Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

After the preseason officially started, the Bulls played slowly because they needed to run in their lineup and adjust the strength of their second and third lineups.

Unexpectedly, the opponents the Bulls encountered were all well prepared and responded seriously, as if they wanted to teach the Bulls a lesson before the regular season started.

To be honest, there are indeed some problems with the Bulls' starting lineup.

On the surface, it is an obvious problem of strong offense but weak defense and insufficient interior defense.

After a series of preseason games, the Bulls coaching staff also found that there were still some problems with the ball distribution in the starting lineup.

Originally, the coaching staff envisioned that Durant, Curry, and Jokic could all play off the ball, and the three were highly compatible.

Murray is just a rookie, and it's good enough for him to be promoted to the starting lineup. I think it won't be a big problem if he has less ball possession.

As for Horford, he came to the Bulls to win a championship ring.

Now the Bulls have helped him realize his personal dream! When the regular season starts this season, Horford will be able to receive his own championship ring.

In this case, the Bulls need him to sacrifice some of his interests in the new season and further reduce his ball possession compared to last season to train rookies in the Bulls and thus improve the overall strength of the Bulls. This is probably acceptable.

Anyway, Horford is only in the second year of his contract, and he is still a long way from the year when he needs the stats to get a big contract.

Horford is a veteran who has been in the league for many years. He knows how to operate a team and also knows that his career will not last many years.

Therefore, there is a high probability that he will cooperate with the Bulls management and coaching staff and strive to win more championship rings with the Bulls, so that he can also be awarded the title of Bulls legend when he retires.

To be honest, Murray and Horford don't have that much need for the ball.

The problem is, if they are not given the ball, their offensive impact will be very small.

Murray is just a rookie, and a late first-round pick at that, so his physical talent and offensive skills are relatively limited.

Considering that this season is only Murray's second year in the NBA, and Murray spent most of last season in the Development League.

This further means that Murray lacks game experience and cannot bring much help to the team in the NBA regular season.

These factors affect the game, that is, Murray's current offensive ability is very poor, and he is incompatible with the other four Bulls starters.

In the preseason, he made 7 of 0 wide-open three-pointers, and his scoring efficiency was only 4 of 2 when cutting to the basket.

What's more, many times Murray's tactics were not successful. Even if Duane and Curry set a screen for Murray, Murray would run to the wrong position, or fail to get the ball at the right time and complete the finish in an open position.

In the final analysis, it is because Murray has been the core of his team since he was a child, and he has always developed a core ball-holding style of play.

Therefore, he is neither familiar with nor good at playing without the ball.

And his basketball IQ is limited.

Even though the Bulls coaching staff taught him many off-ball running tactics, once he got on the game court, he either couldn't figure out the situation or ran around like a headless fly.

Or they suddenly forget how to move and can only wait where they are, at a 45-degree angle on the wing or in the bottom corner, responding to changes with the same approach, and are in a distracted or idle state.

After several preseason games, most teams in the league noticed that Murray was out of tune with the other nine players on the court.

This is also because Murray only has D, no 3, not even 2.

This also led to more teams repeatedly double-teaming Curry in the preseason.

It was clearly a preseason game where the outcome of the game was unimportant, but they just ignored their dignity and kept double-teaming Curry.

Of course, Curry himself was rejected by a large number of black players because of his physique and skin color.

Now Curry has the honor of Finals MVP, and he is heading straight for the regular season MVP in the new season.

For ambitious players across the league, it is natural that they will feel some envy, jealousy and hatred towards Curry.

When we meet Curry in the game, we naturally try every means to prove that we are better than Curry!

Curry himself didn't care too much about it. He knew very well that this was the hardship that he had to go through to become the regular season MVP and the ruler of the league.

Moreover, Curry is very confident in his own strength.

It’s not like he hadn’t experienced this situation before in last season’s playoffs!
What was the result? Didn't it help him break out of his cocoon and become a butterfly, becoming even stronger?
What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger!
Curry feels that it is not a bad thing that someone wants to challenge him or make things difficult for him. Instead, it is beneficial for him to improve his skills and ability to overcome difficulties.

Curry thought about how he had been protected by Durant over the years and had won so many championship rings.

Now his strength has surpassed that of Duane, whose form has declined!
Then, starting from this season, we will protect Duane from the wind and rain and help Duane surpass the current record holder of the number of championship rings, Bill Russell.

Curry was not afraid of the challenge. But he was double-teamed all the time during the game, and his mistakes in passing, receiving and dribbling did increase.

In addition, the large amount of physical contact with defensive players will also double his physical strength consumption, thus affecting his scoring efficiency and even family harmony...

When being defended by one person and with his teammates constantly providing high-quality screens, Curry is the undisputed efficiency king of the league.

Under intense confrontation and constant double-teaming, Curry's scoring efficiency became almost the same as that of an ordinary All-Star.

Of course, if other stars were to suffer the same defensive treatment as Curry, their strength might decline even more seriously.

However, in today's small ball era that emphasizes shooting, it is difficult for other teams to have an outside player like Murray who has D but no 3.

He won't be like Murray, who can be completely ignored on the offensive end.

Then, there will be no endless double-teaming of the team's star guards.

Curry suffered a bit on the offensive end because of the starting configuration.

Although there are fewer troubles on the defensive end, the overall consumption has increased and the scoring efficiency has decreased compared to last season.

In order to improve this situation, the Bulls coaching staff can only strengthen Murray's influence on the offensive end.

On the one hand, special training is carried out to cultivate and enhance Murray's off-ball ability.

On the other hand, it also increases the proportion of Murray holding the ball in the starting lineup, allowing Murray to play in the way he is familiar with and good at.

In the short term, the second method can indeed help improve Curry's situation of being double-teamed, and it can also help Murray quickly build up his confidence in playing and winning, and help Murray better adapt to the NBA game environment.

The problem is that due to Murray's limited talent and lack of experience, his current offensive efficiency with the ball is obviously not as good as that of Durant, Curry and Jokic.

Although the Bulls can try to feed the ball to Murray more in the preseason, efficiency will still be the key in the regular season.

As we all know, defense wins championships.

When facing opponents with the same defensive level, only by having a higher scoring efficiency can we win the game.

The difference between a superstar and a star player is most of the time just a three to five percentage point higher scoring efficiency.

With Durant, Curry and Jokic, the Bulls obviously won't let Murray hold the ball all the time.

Without the ball in Murray's hands, the Bulls will not only be short of one man on the offensive end, but Curry will also suffer.

Due to defensive pressure, Curry had to reduce the percentage of possession of the ball, so most of the time only Durant and Jokic could hold the ball.

Because Horford has some ball-handling skills, but not much, Horford can also be selectively left open.

Therefore, if Durant and Jokic are a little slow in passing the ball, or hesitate when preparing to finish, they will easily be double-teamed and the offensive pressure will increase greatly.

As Duane's physical condition deteriorates, his ability to attack with the ball has also declined.

Because Jokic is a white center, he is easily targeted by black inside players. When the ball is in his hands, he cannot resist with small movements and can only occasionally use his elbows to protect himself.

If he is frequently double-teamed, it will easily affect Jokic's physical condition and even his mentality.

Therefore, the Bulls also need Horford to get the ball to enhance the offensive threat and reduce the trouble that Durant and Jokic will encounter on the offensive end.

So, new problems arise.

In order to allow Curry to hold the ball for one-on-one play, Murray needs to hold the ball more.

In order to allow Durant and Jokic to hold the ball for one-on-one play, Horford needs to hold the ball more often.

The two players with the weakest offensive abilities in the starting five need to hold the ball to pose a threat, while the three players with strong offensive abilities need more ball possession to maintain offensive efficiency.

Five people need the ball, and one ball is obviously not enough.

Of course, the problem is only temporary.

If the Bulls can thoroughly run in their lineup, they will be able to turn their weaknesses into strengths - all five starters will be able to hold the ball.

By then, the Bulls' opponents will have no idea how to deploy their defense and how to limit the Bulls' starting lineup's offense. (End of this chapter)