The American Airlines Center Arena, also known as the Sky Corridor Arena, was built in June 1992 and has been renovated this summer and can accommodate 19,000 spectators. It is currently home to the NBA team Suns, NBA team Phoenix Mercury, and AFL team Arizona Diamondbacks. At 10 a.m., the Suns will open interviews and photos here.

Guo Xu and coach Mike D'Anthony, the team's first assistant coach Larry Drew, and manager Brian Colangelo arrived at the stadium at 8 o'clock, drank coffee in the manager's office and discussed the matters of the new season.

Guo Xu must make some suggestions, otherwise they will still have to hate the playoffs this season. Leading the team on the court is Guo Xu's job, but D'Antoni has the final say on how to arrange the players' playing time.

Currently, D'Antoni has two fatal weaknesses, and it was not better in his previous life until he coached the Rockets.

First, his rotation is very rigid. Whether it is the Suns, Knicks or Lakers, Deppaw often stubbornly rotates seven or eight people. When the players are tired to a certain extent, they begin to suffer from main injuries, and then the role players shine. This routine has been repeated several times on Deppaw.

Second, he did not arrange to practice defense last season, so finding an assistant coach who emphasizes defense may solve this problem.

The Suns signed assistant coach Larry Drew this summer who emphasized defense, which was an unexpected surprise. Guo Xu did not give any comments on the coaching staff's acceptance of the order. Brian knew that the team needed to strengthen the defense, and there was a ready-made libero who was blinded by him.

Drew was a point guard during his time as a player. In his peak 82-83 season, the Kings averaged 20.1 points, 8.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game in the Kings. After retiring, Drew began his assistant coaching career. Since the 1992-93 season, he has been an assistant coach for the Lakers, Pistons, Wizards and other teams. He just left for three seasons this summer.

Due to the Wizards' very failures in the past three years and messing up Jordan's comeback performance, Drew is not a sought-after assistant coach, and Bryan signed him largely because of the cheapness.

He attaches great importance to defense and likes to warn players that they would rather let their opponents go to the free throw line than give up their defensive position easily and give the opponent a chance to score easily. In Guo Xu's previous life, Drew was the head coach of the Eagles, twice in the first round and once in the second round.

Drew's most famous deed was that he worked as the Cavaliers head coach for a while in 2018, with an outstanding record of 8 wins and 1 loss.

Tyrone Lu was absent, and the Cavaliers' rotation and technical and tactical level have increased significantly, which has been recognized by the majority of Cavaliers fans. Some fans even said on the forum: "Larry Drew should replace Tyrone Lu at this level!"

In terms of coaching qualifications, Drew was completely out of Tyrone Lu. At that time, he had been in the NBA coaching position for 18 years. Compared to Tyrone Lu's stubborn use of "Suicide Five Smalls", Drew's rotation adjustment of the team's lineup is obviously more reasonable and convincing.

Unfortunately, the "tactical genius" Tyronlu returned before the playoffs, and the Cavaliers immediately changed back to the tactic of "giving the ball to James"...

D'Antoni's idea is to insist on playing small balls, let Diop be the marginal players with two veterans, and young people who can run play more. He doesn't look down on a blue-collar rough guy like Diop who can't shoot. Instead, he is very interested in low-court rookie James Jones who can shoot three-pointers and play the No. 4-place appearance.

Drew suggested that the team ensure at least 10 players rotation, and except Guo Xu, the playing time of others is controlled within 30 minutes. In this way, the role players can not only ensure offensive and defensive efficiency, but also ensure sufficient physical strength and reduce the possibility of injury. In addition, doing so can allow young players to get more exercise in the regular season and play a role in the playoffs.

Drew is a coach who likes rotation. During Mike Woodson's coaching in his previous life, the Hawks played for a long time. Joe Johnson averaged more than 40 minutes per game in multiple seasons. After Drew took over the coaching spike, 12 players played in rotation in each game. The core Joe Johnson and Josh Smith only played about 35 minutes.

His shortcomings are that his offensive tactics are too bad, mainly because of the basic pick-and-roll and singles. Not to mention leading the team to score 100, he averaged 90 points per game in three playoffs, so he won by defending.

The two coaches are put together, and their styles are complementary.

Guo Xu didn't listen at first, and waited for the two coaches to discuss how to allocate the playing time of inside players. After asking about his thoughts, he expressed his opinion.

"Mike, don't blame me. I'm going to stand on Larry's side this time, although he is a newcomer." Guo Xu smiled.

When Drew signed, he was a little worried that Guo Xu liked offense too much and ignored defense. Now that his ideas were supported, he was very happy. He didn't like extreme players, and he felt that those kind of people couldn't succeed.

D'Antoni had to give Guo Xu face and sighed: "Do you think you should increase the playing time of the role players?"

"Yes, otherwise it will be difficult for the new players to play in the playoffs, and they will feel nervous if they lack game experience. I think Diop must have playing time, just play about 10 minutes per game, and let him go up and push for a while when he encounters an opponent who is strongly attacking the penalty area. This will enhance his confidence and his physical fitness is great." Guo Xu explained.

Brian continued: "We're here to defend O'Neal and Duncan, it doesn't matter if the offense is almost done. Try the effect in the regular season. If the opponent's inside offense is poor, please let him sit on the bench."

3 to 1, D'Antoni has to listen even if he doesn't like doing this.

Everyone sat together and talked about it. It was Guo Xu's suggestion that he wanted such an occasion where he could "take a team". Discussions in private will not hurt the harmony.

Guo Xu also gave D'Antoni a lot of face. In terms of offensive tactics, he fully supported D'Antoni's decision, and the veterans could rest. The veteran's task is to teach the newcomers the game experience during training, and be the captain who maintains good relationships in the locker room. In terms of strength, they are not as good as a group of young Superman.

Laga Bale, a 27-year-old player, must be reused. He has a lot of game experience, although he is not in the NBA most of the time.

In addition, the key to Desert's running and shooting is that the point guard and teammates can be rotated. Guo Xu must play more, so of course he has no objection. If he plays less, he will not be able to obtain beautiful data.

Manager Brian also supports rotation, so that the data of role players will be more average. If the data are very beautiful, it will be difficult for the management to renew their contract with them in the future.

When talking about the core makeup photos, Guo Xu suggested that five people be present this year.

"Isn't it too many?" D'Antoni thought that the three of them were fine.

"Not many. Now the Western Conference strong teams have called out four stars and five stars. There is no need for us to fall behind in this regard. When I was interviewed, I planned to say that the Suns are also the Big Five." Guo Xu said with a smile.

Brian clapped his hands, grinned his teeth and said with a slutty smile: "Gao, it's really high!"

All three of them couldn't help but shrink their necks. This guy's expression really didn't look like a good person.

Brian excitedly explained: "If we don't do this, the attention of the new season may not be as good as those teams. If we do it, it will be different. They are famous players, we are young players, and fans will definitely support us even more after playing well."

Guo Xu admires Brian's analytical ability. In fact, he didn't think so much. He just believed that young teammates with super talent would definitely improve this season. Just take photos together and praise them in advance.
Chapter completed!