The Whip of the God of Basketball

Since the free market was fully opened on July 1, this year's NBA summer has entered an unprecedented fierce arms competition. The Boston Celtics' trade to acquire Kevin Garnett in the draft was undoubtedly the fuse of this competition and directly detonated the entire free market. The Los Angeles Lakers announced the signing of Karl Malone and Gary Payton in early July, which pushed this competition to the top.

Just the day after the Lakers announced that they would sign Malone and Payton, on July 6, the New Jersey Nets, the powerful Eastern Conference, announced that they would sign former Miami Heat free agent, Alonzo Mourning, to replace Dr. The old Mutombo hopes to use this to fight against the bulging Boston Celtics.

On the same day, the San Antonio Spurs announced that they had reached an agreement with Timberwolves center Nesterovic. The center from Serbia will soon join the defending champion, and the Timberwolves already have Nesterovic's compatriot Milli. Xiqi no longer needs this hard-working center with average talent.

However, the Timberwolves still don't seem to be completely reassured about Milicic. They also acquired the highly anticipated 1998 No. 1 pick Olowokandi in the free market, who was considered the next Olajuwon. After having Walker , Olowokandi and Milicic, the Timberwolves' internal strength has skyrocketed. Although they have lost Kevin Garnett, it seems that their strength has only increased.

However, the Boston Celtics, who had been in the limelight before, were not idle. Ainge made four calls in order to fill up the 15-man roster. Finally, on the morning of the 8th, the Celtics completed their first signing after the big trade. , Ainge acquired veteran Eric Strickland in the free market as a supplement to the point guard position after Steve Kerr retired.

When Leon got the news, he was leading his team to the Orlando Magic's training facility to participate in the third game of the Orlando Summer League against the Miami Heat.

As an official and informal league, the Orlando Summer League only officially started in 2001. It is a small competition organized and organized privately by NBA teams to train young players and select marginalized players. The summer league usually has one game per day, with a total of six teams participating in the game, namely the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, Washington Wizards, New Jersey Nets and the host Orlando Magic, all of which are teams from the Eastern Conference.

Six teams compete in a single round-robin, and points are awarded for each game. Winning a game will earn you 4 points. In this game, every time you win a quarter, you will get another 1 point. If the quarter is tied, both sides will get 0.5 points. Therefore, at the end of a game, the winning team can get a maximum of 8 points and a minimum of 5 points; the losing team can get a maximum of 3 points and a minimum of 0 points.

After the five single round-robin games, the two teams with the highest points will compete for the championship, and the two teams with the third and fourth points will compete for third place. Therefore, although it is only a small unofficial league with six teams participating, But it is also well organized and very competitive.

In the first two days of the game, the Celtics won both games. They defeated the New Jersey Nets and the Cleveland Cavaliers respectively. Especially in yesterday's game against the Cavaliers, LeBron James, the much-anticipated No. 1 pick, was defeated. The Celtics' 1-2-2 zone focus defense treatment, 3 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists in the game, did not look like the most popular No. 1 pick.

As a new star who will pose a huge threat to the Celtics in the East in the future, Leon will tell him from the summer league not to take advantage of the Celtics.

It can be said that among all six teams, the Celtics do not have the best rookie, but they have the best discipline, the toughest striker and the most teamwork spirit.

"Strickland...that guy is older than me..." Leon frowned when he saw the information that the Celtics had signed Strickland. Now the Celtics have a surplus of forwards and a serious shortage of guards. Whether they are point guards or shooting guards, except for Arenas and Reid as starters, they lack suitable freshmen on the bench.

The biggest significance of Malik Siri is to recruit Garnett. Now that his task has been completed, he will mainly retire with the Celtics; Steve Kerr has run out of gas, although Ainge and Leon both retained Kerr. However, he obviously has better prospects and development in other careers, and it is natural for him to retire and leave the playing career. Now signed Strickland, this old man was also a 17+10 player in the past, a proper quasi-All-Star, and an All-NBA Second Team player.

The problem is that he participated in the draft in 1988 and is now 36 years old. Although point guards become more popular as they get older, they cannot be too old to be unable to walk. Last season, Strickland's statistics dropped to 6.8 points and 4.6 assists, making him a barely qualified backup point guard. However, Strickland's reputation in the NBA has not been very good in the past few years. He relies on his old skills, shows up late for training, and messes up games. He is a headache for team management and coaches.

Leon thought about how the Lakers Galaxy Battleship sank in his memory, and thought that Anji had added another factor of instability to his team. Arenas has a bad temper. I don't know if he will be compatible with Strickland or incompatible with each other. In short, the nanny burden on his shoulders as a head coach must be heavier.

After arriving at the Magic's training facility, the players warmed up and prepared to start the game. The game between the Celtics and the Heat was the first game today, and there would be games between the Cavaliers and the Nets, and the Magic and the Wizards later.

"Everyone, take out everything you have learned in training and summarized in the video. I tell you once again that I will not call a timeout during the game. Please solve all problems by yourself. Okay, come on, young man. We, although this is the summer league, we still have to win no matter what the game is!" Leon's roar echoed in the training hall, and the players from other teams looked at him with suspicion.

Fortunately, this is not the first day. They are already used to this iron-fisted coach from Boston. His story of playing alone with a team in Indiana is widely praised among young players. Now it has reached the point where rumors are spreading that Leon can punch. To the point of overturning Shark O'Neal.

The game was quite intense. This was the most exciting game the Celtics had played since the start of the summer league. They did not encounter much resistance when facing the Nets and Cavaliers, but the Heat were different. Dwyane Wade, the third player in the draft - Obviously, Wade is more mature than James, who has never played in the NCAA. He is calmer in the face of the Celtics' systematic defense and knows how to deal with it.

And his sharp breakthrough left the Celtics helpless. In the first two games, Dalembert, who almost compared himself to Chamberlain in the Summer League, was fouled by Wade for consecutive defensive fouls. Leon had to replace Dalembert. Special, substitute forward Haslem was replaced.

This substitution had an unexpected effect. Although Haslem is not tall, the reported height is 6 feet 8, but the actual height is only 6 feet 6, but he has flexible feet and has played overseas for a year. He has rich experience and a very tough style. Compared with other young people on the court, he is obviously not at the same level of competition.

After he came on the court, Wade was also restricted. Several attempts to break through and lay up were interfered with. The Celtics used this wave of defense to launch a counterattack and established an advantage in one fell swoop.

121:109, the Celtics won another game and scored 6 points, ranking first in the standings.

After the game, everyone went back to the locker room to shower and change clothes, while Leon stayed in the stands on the sidelines, preparing to watch the remaining two games. After all, the performance of the two super rookies still concerned him very much.

Suddenly, a man quietly sat next to Leon, crossed his legs, and then took out a cigar from his trouser pocket and handed it to Leon.

"Make a deal, Leon," the man said.