In January '17, Harden's deal dropped a bombshell on the otherwise somewhat dull NBA market.

Because of the Warriors' dominance, Li Liang decided to stay with the Kings for at least three years, resulting in other teams not having the idea of competing for the championship in the near future, so the entire market entered a dormant state.

The teams are making some minor repairs and minor repairs, and there are basically no major moves.

Mid-season trades like '95, '04, '08 that led to a trade for a championship-caliber team haven't happened in either of these years.

After all, the emergence of Li Liang has made the entire NBA free market environment worse and worse.

Unexpectedly, on a mediocre January afternoon, the transaction between the Rockets and the Celtics stunned everyone.

The Rockets have indeed struggled this season, with two big stars inside and outside, and as a result, they can only hover on the brink of the playoffs in the West.

The investment in Howard proved to be a failure, and Warcraft is no longer the same Warcraft it once was.

The overall environment in the West is so bad that the Rockets have little hope in terms of salary structure, draft picks, market environment and other aspects.

In the summer, the free market Rockets signed Anderson for 20 million, and the moment the contract was signed, a garbage contract was born.

Influenced by Li Liang, the Rockets wanted to renew Harden's contract early last year, but Harden rejected it.

Then, Harden watched the Thunder's eldest brother and second brother go to the pinnacle of life and win the championship.

It is impossible to say that there is no stimulation for him, what one person and one city, it is true that he has not won the championship.

All summer, Harden has been stimulated by his two brothers, and they are still thinking about bringing Harden back to the Thunder.

But where does the Thunder still have the capital to trade Harden back.

Besides, it is impossible for Harden to return to the Thunder to be the third, and he has the strength to win the regular season MVP.

Seeing that there was no future and no hope in the Rockets, the team lost consecutive games in December.

The relationship between Harden and Howard is getting worse and worse.

The Rockets' livery crew has been looking to trade Howard out.

After all, Harden is the future of the team.

As a result, no team in Howard wanted to take over.

One is that the contract is too big, and the other is that Howard is an expiring contract, if he spends a lot of money to trade it back, plays a season and leaves, isn't everything in vain?

Therefore, Howard's contract was not willing to be asked at all, and the Rockets could only watch it rot in their hands.

Now Harden is gone, and he, who has never had a temper, requested a trade from the team in January.

Once an honest man loses his temper, he can't pull back a few cows if he is stubborn.

For Harden, he doesn't actually want to run around, he's not Li Liang.

At the beginning of the Thunder, he said that he could accept the status of a substitute.

As a result, he was sent away by Presti.

When he arrived at the Rockets, he quickly took the team out of the quagmire.

And the Houston strip club is well-known in the United States, and it feels good to play here.

But times have changed, how can you be a player without ambition, how can you think of being in one place forever, sinking on the edge of the playoffs.

Li Liang played a good role model for everyone in the alliance.

The tree is dead, the person is alive, there is strength, where can you not play?

Once Harden requests a trade, there is no room for redemption.

And the day after Harden proposed the trade, the Rockets reached an agreement with the Celtics.

This also shows that the Rockets have long had a plan to trade Harden, but they just don't want to execute it.

Once you have to do it, it works very quickly.

Business is business, and sometimes it's so ruthless.

So, Harden was sent from Texas to Massachusetts to Boston, the holy city of basketball.

For the Celtics, acquiring Harden means that their rebuilding has taken the last and most critical step.

After sending off the Big Three, in just a few years, the Celtics got back on their feet.

This season, the Celtics have been described as "tigerless monkeys in the mountains" in the East.

After James left, it can be said that the stars in the East were dim, and the Celtics rushed to the first place in the East when the lineup was not favored.

Thomas Jr., who is 175 tall, almost played an MVP-level performance, averaging 28 points per game and leading the Celtics to the first place in the East.

But Danny Angie is clearly not satisfied with this temporary skyrocket.

Once given the opportunity to get a real superstar, he did not hesitate.

Unfortunately, the Rockets are not stupid and don't want Thomas Jr. in the trade, even if he averages 28 points per game.

The height of 175 is indeed a hard injury.

Without the Celtics' defense, Thomas Jr. would have struggled to play like he did this year.

The Celtics lost a defensive stalwart like Bradley and a rising star like Ingram, but it was worth it for Harden.

This league-shaking deal not only affects the Rockets and Celtics, but also balances the situation in the entire East and West.

Therefore, some media and reporters said that behind this transaction, it is likely that there is a promotion from the alliance.

After all, the East is really starry now, and this year's All-Star Game feels like it's impossible to watch.

There are no heavyweight stars in the entire East, all of them are ordinary All-Stars.

And what about the West? Durant, James, Li Liang, Curry, the four most heavyweights are all gathered in the West.

The rest of Davis, Harden, Howard, Paul and other stars with both strength and popularity are also in the West.

In the East, Irving, Paul George, DeRozan, etc., at most Anthony, what do you think of this All-Star Game?

The star is still second, and the more important thing is the strength of the team, which is too unbalanced.

Just like in the first years of the 21st century, the Western Conference championship is equivalent to the championship, and the Finals are just a formality.

The situation of a strong west and a weak east has always had a negative impact on the alliance, and the calls for the cancellation of the eastern and western regions have never stopped.

The reason why the east-west division was carried out at the earliest was because the east-west span of the United States was too large, and the transportation was not developed in the early years, so it was not easy to go from the east coast to the west coast to play golf.

Therefore, there is not only the east-west division, but also a more detailed division of the division.

One of the major changes to this year's regular season standings is the abolition of the regional rankings in the East and West and the rankings are based on results.

Because transportation is too developed now, the United States is a country that flies everywhere.

At the same time, some divisions have long been meaningless because of the change of team addresses.

For example, the Thunder are in the Northwest Division because his predecessor was the Seattle SuperSonics, and Seattle is in the far northwest of the United States.

It is almost equivalent to the location of Kashgar, China.

After moving to Russia, Oklahoma is in the central part of the United States, almost the equivalent of Wuhan, China.

Is it appropriate for you to divide Wuhan and Kashgar into one district?

For a number of reasons, this year's call for the cancellation of the eastern and western parts of the region is particularly loud.

Of course, it is very difficult to break the tradition of the East and the West.

Since the division between the east and west cannot be broken for the time being, why not make some small moves to balance the east and west?

It's not the first time the alliance has done this kind of thing.

Through the rules on the surface and the small actions in the secret, to ensure the balanced development of the entire league can also be regarded as a way of checks and balances.

As a disciple of Stern, Xiao Hua should know this.

So, after 2007, the Celtics rose again through a trade.

However, it may be too early for them to win the championship for the Eastern Conference team this year.