“If I shot a three on a fast break, he’d say, ‘What are you doing?’ I’d tell him to shoot an easy two, and I think I’ve changed a lot.”
Busan KCC head coach Jeon Chang-jin is a “tiger coach” recognized by professional basketball.
He has a clear basketball philosophy, and whenever his players fail to implement it, he calls them out.
Like other coaches, his philosophy is ‘basketball centered around the basket’. He believes that the closer you shoot to the basket, the better your chances are.
Jeon confessed that this belief is slowly shaking.
KCC defeated Seoul Samseong 106-100 in the first home game of the 2023-2024 regular season at Sajik Gymnasium in Busan on Wednesday afternoon.
KCC, which left Jeonju after 22 years, made its debut in its new home city of Busan with this game, and its “fast-break basketball,” in which it scored 19 fast-break points, entertained more than 8,700 home fans.
At the center of it all was foreign player Alize DeShawn Johnson. He grabbed a rebound himself, crossed over to the other side of the court, and attacked the ball like a guard.
The guards, including Lee Ho-hyun, Heo Woong, Jung Chang-young, and Lee Kun-hwi, took advantage of the cracks in the opponent’s defense and unleashed a barrage of outside shots.
This was a completely different tactic from “traditional basketball,” in which a small player possesses the ball and passes it to a taller player under the basket.
This is in line with the global trend of using long ball handlers to speed up offensive transition.
The contrast between the two teams’ styles was especially evident as Samsung tried to get the most out of its 210cm center Kofi Coburn’s under-the-basket attack.
“Actually, I’m a coach who still insists on playing under the basket,” Jeon said in the postgame press conference. “When you have a scorer like (Coburn) under the basket, you can’t have no pressure,” he said.
“When you have a big guy like that making threatening plays, you have to make a lot of defensive changes. It’s not a normal situation,” he said, adding that his philosophy has changed a bit.
“In the past, I didn’t allow fast-break three-pointers, but now I tell them to shoot confidently from the outside,” he said, adding, “These days, players also work really hard on their shooting.”
He also pointed out that the signing of Choi Jun-yong was an opportunity to change his philosophy.
Choi Jun-yong, who was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the 2021-2022 Korean Professional Basketball League, joined KCC after leaving Seoul SK at the end of last season.
He’s an explosive resource who can drive the ball and get to the basket in an instant despite being over 2 meters tall. These traits are similar to Johnson’s.
“One of the reasons I brought Johnson (instead of a center) is Choi Jun-yong. “If he hadn’t come, we wouldn’t have had Johnson,” the former coach said.
The KCC official described Choi as a player who can explain and convince coaches of the kind of basketball he wants to play.
“He’s different from what I saw from the outside before I signed him. He is good at communicating within the team, and he understands the importance of working in harmony with the coach.”
Choi, who is currently resting after injuring his adductor muscle in the cup final, will return to action in the middle of next month.온라인카지노
From the middle of next month, another 2-meter forward, Song Kyo-chang, will return from Sangsung, giving Jeon’s “forward basketball” a boost.
“With Jun Yong-i and Kyo-chang back, we’ll have more fast breaks because they’re both fast and have strengths in defense and rebounding,” said Jeon. Coburn also struggled with the fast break, but I think that’s true for any team.”
Heo, who scored 23 points in the victory, was also confident in the destructive power of the “complete” team.
“When Junyong and Kyochang come, we get better. I’ll be honest with you. If we come together as a complete unit, we can’t lose.”
+ There are no comments
Add yours