Chapter 1 Training Ends

The training ended, and the players returned to the locker room one after another.

Tang Tian also got up, but was stopped by Holiday.

Holiday rarely took the initiative to communicate with people, so this was a very rare occurrence.

Everyone else had left, so the two of them could chat openly in the training hall.

"How can I pass the ball well?"

This was the question Holiday asked, and also the question he had brought up when he spoke with Davis.

"Jrue, do you want to be an organizer?" Tang Tian didn't answer Holiday directly, but instead asked.

Holiday was stunned for a moment, he didn't seem to understand what Tang Tian meant.

"Did you choose to become a point guard because of your height, or because you like organizing?" Tang Tian made himself clearer.

"Because of my height." Holiday replied.

Basketball is an activity that is closely related to height. Except for a few outliers like Boykins and Rodman, height basically determines what position most people play.

Holiday is only 1.93 meters tall, and he has the body of a guard, so theoretically he can only play the point guard position.

"I know Coach Williams has been teaching you how to be a qualified point guard, and you've been working hard to do it, but..."

Tang Tian changed the subject as he spoke.

"I think you're more suited to being an offensive point guard, like Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook."

What Tang Tian said made Holiday stunned, this was the first time he had heard someone say this to him.

From high school to college to the NBA, almost every coach, like Williams, had been telling him how to become a qualified, even All-Star-level, point guard.

"Modern basketball isn't as clearly defined as it used to be. Rose has pioneered a new position, the scoring point guard, and that has been proven to be possible."

Seeing Holiday's expression, Tang Tian added.

Holiday nodded thoughtfully, Tang Tian's words made sense.

In the past, point guards were not encouraged to attack, which is why Nash was so strong offensively, but his scoring was never very high.

Organizing point guards used to be tied to organizing the offense.

"Train your three-pointer well, have a good three-pointer, stable penetration and defense, even if your organizing ability is a little worse, you will have a greater presence."

Tang Tian continued.

Holiday works hard, has a good attitude, and doesn't pursue ball control, which is actually rare for a player.

This is why it's difficult for superstars to form a team and play "brother basketball" successfully right away.

Because there has to be sacrifice of ball control and status, and someone will definitely be dissatisfied.

After all, not everyone is willing to go from being the boss to being the second, third, or even fourth in command.

But a character like Holiday is most suitable to be the third-in-command as long as he is strong enough.

Holiday nodded, Tang Tian's words really made him feel enlightened.

"I'll take care of the coaching staff."

Tang Tian patted Holiday's head with a smile.

"Thank you."

Holiday nodded gratefully.

Sure enough, what Davis said was right, Tang Tian was young, but he was really like a life mentor.

In the next day's training session, Tang Tian spoke with Williams about his ideas.

Williams thought for a long time, and finally nodded.

If it was the beginning of the season, he definitely wouldn't have accepted what Tang Tian said, but now that more than two months had passed, Holiday had proven that it was really difficult for him to become a good organizer.

If the coaching staff forced him to do something he wasn't good at, it would be knowingly doing the impossible.

Williams' coaching ability was a little lacking, but he was indeed a coach who knew how to be flexible.

Of course, Tang Tian's presence was also a very important reason for his final agreement.

If you don't let your core point guard organize the offense, then someone has to organize it.

Tang Tian was the better choice.

And they had actually been doing that in the past.

Now they were just making this division of labor clearer.

However, this kind of change definitely wouldn't happen in an instant, at least it would have to wait until Tang Tian returned before it could be put into practice.

In the week that followed, the Pelicans finished their previous easy schedule and faced strong opponents in a row, losing games one after another.

After a series of losses, their ranking plummeted to twelfth in the West.

The good news was that Davis' performance was becoming more and more stable.

On the night the team narrowly lost to the Trail Blazers, he put up a luxurious stat line of 30+10+5.

The leader of the "empty stats" group lived up to his name.

Davis performed well, and Tang Tian encouraged him with a pat on the head.

Davis just smiled and didn't dodge.

After patting him for a while, Tang Tian suddenly realized that Davis had just cut his hair again, and it was at its shortest, so it felt a little prickly to the touch.

"Ad, your hair is too short, you should keep it medium length."

Tang Tian said.

He said this partly because it was prickly to the touch.

On the other hand, Davis was getting stronger and his exposure was going up, so he had to pay more attention to his image. This short hairstyle was too ugly, so he had to change it, preferably grow a small beard or something.

"Okay."

Davis's answer was quite straightforward.

"..."

He just agreed like that!

It's your own hairstyle, and you just agreed like that!

You should at least argue a little!

If you don't argue, you should at least question it!

You masochist!

Tang Tian completely saw through Davis's true colors.

In the past week, Tang Tian had recovered well and could already start shooting training.

As expected, he would be able to return to the game in another week.

On this night, the Pelicans hosted the Spurs at home.

Last time, Tang Tian made four three-pointers in a row at the last moment, and contributed his first game-winning shot of his Pelicans career, defeating his old team.

But this time Tang Tian was sitting on the sidelines.

The Pelicans tried their best, but the gap in strength with the Spurs was not small. By the beginning of the fourth quarter, they were already behind by almost 20 points.

Davis was still on the court chasing points.

It was at this time that he had a hard collision with Baynes while defending under the basket. After falling down, he didn't get up for a while, scaring the fans and coaching staff on the sidelines.

Tang Tian's injury hadn't healed yet, and if Davis got injured again, then the Pelicans' season would really be over early.

Fortunately, Davis only suffered a hard collision. After resting for a while, he stood up again and seemed to be fine.

Williams quickly substituted him.

Without Tang Tian, although Davis's stats were rising, he was actually playing very tired because of his own strength.

One or two games wouldn't show anything, but the risk would come out if he played too much.

The Pelicans eventually lost the game, but it was a blessing in disguise that Davis was okay.

After the game, Tang Tian called Demps and asked him to try to trade for a black, strong, and tough center.

Jason Smith's defense was not good. It wasn't obvious when he first started playing, but after playing for a long time, he was targeted and the effect was already very poor.