Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

In the small ball era, all teams are moving towards shooting and space. Against this background, the Bulls are somewhat going against the trend and returning to playing retro basketball with a mid-range attack focus.

Some high and low post-ups that slow down the tempo and consume more energy, because the tactical position of the three-pointer is too high, resulting in long two-pointers without defense...

If it were in the 90s and 00s, these styles of play would usually not be very efficient in scoring.

But nowadays, this retro style of play has been revived just right.

What kind of offense you have, what kind of defense you have.

The Bulls' retro superstar singles are difficult to be effective even with the current outside big men defending.

To put it bluntly, if you want to limit Duane's scoring, you must use old-school players with rich defensive experience to target him on defense.

However, the physical fitness of the few remaining old-school players in the league today no longer supports them in providing better defense.

Besides, it is impossible to defend against a superstar’s singles performance, we can only limit him slightly.

As strong as Payton was at his peak, he could at best defend Jordan like Kobe.

And once Payton entered the end of his career, Billups tore off the fig leaf of point guard DPOY in just a few rounds.

It is worth mentioning that Kidd, the younger brother whom Payton had abused since childhood, easily defeated Billups on both offense and defense the year before.

This all shows that high-quality defense not only requires rich defensive skills and game experience, but also relies on outstanding physical fitness.

Speaking of Duane's current physical fitness, although it has declined a lot, but relying on his perfect back-to-the-basket technique, he still has no problem playing all over the league.

It has to be said here that although the small ball era has only been around for a few years, huge changes have taken place in the league.

Times have changed! Today, most players in the league are either too lazy to learn these useless defensive skills, or give up this thankless defense and turn to offense as defense, relying on transition offense to fill up the data sheet.

After all, basketball is a sport where the team that scores more points wins. As long as you score more points, defense is not that important.

New era, new atmosphere! In this era, players in the league are trying to improve their offensive abilities as much as possible, and then increase their points, statistics and value.

Therefore, learning those skills that cannot be reflected in the data is not only a waste of time, but may also limit personal development and the amount of the next contract.

That is why there are few tough guys in the league who can limit Duane's offense.

The new generation of defensive gates only have physical fitness but no experience in defending Duan, so it is naturally difficult for them to limit Duan's scoring in a short period of time.

It is also because Duane is getting stronger with age and is strong enough that the Bulls' scoring difficulties under double-standard penalties have been greatly improved.

As Curry began to increase his mid-range shots and had a good scoring efficiency, the Bulls' team's culture and playing style seemed to have changed.

As the saying goes, what the leader does, the subordinates will follow.

The Bulls rookies have also begun to strengthen their daily training of mid-range shooting, and are gradually showing off the new techniques they have just mastered on the court.

The Bulls team's appearance naturally became completely new as a result.

The entire league is shooting three-pointers, pursuing three-point shooting accuracy and striving for higher scoring efficiency.

The Bulls did the opposite, using mid-range shots as the key to the team overcoming all difficulties.

It has to be said that the efforts of the entire Bulls team and the changes that have taken place within the Bulls have gradually solidified this style of play where mid-range shots are king.

To some extent, this makes the Bulls a breath of fresh air in the league.

Different things can often attract the attention of ordinary people.

In the small ball era, the Bulls have opened up a new track of retro basketball, which will more or less attract the attention of a group of fans.

In addition, the Bulls' playing style, which relies on singles by their stars, not only impresses young new fans, but also attracts responses and widespread attention from old fans.

At the beginning of this season, due to the Bulls' unstable record, ticket prices and attendance would normally decline.

However, after the Bulls bucked the trend and played retro basketball, the ticket prices at the United Center, the home games of the Bulls, became higher and higher, and the attendance rate repeatedly exceeded 100%, with the highest reaching 105%, which is comparable to the playoffs and even the finals. Of course, while the Bulls have overcome the current difficulties and gained the support of a large number of old fans, they have also faced new challenges.

When facing strong teams from the East and West, the Bulls were affected by the referees, and it was difficult for them to achieve the same results as before by relying solely on their retro mid-range style of play to decide the outcome.

The reason why the small ball era has arrived is naturally because the league has weakened the big centers, and the three-point shot scores one more point than the two-point shot.

Looking at scoring efficiency alone, 50% mid-range shots are no match for 35% three-pointers.

Nowadays, almost every strong team in the league is equipped with two or three shooters, and through fast ball transfers and accurate three-point shooting, they can often quickly open up the score at a certain point in the game.

In other words, the Bulls can only bully weaker opponents at best by relying on stable two-point shots to win the game.

Once they face the top four teams in the East and West, they will most likely lose to those teams that can rely on three-pointers to score due to their low scoring efficiency and lack of scoring explosiveness.

However, after losing a few games and realizing the drawbacks of the classic style of play, the Bulls did not give up their previous style and plan.

After all, the Bulls know that the regular season and the playoffs are like two different worlds, and the difference is shocking enough.

Performance in the regular season does not necessarily translate into the playoffs, especially for players who rely on three-point shooting.

Many times, even if they have an excellent three-point shooting percentage in the regular season, it is often difficult to maintain the same scoring efficiency as in the previous regular season in the playoffs.

Therefore, as an experienced player, Dunn firmly believes that mid-range shooting is where the real value lies.

When the game enters the playoffs, once the opponent's three-pointers start to miss frequently, mid-range shots will become the team's most reliable offensive weapon.

By then, every accurate mid-range shot by the Bulls will bring tremendous pressure to their opponents, forcing them to readjust their defensive strategies.

For the Bulls, the mid-range shot is the key to breaking through their opponent's defense and establishing a scoring advantage.

Having said that, the Bulls' current style of play may have a considerable advantage in the playoffs.

But during the regular season, we still suffered some disadvantages.

Of course, the disadvantages were caused by the league and the referees.

If the Bulls want to continue to play happily in the league, they must first solve the trouble of advancing to the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Fortunately, Duane is not alone.

Horford's adaptation and Curry's changes have injected new vitality into the Bulls and stimulated stronger fighting power.

But basketball is not just a sport for three people.

The Bulls' starting lineup is also second to none in the entire league.

But the Bulls' rotation lineup contains too many rookies who have not yet reached their full potential.

Rookies are watched for three years, and most of them need time to be trained.

The Bulls don't have the time or the patience.

Before, I just hoped that the rookies could grow up normally.

But the current situation is that the Bulls are in a period of transition.

Although the rookies selected by the Bulls in recent years are all potential stocks that Duane is optimistic about.

But if it is not fulfilled, then everything will be in vain.

In order to build a better rotation and championship lineup, the Bulls should also try to hand over their little treasures and exchange them for mature veterans in the market.

After all, Durant's condition is getting worse every year. Who knows how many NBA championship trophies Durant can bring to the Bulls?
In order not to delay the peak period of Durant's career, the Bulls management naturally cannot play dumb. (End of this chapter)