It is very close to the preseason. Adelman is constantly debugging his best team. In the confrontation, he repeatedly debugged the players in combination, just like playing puzzles, hoping to find the most suitable lineup rotation plan.

The most natural plan for starting is naturally Gan Guoyang, Buck Williams, Jerome Cauchy, Drexler and Terry Porter.

The three on the outside have become the commonly used outside trio for the Trail Blazers since the 1987 season. However, at that time, the Trail Blazers were relatively dependent on Van der Vicky's outside firepower, and Cauchy often played as a defensive supplement and impact point for the second team.

By 1988, Van dervic began to suffer from injuries, and Gan Guoyang's return turned the focus of the Trail Blazers' offensive focus to the inside. The Trail Blazers needed a 3-position wing defensive gate to relieve Gan Guoyang's defensive pressure in the inside.

After all, in the first two years of the Trail Blazers, Gan Guoyang had often wiped his butt for the outside loopholes. Now he must allocate more energy to the offense. If he faces the Lakers, a team with a super center like the Rockets, a large-scale repair of defense and wiped his butt would be too exhausted by Gan Guoyang's physical strength.

So, Cauchy started to replace Van der Van as the starter in the 1988 season and burst out with great energy. This player who was selected in the second round averaged 17.8 points and 6.9 rebounds per game in the 1988 season, and was a completely qualified role player.

In the playoffs, in the battle with the Los Angeles Lakers, he took on the heavy responsibility of marking Magic Johnson. Not only did he do his best on the defensive end, but he also made many achievements on the offensive end, becoming the second strong fast break ending point outside Drexler.

I have to say that the hard work of Cauchy is inseparable from his hard work. The hardest player in the entire Trail Blazers is the only player in Gan Guoyang, Jerome Cauchy.

Terry Porter's transformation was not smaller than Cauchy at all. Since Adelman took over the Trail Blazers, Porter began to go from a traditional point guard with a score as the auxiliary to the attacking number one position with an attacking number one position with a main attacking and passing as the auxiliary.

This is naturally due to Drexler's poor shooting ability and relatively lack of independent offensive ability. Now Adelman has fully tapped Porter's characteristics of accurate shooting and decisive shooting, turning him into an excellent attacker who can take over the game at critical moments.

In addition, Drexler, who has been making steady progress and is positioning more and more comprehensively, is still sitting on the bench with veteran Jim Paxson. In the past two seasons, he has been actively developing his three-pointers, and he has adapted to the role of the sixth man and can play on the court to provide firepower to the team at any time.

In this way, the three-person combination on the outside and the rotation are basically not subject to Adelmando.

The main problem lies in the inside, but it is not that the inside is not strong, but that the inside is too strong, which makes Adelman not know how to arrange and combine.

Gan Guoyang and Buck Williams should be said to be a natural starting combination. Although both of them are short in their respective positions, this does not affect their performance on both offense and defense.

Gan Guoyang is an all-round superstar. Every year he will master a new technology. As long as his support level reaches above the average level this year, he will become a killer with his own system on the offensive end.

Buck Williams and Gan Guoyang can reduce the physical strength consumed by Gan Guoyang due to large-scale movement in defense. Williams' relatively light figure and excellent movement ability in power forward will greatly replace Gan Guoyang as the middle scavenger.

Duckworth on the bench is undoubtedly a center with starting level. He was underestimated in the draft and came to the Trail Blazers to start shining. In the first week of training, the hook training given to him by Gan Guoyang has already shown results.

Gan Guoyang himself also likes this stupid big man. He plays very realistically and steadily. Adelman also believes that Duckworth is more than enough to act as a substitute. At least on the court, the Trail Blazers' penalty area defense will not decline in level.

However, Adelman knew that the Trail Blazers would have another center, that is Sabonis, who is famous in European basketball.

According to the NBA's rules, no matter how awesome overseas players like this are when they come to the NBA, they will definitely have to sit on the bench for a long time in their first season, especially in a strong team like the Trail Blazers who are determined to win the championship and have a complete and stable lineup.

However, in the exchange with Adelman, Gan Guoyang supported Sabonis and claimed that if the player can be used reasonably, the Trail Blazers this season will definitely be unstoppable.

As an academic coach, Adelman is not particularly good at using new players, using surprises, a solid starting lineup, stable rotation, and sufficient pre-match preparation, which are the foundation for Adelman to ensure victory.

Relatively speaking, poor on-site command and insufficient adaptability are Adelman's flaws, which is also related to Adelman's game philosophy - being down-to-earth, well-prepared, and choosing a strategy, stick to it and never change it easily.

In the 1988 Western Conference Finals, Adelman had to pay part of the responsibility for the failure of the Trail Blazers. Faced with the Lakers' effective defensive strategy against Gan Guoyang, Adelman never changed his offensive style, resulting in the fourth quarter of the seventh game, the Trail Blazers lost the opportunity to enter the finals at home.

Of course, this is also related to the serious lameness of the Trail Blazers No. 4 position at that time.

Now, the Trail Blazers' No. 4 position has been supplemented, and Adelman is also quite satisfied with Williams' performance in training camp. Indeed, he is a good supplement to Gan Guoyang on both offense and defense.

However, during the exchange after the training, Gan Guoyang was still repeatedly emphasizing the importance of Sabonis, and the opinions of the first star made Adelman have to consider how to arrange this upcoming European MVP.

……………………

In October, after Sabonis's "clearance certificate" was completed, the giant finally got a visa to the United States. On October 5, four weeks before the regular season, he arrived in Portland by plane.

The weather was very good on the day, with clear autumn and clear blue sky. The dispatched reporters from major media in Portland gathered at Portland International Airport to wait for the arrival of the Soviet giant.

For the Trail Blazers, not only did the manager Inman and head coach Adelman arrive all, but even Gan Guoyang arrived at the airport in person, which is enough to prove the Trail Blazers' attention to the arrival of Sabonis.

Sabonis joined the Trail Blazers and obtained the consent of both the United States and the Soviet Union, which also caused a great sensation in the United States, not only because he was the first player of the Soviet Eastern European socialist country to play during the Cold War, but also because of the 1988 Olympics, the basketball earthquake caused by the United States' complete defeat to the Soviet Union in the semi-finals.

Sabonis was the pillar of the Soviet Union.

Such a grand welcoming ceremony made Sabonis a little flattered, especially the arrival of Gan Guoyang, which made Sabonis very excited. After seeing Gan Guoyang at the exit, he stepped forward and hugged him warmly.

"Avidas, look, I came to Portland before, and there was not even half of the reporters who greeted me here." Gan Guoyang said with a smile at Sabonis.

After being elected as the No. 1 pick in 1984, Gan Guoyang was the second pick and the NCAA Finals MOP. There were very few reporters who came to Portland to welcome him because no one thought that a Chinese could succeed in the NBA.

Now, Sabonis is just a rookie at the end of the first round, but he has received the treatment of the No. 1 pick. This is not only related to his strength and identity, but also to the attention of the pioneers, or the attention of Gan Guoyang.

Adelman followed the side and watched the burly and tall Slavic giant, and also stepped forward to shake hands with him, but was thinking about how to arrange the center forward's position in the team.

Before Sabonis came to Portland for trial in 1986, Adelman had spent a lot of time, but he watched the video of Sabonis. It can be said that Sabonis's playing style was beyond Adelman's expectations.

Adelman originally thought that a center forward who was 7-foot-2 and so strong and tall should be a powerful attacking insider. He was still worried that the Trail Blazers already had an attacking killer like Gan Guoyang, so what's the point of another attacking insider.

But after watching some of Sabonis's games carefully and really getting involved in Sabonis during the trial, Adelman realized that this was not a traditional inside player. His ability to support, especially his ability to support him at a high position, was amazing.

What Adelman has to do now is how to arrange appropriate tactical positions for Sabonis on both offense and defense. Obviously, letting Sabonis be a blue-collar center is a waste of his talent, but the Trail Blazers cannot design the system around Sabonis, he can only adapt to the current Trail Blazers system.

At the same time, whether Sabonis and Gan Guoyang are compatible, how to arrange his rotation on the field, and how to ensure the coexistence of him and Duckworth and Buck Williams are all issues that Adelman needs to consider.

And all this gave Sabonis and Adelman less than four weeks.

………………………………………

After arriving in Portland, the Trail Blazers quickly arranged a residence for Sabonis, which was the house that Gan Guoyang once lived in the West District. Now Gan Guoyang has moved to a high-end villa in the Jewish community because it is closer to the Trail Blazers' training hall.

In the evening, the Trail Blazers owner Weinberg held a special banquet to entertain Sabonis. The entire Trail Blazers team attended and expressed their welcome to Sabonis' arrival.

Such a grand welcome ceremony made Sabonis feel that he was valued, because the last time, when Sabonis came to Portland in 1986, was no different from an ordinary tourist.

But this also brought great pressure to Sabonis, who received such treatment just the first day, and there were many media praises. If his performance in the new season did not meet expectations, then the criticism he suffered must be more than ten times that of now. By then, his life as a Soviet would be difficult.

After the banquet, Gan Guoyang took the initiative to drive Sabonis to his original residence, which is now Sabonis's home in Portland.

Sitting in the modified Mercedes-Benz S-500 in Gan Guoyang, Sabonis still seems a little restrained. In fact, in terms of age, Gan Guoyang is still a few months younger than Sabonis.

"You look nervous, Avidas."

"Yes, it's very nervous. You guys are so enthusiastic. I'm wondering what if I can't play the game well? Will I drive me back?"
Chapter completed!