The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 304 - 44 Offense

Don Nelson knew that in the past, Jack Ramsey was one of the coaches in the League who hated isolation plays the most.

Just as he loathed Wilt Chamberlain, after becoming the manager of the 76ers, he didn’t hesitate to trade the superstar away.

In the most glorious moments of Coach Ramsey’s career, he represented the hope of the entire American collegiate system, was the spokesperson for team basketball, and was the vanguard opposed to the heretical player-coach model.

He might have had the richest arsenal of tactics in the entire League, was the coach of coaches, and each summer at the coaches’ clinic, Ramsey was the teacher to them all.

Together they discussed the direction and trends of the League, and Ramsey always provided a wealth of examples and a plethora of strategies, his memory and knowledge reserves were both incredibly impressive.

In the summer of 1979, Ramsey represented the old guard because that year the League decided to introduce the ABA’s three-point line. Ramsey believed the three-point line would ruin NBA basketball games, he firmly opposed the three-point line, and didn’t allow his players to shoot threes—except as a last resort.

Six years had passed, what did the Trail Blazers look like now?

After welcoming back Walton, they were still able to play beautiful team offense.

Walton’s high-post facilitation was one of the best in history, his passing skills, field of vision, and tactical literacy were UCLA certified, absolutely top-notch.

However, tonight, the Trail Blazers’ opening tactic was the one-man show that Ramsey hated the most.

Vandeweghe and Parkson flanked the two wings, Thompson stood at the top of the arc, and Drexler was at the 45-degree angle feeding Gan Guoyang the ball.

Gan Guoyang moved from the left low post to the right low post, and then back from the right low post to the left low post.

To start, Nelson had Terry Cummings defending Gan Guoyang one-on-one. Cummings was a very tough power forward on defense, 6 feet 9 with strength, top-notch defensive skills.

During the Olympic Team vs All-Star Team, he and Gan Guoyang had been teammates, the core of the Marques Johnson trade, a very reliable power forward.

But without teammates helping out and everyone spread out, Cummings couldn’t defend Ah Gan.

Gan Guoyang overpowered Cummings with his turn-around, leaning jump shots; his strength was overwhelmingly superior.

"This kid’s really strong," Cummings commented during a timeout.

In terms of size, Gan Guoyang was only a size larger than Cummings, whose base was very solid, normally capable of holding off centers up to 6 feet 11 inches.

But he couldn’t withstand Gan Guoyang; Gan’s strength was surprisingly great, something every player who went up against him experienced deeply.

"Jack must want Ah Gan to use isolation to break our defensive formation, make our switches ineffective, force us to double-team, and create opportunities for the perimeter. But is Jack that confident in Ah Gan’s low-post one-on-one? Last game he scored 60 points, does he really think he can score 60 again? I don’t believe it."

Nelson pondered for a while; actually, this low-post isolation with everyone spaced out tactic had a very clear strategic logic.

It was about using a strong point to disrupt the opponent’s defense and through simple ball transfers, enabling other players to find offensive opportunities.

In some situations, this approach could be surprisingly effective, but it could only be a supplementary strategy and not a main tactical usage in large quantities.

As a seasoned coach, Nelson obviously knew the characteristics of this simple way of playing; what he didn’t understand was why Ramsey would use a tactic he deeply despised. Could it be that there were no other options left?

Or was he that confident in Ah Gan’s one-on-one?

Nelson had seen plenty of the Trail Blazers’ footage, and this year Gan Guoyang indeed had an impressive offensive performance.

But this season he played more like a small forward, a high-quality finisher in tactical coordination, and an important part of fast breaks, with strong scoring abilities, fast speed, and high efficiency.

Looking at one-on-one situations, in fact, they had decreased compared to last season, as had the number of offensive rebounds.

Simply put, Gan Guoyang played more tactically and systematically. His assisted rate was also higher than last season, and he was integrating better into Ramsey’s offensive system.

Even though Gan Guoyang scored 60 points in the last game, isolation was still not the main means of scoring.

Last night, Drexler dished out 16 assists, half of which were in cooperation with Gan Guoyang.

After analysis, Nelson thought, let him play! Let’s see how far he can go!

However, he couldn’t let Terry Cummings defend Ah Gan anymore, he needed to switch to 7-foot-3 Randy Breuer.

Meanwhile, Don Nelson had Paul Mokeski on the bench ready to go.

One was tall, 7 feet 3, and the other was heavy, weighing in at 255 pounds.

Nelson thought to himself, there’s bound to be one to suit you. You, Ah Gan, might have strong scoring abilities, but can you really break through the Bucks’ defense all by yourself?

Is it really the Portland Trail Blazers if there’s no dynamic variation and teammate involvement in the offense?

As a coach who likes to defy convention and experiment with tactics, Nielsen was very curious to see what kind of effect the Trail Blazers’ one-against-four approach would have.

After the timeout, the Bucks’ offense still missed, and Gan Guoyang actively swept through the defense, delaying the Bucks’ perimeter passes and movement.

The Bucks tried to use passing to break through the Trail Blazers’ defense, but Cummings’ layup, after receiving the ball under the basket, was disrupted by Thompson and did not go in.

Brule grabbed an offensive rebound and tried to go strong to the basket, but the ball was swatted away by Gan Guoyang, who had recovered on defense.

The Trail Blazers’ defense was very dedicated tonight, starting the game with high intensity, but when it came to offense, Vandeweghe casually dribbled the ball past half court, and the others didn’t run, just positioning themselves around the three-point line.

Gan Guoyang and Brule jostled their way to the paint.

Vandeweghe passed the ball to Gan Guoyang, who used the scissor stance to get into position, caught the ball, and made a swift turn that left Brule completely in the dust!

An easy layup under the basket!

"Xie Te... that’s Moses Malone’s move, this kid’s learning is really all over the place."

Nielsen was all too familiar with Malone, as in ’83 and ’85, the Bucks were consecutively eliminated by the 76ers.

Before Malone joined them, the Bucks could at least arm-wrestle with the 76ers and take it to a game seven or something.

With Malone on the 76ers, the Bucks only won one game in the two series, completely overwhelmed.

Because Malone was the kind of center who, once he got the ball, would go one-on-one with high efficiency, especially his offensive rebounding made the Bucks’ defensive switching strategy utterly ineffective.

If you switch a smaller player in front of Malone, aren’t you just giving him the rebound?

"Could it be that Jack has learned from the 76ers? But this year, Ah Gan’s offensive rebound efforts have already reduced... Let’s see."

Nielsen reasonably speculated that Jack Ramsay might have taken advice from his disciple Cunningham, but there seemed to be differences.

If the Bucks players knew what the coach was thinking, they’d definitely be speechless, it’s like he wasn’t commanding them to win, but treating them like test subjects to see the results!

The Bucks finally scored, with Moncrief’s mid-range jumper from the outside hitting the mark.

Moncrief was one of the best mid-range shooters in the league during the ’80s and also one of the best at penetrating.

His ball-handling had essentially been freed from the ’70s style of sticking the butt out and shoving sideways; he could now change direction face-on and do continuous crossovers, combined with his shooting, making his penetration very hard to defend.

But on defense, the Bucks still had no answer, with Brule once again playing one-on-one defense against Gan Guoyang in the low post.

The Trail Blazers really did continue to work Gan Guoyang in the low post, this time with Parkson passing the ball, while the others watched with hands on hips from the perimeter.

I didn’t sleep well last night, now is a good time to rest a bit.

Gan Guoyang took the ball, did the Sigma Step turn face to the basket, faked Brule with a move, and then suddenly broke right, driving to the basket for a one-handed slam!

Gan Guoyang’s face-up drive had improved compared to last season, thanks to Bernard King’s teaching and sneaking some tips from Vandeweghe.

From Vandeweghe, he had stolen details on how to start his first step in a way that balanced speed without traveling; otherwise, a travel right at the start would be too embarrassing.

From Bernard, he learned how to quickly assess the defender’s footwork and then penetrate toward the direction that was uncomfortable for the defender.

For instance, on this play, Brule had his left foot forward and his right foot back; Gan Guoyang took the high side. Brule had trouble turning and couldn’t keep up.

If it had been the other way around, Gan Guoyang would’ve gone baseline with his left hand, catching him just as off guard.

Of course, the real problem for the Bucks was that aside from Brule, there was no second layer of defense inside.

No one stepped up to help, no one doubled, just letting Gan Guoyang go one-on-one; he was already 6 for 6 and had scored 12 points from the start.

As Gan Guoyang ran back on defense, he shouted at Nielsen, "Don, did I offend you in some way? You show me no respect, my friend, you won’t even bother to send someone to double me!"

Don Nelson replied, "I want to see just how long you can keep this one-on-one going tonight!"

Gan Guoyang shook his head; the old man was really stubborn. Damn, he was trying to run me into the ground.

But Gan Guoyang couldn’t be worn out, not with lungs bigger than Havlicek’s.