Trail Blazers formulated "18-month skill development plan" for Yang Hansen! The double tower experiment was launched simultaneously

When 19-year-old Yang Hansen assisted his teammates with a back pass across the half in his summer league debut, the Trail Blazers assistant coaches on the sidelines stood up together - this is not the action that the 7-foot-2 center should have, but more like Jokic's improvisation on the finals stage. This rookie from China ignited the discussion on the "center organization revolution" in advance with his performance of 4.1 assists per game. The scarcity of talent has long been revealed: among the players with a height of more than 2.18 meters in history, only Chamberlain and Sabonis have been able to break through three assists per game in their career. Yang Hansen's passing vision in Xia United is even more outrageous - his half-time pass error rate is only 8.3%, which is lower than many point guards. Joe Cronin, president of the Operations of the Trail Blazers, said bluntly: "We are not going to turn him into Jokic, but to make him the core of the organization of the 'Yang Hansen-style' - he is 5 cm taller than Jokic, which means that the passing angle and coverage are unprecedented."

To achieve this goal, the coaching staff has formulated a "18-month skill jump plan", which can be called the "center version of the player development bible" in disassembly:

· Three-point shooting: 200 additional "mobile three-pointers" every day (including pick-and-roll, fast break follow-up), the goal is to increase the shooting percentage of 35% of the training game to 38% of the regular season - this is equivalent to making a 7-foot-2 giant with Curry-level catch-and-shooting efficiency.

· Fast break propulsion: Specially hired an NFL running back coach to guide the "Straight Acceleration Pacing". His current 3.8-second sprint in 3/4 is to shorten it to 3.5 seconds within 18 months (close to Antetokounmpo's inside sprint speed). Imagine: the opponent just lost a three-pointer, Yang Hansen grabbed the rebound and dribbled the ball and pushed it forward, and a speed change at the top of the arc passed the defender, either dunking directly or passing the ball to the shooter on both wings - this picture is enough to make any defensive coach insomnia.

· Tactical memory training: Spend 1 hour a day to study Jokic's 100 classic pass rounds in the past five years, focusing on imitating "the timing of the ball 0.3 seconds before the defense forms a siege." The Trail Blazers even developed exclusive VR training equipment to simulate the sense of oppression in the field of vision when being double-teamed.

The ambition of transformation is far more than "one more pass point". When Yang Hansen stands at a high position, the defense must face a "dual": if the center guards against him passing the ball, Klingen's dunk space will be vacant under the basket; if he is allowed to hold the ball, he can both shoot three-pointers by himself and feed his teammates who cut in. This dual threat of "height + pass" may have evolved the "5-out tactic" of modern basketball into a new form of "4-out+1 (organization center)" - and Yang Hansen is the variable that rewrites the rules.

When Yang Hansen and 7-foot-2 Donovan Klingen stood on the court at the same time, the Trail Blazers' inside height was amazing, but the defensive compatibility between the "two towers" became the most dazzling controversial point of Xia Lian.

Yang Hansen's lateral movement defect (3.8 seconds of 3/4 sprint, 0.4 seconds slower than the league's average center) is particularly obvious when facing a pick-and-roll: when the opponent's small guard uses screen to bypass, his backup defense is often half a beat slower, and Xia Lianzhong was therefore hit by his opponent 6 times "small to big" layups. What's even more difficult is that Klin is also a "heavy center" (weight 260 pounds). When the two were on the court at the same time, the Trail Blazers ranked third from the bottom in the summer league, and their opponents scored 4.2 points more quickly than the league average.

But the wonderful thing about basketball is to "play your strengths and avoid your weaknesses". Yang Hansen showed his talent for "defensive commander" in Xialian, and is finding the logic of coexistence for the two towers:

· Tactical board ability during pause: During pause, he used gestures to demonstrate to his teammates "how to shrink the opponent's bottom line cross tactics" and even corrected the positioning error of veteran player Kelden Johnson - this "on-field coach" attribute is extremely rare among players under 20 years old.

· Reading power of regional joint defense: When the opponent plays the "5-foreign tactics", he can always judge the passing route 1 second in advance. Xia Lianzhong completed "predictive steals" on the weak side three times, which made up for the lack of movement speed.

· Complementary of the frame protection deterrence: Klingen's vertical jump height (36 inches) and Yang Hansen's lateral interception range (armspan 2.28 meters) form a "three-dimensional protection net". When the two are on the court at the same time, the opponent's shooting percentage in the penalty area plummeted to 41.2%, 8 percentage points lower than the league average. The solution of the

Trail Blazers is quite creative: they plan to adopt "flexible joint defense" - use 2-3 joint defense to compress the opponent's inside space during regular periods. When the opponent uses a small lineup, quickly switch to the "Yang Hansen single defense center + Klingen assisted defense of the penalty area" mode, and use the former's passing vision to direct teammates to rotate. Assistant coach Scott Brooks admitted: "We are not going to make them Gobert, but to make the league adapt to the new paradigm of 'two 7-foot-2 giants can also defend against a small lineup'."

The ultimate significance of this experiment may surpass the Trail Blazers' record itself. When Yang Hansen completed the "three-point line dribbling change + emergency stop jump shot" in training, and when he and Klingen completed the "altitude relay" in the fast break, these pictures all hint: the revolution in the center position is no longer a single-choice question "either like Jokic can pass the ball or like Gobert can defend" - and Yang Hansen is trying to make this question a "multiple choice question".