After adopting Tang Tian's suggestion, Stevens quickly put it into action.
Durant was quite interested in the suggestion of playing the Shooting Guard position. Back when he was with the SuperSonics, playing Shooting Guard had been the period when he had shot with the most freedom.
Once Durant agreed, everything else became much easier.
Stevens arranged for trainers to begin helping Durant and Siakam with weight loss.
At the same time, Kuzma also put on some weight. He needed to shift from being a pure small forward back into a Power Forward/Small Forward swingman.
When facing teams with relatively bigger perimeter size, such as the Bucks and Lakers, Stevens also began deploying the new starting lineup in advance.
Brogdon and Durant were on the perimeter, Siakam and Davis at the forward spots, and Gasol at center.
While it could not be called a Death Lineup of Five Bigs, the average height of this lineup was much greater than before.
However, experimental lineups always came with growing pains, and the team's record fluctuated somewhat.
Fortunately, those fluctuations remained within a controllable range. As Durant and Siakam lost weight, the fluctuations steadily decreased.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was already late December. The Pelicans were about to face the Spurs in a Christmas Day Game.
The Spurs now sat at League First.
With Durant leaving the Lakers and Tang Tian retiring from the Pelicans, their two biggest rivals had both weakened, leaving them virtually without opponents.
They had ranked first on ESPN's preseason power rankings and were regarded by the outside world as the biggest championship favorites of the new season.
As a result, this Christmas Day Game drew enormous attention.
Two days before Christmas, Tang Tian was at home decorating the estate with his children