(Last night, I sent it in advance today.)

On December 1, 1984, after playing against the New York Knicks, the Trail Blazers finally ended their six consecutive away trip to the East and flew back to Portland on December 2.

In six tough away games, the Trail Blazers achieved a good record of 4 wins and 2 losses, continuing to lead the Western Conference standings with a record of 16 wins and 4 losses.

However, this long trip to the East brought some trouble to the smooth sailing Trail Blazers at the beginning of the season.

In the first three games of the six games, the Trail Blazers won easily, but the battle with the Pistons became a turning point. Gan Guoyang's impulse caused the Trail Blazers to lose their strength. In addition to losing the game against the Pistons, they also lost the next game against the 76ers, suffering their first consecutive defeat in the season.

"Cruel" Gan Guoyang returned to Portland early for separate training, waiting for the day to meet with the team.

Finally, on December 3, the day after the Trail Blazers returned to Portland, the entire team started training at the training center after a full rest.

"At 1-4 high offense, pay attention to counter-running, cover, and wings. Your pass should be faster! To quickly judge the opportunity, the opportunity for Clyde and Cort have come out, you have to pass it in time. Or transfer the ball to Van der Vicki, and then you have to provide him with a top cover, so that our offense can continue."

During the tactical drill training, Ramsey's roar echoed in the gymnasium. He was still not satisfied with Gan Guoyang's high-level response ability, and Gan Guoyang's passing judgment still had many shortcomings.

Gan Guoyang also stopped helplessly and accepted Ramsey's criticism and guidance. He knew that he still had a lot of ways to go in passing and support this technique, at least he had to memorize all the tactical routines.

In Ramsey's offensive tactical system, the center position is extremely important. The center must be an all-rounder, capable of offense, defense and passing balls, and must play a role on the court as the tactical axis of the whole team.

After Bill Walton retired, Ramsey tried to let Sampson play such a role. In the end, he found that Sampson was a typical person who could do anything, but nothing was top-notch. At best, he could only be a 70-point version of Bill Walton.

After Gan Guoyang came to the Trail Blazers, Ramsey's intention to train him as the second Bill has never been cut off. Although he also admitted that Gan Guoyang is actually very different from Bill, he still hopes that Gan Guoyang can do as good as Bill, and even better than Bill.

Gan Guoyang doesn't think so. Although he also thinks that it is very meaningful to help his teammates at a high position, he still hopes to use his score to give the team enough help at critical moments.

Now listening to Ramsey's continuous emphasis on the tactical principles of 1-4 high-level offense, Gan Guoyang couldn't help but feel a little impatient. He still prefers to practice low-level tactics rather than always standing at the top of the arc like a point guard.

"Okay, we'll start to practice the tactical content of the next game against the Suns, and finally return to home court. We'll show it well." Ramsey ended the tactical practice and began to prepare for the next game.

"We are divided into two teams, Gan you join the second team to simulate the Suns' offense."

Generally speaking, when conducting in-team confrontation training, they will be divided into one team and two teams, allowing the two teams to simulate the opponent's playing style, and then the first team will respond.

Since Gan Guoyang is still in a ban in the next game, Ramsey splits him into the second team and allows him to simulate the Suns power forward Larry Nance.

In both games against the Suns, the Trail Blazers won, and Gan Guoyang became a key player in both games.

The Trail Blazers played overtime with the Suns in the first game. Gan Guoyang's key goal in overtime allowed the Trail Blazers to win. In that game, Larry Nance scored more than 40 points.

So in the second game, Gan Guoyang defended Nansi, suppressed Nansi's performance, and the Trail Blazers won another victory against the Suns.

In this third game, Gan Guoyang was unable to play against Nansi by home. All he could do was to play Nansi in the simulated confrontation, providing help for the tactical preparations of the team.

For Larry Nance, Gan Guoyang, who has fought with him twice and has one-on-one defense experience, is still a bit familiar with him.

In offense, Zhongnansi and Gan Guoyang are completely different players. They are of the same power forward, one plays more center-oriented and the other plays more like small forwards.

However, it is not particularly difficult to let Gan Guoyang play as a small forward. His excellent dribbling ability and good attack style in the basket are very similar to Nans.

What Ramsey is more worried about this game is that the Trail Blazers may not be able to withstand the impact of Nans without Gan Guoyang. Once Nans is opened, the Trail Blazers will have a hard time.

When they went on the court against the 76ers, they couldn't curb Moses Malone, which led to the team losing the game.

Gan Guoyang is very happy with this task, because the one he wants to play on the court will be Mitchell Sampson, who serves as the starting center.

Sampson's defense is very good in the inside, but he is suitable for dealing with old men and not for physically qualified men. For example, Larry Nance is his hard work.

In the first round of the playoffs last season, Sampson was unable to contain Larry Nance, causing the third-place Trail Blazers in the West to lose to the Suns 2:3 in the first round, which directly led to the big deal for the Trail Blazers in the summer.

"You have to start an attack from the middle, cut inward after pick-and-roll, and cut from the outside." Ramsey is also familiar with the tactics of his old opponent Suns. Nance's ball-holding ability is not very strong, but the moment he received the ball and cut inward after pick-and-roll was very powerful.

Sampson just couldn't handle Nance's move, and was often beaten to a sieve.

Gan Guoyang made a pick-and-roll with Cort at 45 degrees on the right, and then cut in from the bottom line. Cort passed the ball with a hit and passed it out from the pinch of Sampson and Valentine.

After Gan Guoyang received the ball, he did not hesitate at all. The basket was empty. He jumped directly and a beautiful one-handed buckle!

However, Gan Guoyang didn't feel anything after the goal, because Sampson didn't defend himself at all.

"Okay, Gan, don't be so excited. Although you can't play, you can save some effort during training." Ramsey looked at Gan Guoyang's beautiful dunk and said expressionlessly.

Gan Guoyang also found it very boring, but what is even more strange is that in the past defense, the Trail Blazers have always insisted on not changing defenses after pick-and-roll, and not attacking each other.

In other words, according to the original defensive routine, Valentine should squeeze through Gan Guoyang to chase Corte, and then Sampson would stick close to Gan Guoyang and not relax.

This is the most traditional and conservative pick-and-roll defense strategy. Try to rely on the players' personal abilities to complete the defense of the opponent's players, ensuring a good position and not being embarrassed.

The advantage of this defensive strategy is that the defense is not easy to be messy. Everyone has clear responsibilities, is continuous, and is resilient, and will not be easily defeated by the opponent.

The disadvantage is that this kind of defense lacks intensity and change. Once the opponent finds a target point and the opponent hits it to death, it is likely that the Trail Blazers will be killed.

The five games lost by the Trail Blazers, except for the Lakers, there is indeed a gap in overall strength. In the other games, the Nuggets died from English and the Pistons and the 76ers died from inside loopholes.

On the one hand, these losses made Ramsey realize the important role of Gan Guoyang in defense, and on the other hand, it also made Ramsey think about how to successfully defend the opponent's inside attack without Gan Guoyang.

The first thing he thought of was the pinch attack on the ball holder after the pick-and-roll.

This is a relatively risky defensive strategy, which Ramsey rarely uses, and the NBA was rarely used at that time, because the defensive systems of each team were immature, and any pinch-attack tactics could cost a heavy price.

"Why did you use a pinch? Is this effective?" Gan Guoyang asked Ramsey with the ball.

"May be useful, maybe not, but if we insist on not changing defenses, I am worried that our inside line will bear too much pressure. Since that's the case, we will let the opponent's passes into the inside line, so that's enough." Ramsey's move can be called cutting off the fire.

"If I were there, we wouldn't have to worry about it. I could stop Nansi." Gan Guoyang said with a "shameful statement".

"There is no if in this world, and even if you can play, it doesn't mean you can lock Larry Nance. Sometimes you underestimate NBA professional players too much." Ramsey said disdainfully at Gan Guoyang.

Gan Guoyang doesn't care. He just said that he was happy. He still knew the abilities of NBA players. It was indeed not something he could lock if he wanted to.

Even players sitting at the end of the bench may have a day of explosion, which makes people unable to defend themselves.

"Okay, let's continue to practice, our Suns have enough games. Everyone understands some attention. Tomorrow is our home game. Come on."

The training continued. Gan Guoyang, who could not appear at home in the next game, was extremely serious. He was very happy to simulate the Suns players, and he quickly went down, picked and rolled, and broke through from the front.

He also tried 100% to defend, which made the teammates of the Trail Blazers a little uncomfortable.

When he slapped Sampson's layup, Van dervich couldn't stand it anymore and said, "What's wrong, Gan? I haven't played for too long, are you venting all your energy in training?"

Gan Guoyang smiled and said, "I am trying to make 'Lary Nance' stronger, so that when facing the genuine Larry Nance tomorrow, someone will not be beaten too badly."

The person Gan Guoyang was talking about was naturally Mitchell Sampson, but what he said was too unspoken. Even Van dervich's face changed when he heard it, and he couldn't help but look at Sampson next to him.

Sampson's face was naturally very ugly. He didn't expect that Gan Guoyang was so arrogant. It would be fine if he was merciless during training, but he still said such words without restraint.

"You'd better be careful, brat. If you don't know how to respect others, then others won't respect you!" Sampson said fiercely.

"I only respect people with strength, not guys who are not of high standards but always show off their airs." Gan Guoyang replied without hesitation.

"What did you say? Say it again!" Sampson, who was holding the ball in his hand, was preparing to serve in the backcourt, threw away the basketball, walked to Gan Guoyang, and a trace of fire appeared in his eyes.

"I don't like guys who are not strong and pretend to be stinking." Gan Guoyang did not give in and confronted him.

"What are you doing? Don't cause trouble for me during training!" Ramsey, who was standing by, saw that the situation was wrong on the court, immediately shouted, and other players also came up to persuade him.

After all, this is not a game with other teams, but a training within the team. Gan Guoyang could not punch Sampson, so he would not have done such a mess.

But Gan Guoyang was definitely not a challenge to Sampson on impulse. He had thought about it when he was at home that he wanted to take advantage of an opportunity to destroy Sampson's authority.

In the young team of the Trail Blazers, except coach Ramsey, the oldest player is Kenny Carl, but he is a wandering role player with a generous personality and a big brother, but not the core of the team.

Van dervich is currently the player with the strongest personal ability and the most tactical role in offense, but he is an outsider and has a gentle personality and does not have the will of being the boss.

Drexler was the ultimate true boss of the Trail Blazers in history, but although he was arrogant, he was also a gentleman and peaceful person. Now he is more concerned about starting opportunities than anything else.

Only Mitchell Sampson, who is a veteran, is the No. 1 pick in 1978 and has always played for the Trail Blazers. He is the nominal core player of the Trail Blazers.

However, without talking about ability, Sampson is bored in personality and often does not have the ability to gather teammates. In this regard, he is not as good as rookie Gan Guoyang.

Therefore, Gan Guoyang decided to "seize power" internally and seize the team's core position, just like when he was in Gonzaga and in Palo Alto.

The training continued, Ramsey didn't know what Gan Guoyang had in mind, and thought the two had a bad relationship, so it would be fine if they did this.

After the team's joint training ended, Ramsey returned to the office. Some of the other players went back to the locker room for physical therapy or bathing, while others went to the gym for some strength training.

Gan Guoyang stayed to practice mid-range shooting as usual, and Drexler, Van derwich, Jerome Cauchy, Corte, and Sampson were also among them.

Sampson never stayed for extra training before, which is one of the reasons why Gan Guoyang was unhappy with Sampson. He thought how could a team boss not work hard to practice? How could he not leave the training hall last?

When he was in high school and college, Gan Guoyang performed the duties of the old man in the training hall. He was the one who opened the door early in the morning and closed it late in the evening.

And this time, Sampson stayed because during training, Gan Guoyang said to him, "Stay and fight one after the end, I want to tear you apart."

Of course, Sampson could not retreat. He also saw that Gan Guoyang had been unhappy for a long time and wanted to take this opportunity to teach this young man a lesson.

Gan Guoyang looked at Sampson and couldn't help but remember the scene in Palo Alto where he went to the training hall on the first day and beat Vigis in a one-on-one fight. Since then, he has become the well-deserved core of the Vikings.
Chapter completed!