The Whip of the God of Basketball

While Leon was doing science popularization for Mr. Auerbach in the hospital in Washington, Danny Ainge in Madison Square Garden was having mixed feelings. Fortunately, the transaction between the Celtics and the Timberwolves went unexpectedly smoothly. The two parties quickly reached a consensus. Based on Ainge's experience, it is expected that the league office will approve it tomorrow. Garnett will officially join Boston, and Boston will also As a result, the team will go from being the runner-up in the finals to becoming the most powerful contender for next season's championship.

What is worrying is naturally Kevin Garnett's super-large contract of 28 million. Even if the salary cap increases next year due to the TV broadcast agreement taking effect, 28 million is still more than 65% of the salary cap. One person Taking up so much salary space makes Anji's operation stretched. He knows in his heart that after trading for Garnett, so far next season, the Celtics will only have 9 players left on their books. To meet the requirement of at least 12 players, Anji still needs to sign 3 players, and to fill the 15-man team roster, Anji needs to get 6 more players.

But now, the Celtics have 0 salary space, and their salary has exceeded the luxury tax line. In any case, they will start paying the luxury tax next season. The job of the team president is not only to help the team win the championship, but also their important task is to let the boss make money. If they can't make money and the boss has to spend more, Anji will not be safe in the position of president.

Thinking of this, Anji scolded Leon a hundred thousand times in his heart, but he still had to stay calm, because the draft was not over yet, and the Celtics still had draft picks at the end of the first round and the second round. Now that the Celtics have no salary space, the importance of these two draft picks has become highlighted. This will provide the Celtics with two cap spots, and Ainge must make good use of them.

Now, the draft has reached the middle and back end. Although the Celtics were the finals team last season, the draft picks outside the lottery area are based on the regular season record, so the Celtics With the 20th pick in the first round, a pretty good position. In terms of demand, the type of player the Celtics currently need most is small forward. They were stretched at this position before. Now that Eric Williams has been traded away, Pierce has no substitute at all and has become the team's only substitute. small forward.

In this draft, Angie was solely responsible for the Celtics' scouting work. At this time, he began to miss Leon. If he was in charge, he would have everything prepared in order. By then they would Will make the most appropriate and optimized choice.

At this time, the draft had reached the 19th pick. At this position, the Utah Jazz selected Alexander Pavlovic from Europe, a combo guard who can handle the ball and score, a typical European player.

"Haven't the Jazz learned the lessons from before? They picked another guy from Europe." Angie muttered after hearing the Jazz's result. The Jazz picked a European point guard Raul Lopez the year before last. Facts have proved that the European defender is really good. It's hard to survive in the NBA. Stockton officially retired this year, and it seems that Sloan really wants to find a replacement for Stockton in Europe.

Now, it's the Celtics' turn to make a choice.

At this time, the aftermath of the Celtics-Timberwolves trade has not yet dissipated. ESPN hosts are still discussing the deal, and they are also beginning to pay close attention to the Celtics' selection with the 20th overall pick. .

After those players who look very talented at first glance have been almost singled out, what is left are those young people who look flawed at first glance, but look very good upon closer inspection.

Five minutes, Angie has five minutes to think about her choice.

"Did Fox have any suggestions?" Ainge asked his assistant Daryl Morey. Because Leon did not participate in pre-draft matters, all auxiliary matters were handled by Daryl Morey.

"No...Fox didn't say anything. His mind was on the transaction." Morey hesitated and said. In fact, Leon called Morey to exchange opinions before the draft, but what they exchanged was not the Celtics' draft, but the Grizzlies' draft. Because in an earlier private agreement, Leon promised to help Chris Wallace and provide rookie intelligence resources. So this is one of the reasons why Leon left the draft to Angie.

Since Leon didn't give any advice, Anji should consider using Plan B or Plan C. Because Plan A Anji wants to get a point guard to fill the vacancy after Steve Kerr retires, but now it seems that the small forward position is their top priority. After all, at the point guard position, high-quality There are still veterans, but the position of small forward, which is the most demanding on the body, must be replenished with fresh blood as soon as possible.

Now there are three small forward candidates that Angie is struggling with, one is Deng Tai Jones who was born at Rutgers University, one is Josh Howard who comes from Wake Forest University, and the other is a kid from France, Boris Diaw.

These three players have their own characteristics. Dengtai Jones has outstanding physical fitness, but his skills are relatively rough and his height is insufficient; Josh Howard is impressive defensively and has great potential offensively, but has no organizational talent. ; As for Boris Diaw, Angie hasn't watched many of his games because he has been playing in France, and he only knows that he is a very comprehensive guy.

Angie is only given five minutes to choose one from three. At this time, all the previous investigations and analyzes may be useless. Most of these general managers will succumb to their own feelings, the kind that accompanies basketball. A feeling developed over decades. This time, Ainge also decided to trust his feelings. He handed the envelope of the selected candidates to the staff, and the staff handed it to Stern backstage.

This is the 20th time Stern has stepped onto the podium tonight, and his face clearly shows fatigue. The 20th time means that after two-thirds of the first round, it is almost over. "With the 20th pick in the 2003 draft, the Boston Celtics selected Boris Diaw from France!" Stern still used his standard tone to say the Celtics' choice. They wanted Diaw, the striker from France!

"Boris Diaw... is from France. He can play multiple positions on the court. He basically won all the basketball honors in France... However, he should be one of the few rookies we paid the least attention to before the draft. I really didn't expect it. ." Daryl Morey looked through Diaw's information and found that it was quite sparse. Diaw had never come to the Celtics for a trial training. There was no connection between the two.

Diaw, who stood up when he heard the name in his seat, also looked at a loss. He had always thought that he would be selected by the Eagles. He was ready to stand up and shake hands after the 20th place was finished. Little did he know that Stern had already put himself The name was announced.

"In the draft, anything can happen. Take a rest and prepare for the second round." Angie looked a little tired. After winning Diaw, his spirit could finally relax a little. This was a choice made entirely based on feeling, just because he heard that the 21st-ranked Hawks were interested in Diaw, and he wondered if he could trade some chips from the Hawks if he robbed Diaw.

However, in more than an hour after that, he did not receive a call from the Eagles general manager. It seemed that the loss of Diaw was not a big deal to the Eagles.

Then, with the 27th pick, the Grizzlies selected Kendrick Perkins. This was the advice given by Fox Leon, and in fact this advice benefited the Grizzlies a lot.

In the second round, everything became lackluster. The Celtics were ranked 27th, which was really far behind. When we arrived at this position, everything we could pick was taken away, and the rest were all crooked melons and cracked dates.

At this time, Danny Ainge, based on the principle of "I want a small forward", selected a small forward-Marquis Daniels among the remaining players.