pretended not to know about this,

However, this will not hinder the cooperation between the two. They have played together for nearly three years and are very familiar with each other. The Warriors' tactics have not changed. Even if there is no communication off the court, they can play smoothly on the court.

In fact, this should be the norm. Players are just colleagues, so how can there be so much brotherhood.

After all, the salary cap of a team is so high, and the salary space is limited. No boss is willing to pay the luxury tax. Some teammates are competitive and can only maintain superficial peace.

The happy family-like atmosphere like the Warriors before is actually very rare. This and the Warriors are all young people, and Zhang Yu, who holds absolute authority, is pressing on it. No one in the locker room dares to make trouble. big relationship.

But now, contract renewal issues are beginning to appear around these young stars, and their relationship is difficult to be as harmonious as before.

If the Warriors want to get back the previous atmosphere, they can only wait until the renewal period is over, the environment stabilizes, and the players' hearts will also stabilize.

Looking over the players who had trained seriously, Zhang Yu walked to Cole's side and said with a smile:
"Steve, tomorrow is G1, what do you think we need to make adjustments? You know Greg better than I do, so let's talk about it."

Cole thought for a moment, shook his head and said:
"No, it was discussed in great detail at the meeting before. As long as we are ourselves and play our own tactics, the Spurs are not our opponents."

"What tactics do you think Greg will use against us?"

Colton paused and said:

"The core of the Spurs is Tim, and it will always be Tim. Greg can only rely on Tim to arrange tactics, and Tim is 37 years old. Greg has no way to change this, so we don't have to worry about the Spurs' tactics. Because Tim can't go back ten years overnight."

(End of this chapter)