Sports Medicine Master System

On the court, Curry weaved nimbly past Green. Just as he was about to collide with Mackie, he made a sharp turn, looped back around the other side of Green, and bolted for the corner.

His defender, Eric Gordon, had already sped around Green, but he never expected Curry to cut back.

By the time he turned again, it was too late.

Green, who had the ball, delivered a perfect pass.

And Curry’s motion—running to the three-point line, turning to catch the ball, and releasing his shot—was also incredibly quick.

The ball swished through the net. 26 to 24. In a surprising turn, Curry’s team took the lead to end the half.

In the lounge, Callesimo, sitting a short distance to Chen Yu’s right, adjusted his glasses. "Not bad," he complimented. "It’s clear Grand Canyon has stronger tactical execution. As for the Little Horse Team, they only changed their forward, but they’re still having issues with teamwork."

As he spoke, he turned to Chen Yu. "Chen, trading for a new teammate at the last second... you’re really setting them up, aren’t you?"

These were three kids who started as strangers. They spent three months together, day in and day out. Then, suddenly, they get a new teammate and are immediately thrown into the playoffs. It would be a shock if they *didn’t* have teamwork problems.

At his words, Popovich, Buford, Budenholzer, and the others nearby all turned to look at Chen Yu.

Their strongest impression of Chen Yu’s show was that it was filled with all sorts of psychological tests and traps.

And the one who had suffered the most from these was, without a doubt, Durant.

Dale Curry, sitting in the row behind Chen Yu, chimed in with a smile. "Exactly. Before the trade, Stephen even asked me if he should go through with it. I told him then and there: if you can avoid making a trade, don’t. They’ve already been playing together for three months. If you suddenly switch teammates, there’s absolutely no time to build lineup chemistry."

Having played professionally, Old Curry knew all too well how important lineup chemistry was.

Even championship teams need a season or two to gel before they can reach their full potential.

And stories of teams that failed to gel, sparking conflicts that ultimately forced them to break up, were a dime a dozen.

Popovich leaned back in his chair, resting his chin in his hand, his eyes fixed on the television screen. "Chen," he said, "did you draw up all these plays for Grand Canyon?"

Chen Yu didn’t answer directly. Instead, he asked what Popovich thought of the plays.

"Quite interesting," Popovich commented.

Popovich had only started paying attention to Grand Canyon in the second half of the regular season, when the team began its surprise run for the playoffs.

The media credited Grand Canyon’s victories to Curry’s three-point shooting. But Popovich had noticed long ago that while Curry’s accuracy was a factor, the real key to their success was how his teammates executed plays to create open shots for him.

He found many of their plays to be worth studying.

"I really like those two players, Mackie and Green. Their tactical execution is excellent. Stephen is able to get open so often in large part because of their efforts."

"They must have spent a huge amount of time running plays, right?"

Popovich asked, turning his head.

Chen Yu nodded.

Over the three months, each team had a different training focus. At least eighty percent of them chose to prioritize the development of individual player skills.

They completed various challenges to earn rewards, all of which they traded for specialized skill trainers.

’The GMs of those teams probably figured that since their main goal was to help their captains pad stats for attention, and they would eventually trade for better players anyway, the original roster didn’t matter. Practicing team plays would just be a waste of energy.’

’Just run a few simple plays and focus all their energy on helping the captain score. That was the extent of it.’

Given the circumstances, only a handful of teams chose to prioritize practicing plays and building team coordination.

Curry’s Grand Canyon was one of them.

Once they found the right approach, they invested nearly all their time in running tactical drills.

Running plays is incredibly tedious work, but the three of them stuck with it, and their efforts clearly paid off.

This was the main reason they were able to make a powerful push into the playoffs during the second half of the season.

As far as Chen Yu knew, Negro had already drawn up a playbook for them that was a good finger thick, containing dozens of different plays and variations.

They had put in the sweat and effort; they deserved to perform this well.

"Greg, why the sudden interest in three-pointers?" Chen Yu asked.

’He was praising Grand Canyon’s three-point plays, he was constantly acquiring shooters, and he had even paid me to improve his players’ three-point shooting ability.’

’It was obvious Popovich was targeting the three-pointer.’

’And if Chen Yu recalled correctly, Popovich—a disciple of Old Brown—had always scoffed at the three-pointer. He’d publicly stated on more than one occasion that the Spurs had no need for it.’

’Most importantly, being set in his ways, he had never shown any sign of wanting to change.’

’The media always said Popovich’s tactics were set in stone. For years, he was still using the same playbook from ’99—plays he drilled into his players so much they ran them in their sleep.’

’And when it came to crunch time, he only had one play: give the damn ball to Duncan.’

’So why the sudden change?’

Popovich paused, his expression turning thoughtful. "I wouldn’t call it a sudden interest," he said. "It’s more that after this Olympics, I realized the true value of the three-pointer."

"Oh? And what value is that?"

The media had already dissected the Olympic loss from every possible angle, but Chen Yu was curious to hear what lessons the championship-winning coach had drawn from it.

Popovich glanced at his assistant coaches before answering. "Spacing."

"Our rules are still a bit different from the international game, but we’ve also allowed zone defense. And you know how congested the paint gets once you allow the zone."

Chen Yu nodded.

After the NBA legalized the zone, many teams packed the paint to deal with O’Neal. The moment he touched the ball, he was immediately swarmed.

This resulted in extremely congested space inside the three-point arc.

Popovich continued, "In that situation, the area outside the three-point line is wide open. It creates the opportunity to take a high volume of threes. Take last season, for example. Your Phoenix Suns stockpiled a lot of shooters and took a ton of three-pointers."

Miller, Hardaway, Poseidon, Leonard, Kovol... over the past two years, the Phoenix Suns have been stockpiling perimeter shooters and reaping the benefits of the league allowing zone defense.

"Now, take that a step further. If we take a high volume of threes and establish a credible threat from the perimeter, it forces the opponent to extend their defense. And when that happens, space opens up in the paint."

"Combined with the defensive three-second violation, we can create more one-on-one matchups for our guys in the post."

O’Neal was constantly double-teamed, but was Duncan any different?

In the playoffs, Duncan often had to power his way to the rim with two defenders draped all over him.

If the paint were less crowded, in a one-on-one matchup, how many players in the entire league could stop Duncan?

"And that’s a major reason we lost in the Olympics," Popovich concluded. "Our defense collapsed too far into the paint, and we couldn’t stop our opponents’ three-pointers from the outside."

Chen Yu looked at Popovich, surprised.

Having gone through the Olympics himself, and having already devised a "one star, four shooters" strategy for the Chinese Men’s Basketball Team, Chen Yu had naturally come to the same conclusions long ago.

But he never expected Popovich to have figured it out as well.

If anyone ever called Popovich "old-fashioned" again, Chen Yu would have to pick a fight with them.

The old man wasn’t set in his ways at all; he was constantly learning and evolving.