One Year Left to Play-Chapter 205 - 68: New Learning Goals

However, if it's Almon who comes out, then your choice to pass to Kenny is correct. Almon's approach of driving to the basket isn't suitable against opponents with numerous tall defenders inside.

When I watched your games and training, I found that you utilized the positioning of teammates and opponents very well during your runs, but as I've told you before, you see yourself as just the finisher, as a pure scorer. If you were just a shooter, that would be fine, but you want more than just to be a shooter.

Therefore, you need to change your mindset. Over the past few days of training, I can see you have the idea to adjust, but you are only focusing on positioning. What you truly need to change is your awareness, and you need to integrate your playstyle into a coherent whole.

Chris and I have also discussed your catch-and-shoot issue. You always separate the turnaround fadeaway from the catch-and-shoot…"

Zhang Hao nodded as he listened, wishing he had a notebook to jot things down because what the other person said made so much sense and was well-analyzed.

As if he heard Zhang Hao's thoughts, Alvan Adams said, "I've written down everything I've talked about. Let me go through it with you first, then you can reflect on it yourself. If you have any questions, feel free to bring them up so we can discuss together."

"Next, I'll talk about more detailed things, specifically our team's tactics. This is play 02, the most commonly used play in our team. The highest probability for your position in this play is to go this way, which is a good choice and shows your awareness of positioning.

But you didn't notice that when you come out here, you can stop here, see? If you stop here, when Kenny breaks through and PJ moves to the free-throw line, if Greg is in this position, he has a cutting opportunity. At this point, Kenny can pass to you, and you can then pass to Greg…"

"..."

"..."

...

Alvan Adams began to explain each tactic to Zhang Hao. As Zhang Hao listened, it was like a new world opened up! It was so much better than figuring things out himself. Although he had the knowledge, Alvan Adams, with his 13-year career and over four assists per game as an elite facilitator in the post, had rich experience and could identify several options for creating offense in a single play.

These facilitation opportunities, Zhang Hao reckoned, even the chief assistant coach Randy Whitman wouldn't analyze as comprehensively.

As they continued, Alvan Adams stopped: "It's almost noon, we'll discuss these tactics today and continue tomorrow.

Here are the notes from today. You can review them and think for yourself. I can't possibly identify every opportunity that suits you within a tactic… I'm only teaching you the method of analysis, and you need to observe your teammates' movements and playing habits and communicate more with them…"

Doing something you dislike feels like enduring a prolonged experience.

Doing something you love makes time fly.

After Alvan Adams left, Zhang Hao looked at the notes left behind. Four commonly used tactics, just the diagrams alone, covered over thirty drawings. These were variations beyond what the coaching staff had envisioned.

"This veteran works earnestly! No wonder the Phoenix Suns pestered him for years to invite him back. Fortunately, his wife enjoys living in Pennsylvania, giving us a chance to invite him here to teach me…"

Over the past two days, Zhang Hao intentionally learned more about his team's inside technical advisor and gathered some insights.

In the afternoon, under Alvan Adams' guidance, Zhang Hao began training his basic passing skills.

His passing was indeed average. In seven preseason games, he averaged 1.7 assists and 2.7 turnovers per game. There were turnovers due to overly bold passes and reluctant passes, which can't be helped, but turnovers due to long passes… the main issue was insufficient precision and technique in passing, inadequate details in receiving and releasing, and targets being easily anticipated…

Zhang Hao knew this himself, but during the preseason, there wasn't much time to practice this. Now, in the sharpening stage before the regular season, there's an opportunity to practice, so he naturally trains earnestly.

After a 20-minute passing training session ended, he rested for ten minutes. Then Zhang Hao started practicing catch-and-shoot, and after 20 minutes of shooting practice, he went back to basic passing training… by the end of the day, Zhang Hao's training volume nearly reached the limit.

Since the training camp, Zhang Hao hadn't felt this exhausted in a long time.

But he knew this was the team's fitness test before the regular season, to see how close to game conditions, such as shooting, passing, and more, Zhang Hao could maintain stability based on his fitness, shooting distribution, etc.

Moreover, Zhang Hao's shooting hot zones were tested again, so when formulating tactics and applying them in practice, the team could better place their best mid-range shooter in appropriate tactical spots.

After training, Zhang Hao visited the office to check his teammates' fitness test reports, which aligned with his observations: Kenny Anderson had the best endurance on the team, even though he weighed 5 pounds more than the previous season. His current endurance rating was 93, seemingly only 2 points higher than Mr. Zhang, but with more experience, his stamina allocation was superior, making the difference significant.

In this regard, Zhang Hao needed to play more games to learn how to allocate his stamina according to his condition.

Zhang Hao's endurance rating of 91 was only third. After the preseason and as his body adjusted, the team's two main bigs' excellent stamina was evident: PJ Brown reached 90 on the player tracking system, and Jason Williams reached 92.

These three players, aged between 25 and 27, were in their physiological peak, and while Zhang Hao's talent was exceptional, he still had some gap when competing with these three in terms of stamina.

Age was a factor, and Zhang Hao had no solution.

Zhang Hao was somewhat dissatisfied with his fitness test results, but the coaching staff was quite pleased. At just under 19 years old in two months, this level of endurance was impressive!

Moreover, Zhang Hao's test results were slightly better than at the start of the training camp. Perhaps Zhang Hao had learned to better use his body and reduce stamina consumption; maybe his endurance had improved. Either way, it was a gratifying progress.

Stamina is a crucial component of talent. Whether in games or training, stamina is vital.

...

At night, Zhang Hao prepared to go to bed early. Before entering dreamland, a notification arrived!

Since learning about organizing offense from Alvan Adams in the morning, Zhang Hao had been eagerly awaiting this hint, but this time it was different from when he learned from Jordan.

"The host has received guidance from NBA history's top facilitating post player, Alvan Adams, and has begun studying interior facilitation knowledge.

Learning task: The Encyclopedia of Organizing Offense Writing Task has commenced.

Task objective: The host can enhance their ability to guide players in organizing offense through learning from renowned figures, self-study, independent development, and various other means. If the host's learning content has successful experiences or is validated as practical in games, it will be recorded in the study mode database, and the host can use study mode for deep memory.

Task reward: Each time the host completes learning content for one position's organizing offense knowledge, they will gain a chance to learn a single skill from a top player of that position."

"Completed the collection of facilitation offense materials from Alvan Adams' career; completed the integration of today's guidance from Alvan Adams.

The host can study through learning mode…"