Basketball trainer, I created a super giant

Chapter 482 King of the Last Section
Because of Townsend's million-dollar training camp, every year, several promising young talents emerge.

For example, Brandon Roy, Rudy Gay, and LaMarcus Aldridge.

But no one can rival Durant's brilliance.

After his conversation with Riley, Durant became more determined and understood the path he wanted to take.

So when the year 2007 came, his playing style evolved once again.

In the past, the Heat's entire offensive strategy revolved around Durant.

Riley incorporated pick-and-roll, triangle offense, and many other tactical systems with only one goal: to create isolation opportunities for Durant.

In one-on-one situations, no one can stop Durant.

So when watching Heat games, my eyes can't help but always be drawn to Durant.

He has a lot of spectacular singles games that keep any fan glued to the screen.

But after the New Year, Durant disappeared from the public eye to some extent.

He used to run less, mostly following his teammates' tactics, appearing in the right position, waiting to receive the ball, and then taking a shot and making it.

Now, he's more active in running.

At the same time, he doesn't play off-the-ball movement, but rather facilitates play.

He has the confidence to support his teammates.

Even if I don't have the ball, you have to focus your defense on me when I'm on the court.

Therefore, in Heat games, it is common to see Durant make an off-ball cut, which scares two defenders into rushing to him.

His presence on the field is simply too intimidating.

This change gave teammates more opportunities.

Meanwhile, Durant, who seemed to be out of the public eye, did not have his screen time reduced.

He chose to support his teammates simply to put his idea into practice: if his teammates couldn't score, he would score.

Even if a teammate scores the best, and there's no opportunity, the ball will still be passed to Durant.

This means Durant has become a scapegoat.

There are frequent instances where the ball is passed to Durant in the final seconds of an offensive possession.

But no problem, Durant can still make the shot.

He dribbles no more than three times, possesses top-tier triple threat skills, and has the ability to score with the simplest method.

So even though Durant didn't have many scenes, his scores were still quite high despite his occasional scapegoating and scoring opportunities.

Moreover, it is extremely efficient.

Most importantly, this is only the strategy for the first three quarters.

In the final quarter, Durant will immediately switch tactics and launch a full-scale attack.

Various one-on-one duels, various powerful shots, taking down the opponent in one fell swoop.

ESPN has done a dedicated analysis of this.

It is believed that Durant adjusted his energy distribution, chose to trust his teammates, and then shouldered the burden of the most difficult moment of the game in the final quarter.

They also analyzed Durant's scoring patterns in January.

In the first three quarters, Durant averaged 20.6 points.

In the final quarter, Durant averaged 15.2 points per game.

They scored almost 80% of the points in the first three quarters and accounted for most of the Heat's points in the final quarter.

He often contributes nearly 20 points in a single quarter.

The opponents were not unaware of this and tried to defend Durant in a targeted manner.

But the results are minimal.

With his ability to switch effortlessly between on-ball and off-ball play, and his combination of drives and shots, Durant has a hundred ways to score.

In other words, Durant is still the most unstoppable player, but he has shifted his scoring focus from the first three quarters to the last.

According to ESPN, Durant is working hard to become the king of the fourth quarter.

In terms of their record, the Heat lost only 2 out of 15 games in January.

One consecutive away loss to the Knicks, and another back-to-back away loss to the Jazz.

In the loss to the Jazz, Riley intentionally rested Durant.

In other words, after Durant adjusted his playing style, the Heat almost never lost a game.

Thanks to this change, the Heat successfully overtook the Knicks to take the top spot in the Eastern Conference before the All-Star Game. This year's All-Star Game was held in Las Vegas.

Durant, with his reputation as the next Jordan and his terrifying ability to dominate the scoring charts with an average of 36.1 points per game, has gained a large following without the league's deliberate hype.

In the Eastern Conference, Durant successfully became an All-Star starter.

This year's All-Star Game also became a showdown between two super scorers, Durant and Kobe.

The Lakers have already played the Heat twice this season and lost both games.

After losing the first match, Kobe lost the second match.

Therefore, this year's All-Star Game became Kobe's last chance to redeem himself.

Unfortunately, it was to no avail.

In today's league, the Eastern Conference is stronger than the Western Conference.

Riley is also the head coach of the Eastern Conference, and this selfish guy will naturally do everything he can to push Durant to the top.

Making the All-Star Game starting lineup in your rookie season is no longer a particularly impressive achievement.

But no one has ever won the All-Star MVP in their rookie season.

If Durant wants to become a legend, he needs to have his own record.

Under Riley's "shameless" actions, McGrady only played 16 minutes, and Carter fared even worse, playing only 9 minutes in a position overlapping with Durant.

Iverson only played 11 minutes.

Durant played 39 minutes in the relaxed All-Star game, where his shooting was at its best.

He scored 47 points, leading the Eastern Conference to a 144-136 victory and winning the AMVP trophy.

On behalf of the league, Tang Sen presented the trophy to Durant.

Durant's potential to succeed Jordan as the next legend in the league led Stern to fully acknowledge Tangsen's work and begin to intentionally promote him.

The lottery was hosted by Tang Sen.

Now, Tang Sen is also being invited to present awards.

Tang Sen knew exactly what Stern was thinking.

But Tang Sen's own thoughts have changed somewhat.

Tang Sen's previous goal was to become the NBA commissioner and realize his ambitions.

He never made it into the NBA, but now he's entered the NBA in a different way and is taking control of the entire NBA.

But after training Durant and feeling fulfilled, Tang Sen realized that becoming the league commissioner wasn't so great after all.

They say they have power, but it's really not that great.

He's just a high-level employee.

So, as for influencing the league, does that mean I can no longer influence the league now?

It can be said that the league's 30 teams can do without David Stern, but they cannot do without themselves.

Sitting in that position also means taking on more responsibility.

You won't make much money.

Stern only earns tens of millions a year, what can he do with that?

Too much work, too little money. It's better to be like this now, a vice president, running a training camp, and still being able to influence the direction of the entire league.

If you find a player you like who has talent, you can come out of retirement and train him properly.

Becoming a CEO inevitably comes with certain limitations.

What Tang Sen loves most is watching a rough gem grow into the best player in the world through his own efforts.

That sense of accomplishment was what made Tang Sen unable to stop.

Of course, Tang Sen only had this idea; it was too early to think about it now.

Stern is only 65 years old, the old man is still full of energy, and it is estimated that he will not be able to step down for several more years.

After the All-Star Game, the season enters its second half.

Before the trade deadline, teams in the league remained relatively quiet.

The biggest move was the Mavericks' attempt to acquire 30-year-old veteran Jason Terry from the Hawks.

A player who excels in offense but is weak in defense continues to dominate the scoring path.

(End of this chapter)