The starting lineups for both teams were now displayed on the giant screen.
The Lakers' starting lineup remained unchanged.
Point Guard Bryce James.
Shooting Guard Wang Yi.
Small Forward Danny.
Power Forward Dauding.
Center Aiton.
The Trail Blazers' lineup was as follows:
Guards: Xidi, Danny.
Forwards: Grant, Kamala.
Center: Yang Hanson.
The Trail Blazers' lineup had three distinguishing features.
The first was that their positions were fluid.
In fact, neither of their guards was strictly a point guard or a shooting guard.
Nor were their forwards strictly small forwards or power forwards.
Their entire team played Future Basketball.
In other words, everyone could handle the ball, everyone could drive, everyone could pass, and everyone could shoot threes.
Their positions on the court were fluid, and they kept driving and kicking, over and over again.
That was what people called Future Basketball.
The second feature was that their center served as the hub of their offense.
Under normal circumstances, they played by driving and kicking, driving and kicking, again and again.
But when that approach failed in certain situations, they turned to their center, Yang Hanson, to run the offense.
Yang Hanson had the ability to orchestrate the offense and link his teammates together.
And now, his scoring, playmaking, and three-point shooting were all approaching the level Jokic had once reached.
Using a center as the Playmaking Hub was extremely rare, even in today's league.
So when the Trail Blazers ran their offense through their center, other teams often struggled to respond.
The third feature was that this lineup was very stable.
Nearly three years had passed since they settled on this starting lineup.
Throughout those three years, the five had remained the Trail Blazers' regular starters.
They had tremendous chemistry, often knowing what the other wanted to do from just