Mo Xi's trip to China did not last long, and he stayed in the capital for a while, and saw the current domestic prestige "God of War" Liu Yudong and Mu Tiezhu and other super centers of the older generation, also as a member of the Giant Army, Mo Xi talked with them very happily, basketball, after all, is still a giant sport, like Iverson, Isaiah Thomas is only a few people after all.

They feel very comfortable in Mo Xi's conversation, and between their every move, they are surprised and Mo Xi's strong strength, and at this point, it is also one of the weaker ones in China compared to other countries, or in other words, the national team is always worse than others here in the big ball project, but these have nothing to do with Mo Xi.

Mo Xi was temporarily ordered to return to New York urgently.

The free-agent market has been boiling over the summer, and right now, old teammate Kurt Thomas faces a trade.

Of course, the deal on Thomas is just an idea and plan, just because of Moxi's status in the team and Moxi's perennial partnership with Thomas on the inside, Van Gundy informed Moxi in advance, and hoped that Moxi could come back to assist in completing some free market pulling activities.

Although the current Mo Xi is still a little short of O'Neal in terms of status, it is higher than several interior players in the same period, such as Garnett and Chris Webber, because he has a championship ring, and now, he and Duncan are players in the first gear, and with Mo Xi, the Knicks' signature, the Knicks' actions are naturally big moves.

The Knicks need interior defense and rebounding, and on offense, it's enough to have a penny, and it would be even more perfect if they could find an interior player with a good mid-range shot.

There's one guy who fits that trait perfectly, and that's Elton Brand in '99.

In fact, Thomas is indeed a player who is more suitable for the Knicks system, willing to do dirty work, ruthless defense, and ruthless, which is simply the best logo of the Knicks' Iron Legion a few years ago, but New York is a big ball city, people want to see superstars, and now there is a pity, but how can it satisfy people's heart's yearning for the Galaxy Battleship? People like Garnett and Webb definitely couldn't get it, so they resigned themselves to choosing an All-Star bench, and this trade was also tacitly approved by Stern, which can be regarded as compensation for Moxi's "tolerance".

However, the premise of all this is whether the Knicks' chips are really enough.

One Kurt Thomas plus one first-round pick.

2003 is a big year for the draft, not to mention a certain chosen child, Carmelo Anthony, who grew up in the Brooklyn neighborhood of New York, is enough to attract attention, although the Knicks' draft pick is not destined to be very high, maybe it will be the end of the first round, but this is a first-round pick, which is very attractive to the Clippers, and Kurt Thomas's rebounding ability at key moments last season ranked in the top five in the league, and he is still above many top interior lines, plus a fairly stable mid-range shot, Compared with Elton Brand, it's just a little weaker on the offensive end, but it's better in rebounding and outside defense, and Thomas's outside defense is better than the inside defense, which is one of the reasons why the Knicks chose to trade him, no way, the Knicks' outside defense is one of the best in the league, and what he has to do is interior defense.

At this time, there is still a lot of space in the Knicks' championship puzzle, and on the inside, the Knicks need at least two more people.

Mo Xi, who was far away on the other side of the ocean, decisively chose to return to New York at this time, and added one more person to his companions.

"It's okay, don't be nervous, you just need to show your best when the time comes, and I'll take care of the rest." Mo Xi kept comforting the seven-foot man beside him on the plane.

The big man was frowning at the moment, and he said: "But you also know, my current physical confrontation is just barely qualified, and you also said that Coach Van Gundy is a person who values defense very much, plus your current lineup, you need an interior player who is good at defense, my chances, is it big?" ”

This person is none other than Wang Zhizhi.

At the end of the season, he did not get a contract extension from the Mavericks and became a free agent, and with the Asian Championships about to begin, he had to return to China for training, during which he had already reached a verbal agreement with the Clippers, but an inexplicable phone call took him directly from the national team's training base.

In fact, it stands to reason that she will not let go, but at this time, Mo Liyu played her superb negotiation skills and praised the national team for a while, and even the team leader felt that if we played on a domestic ordinary team, maybe we would be able to abuse the stick, and the most important thing is that Mo Liyu's analysis is still the truth, which makes people feel very reasonable.

So after the team leader was crippled, Wang Zhizhi took the plane back to New York and prepared for the trial.

Mo Xi patted Wang Zhizhi on the shoulder and said: "Relax, keep your palms soft, the Knicks need to defend, but I need space more, your projection ability can better open up space for me, as for defense, in the Knicks, as long as you really dare to defend, even if you can't defend, it doesn't matter, our defense is not blown out." ”

But Mo Xi couldn't help but add a sentence in his heart, of course, not necessarily this year, Elton Brand's mobility ability is far worse than Thomas, in terms of help defense, the Knicks are bound to lack the flexibility of last season, so Mo Xi will have to take on more defense tasks, next season, Mo Xi will be the offensive core at the same time, but also part-time organization, and now he has to add defense, to be honest, he is the person who doesn't want this deal to be made.

But when he got off the plane, he received a call from Thomas, a farewell call.

The deal is done.

New York traded a first-round pick and Kurt Thomas for Elton Brand.

Many managers in the league secretly scolded the Clippers for missing a string, you trade such a good interior line, in exchange for just a slightly better defense, and a much worse offense, but what's the use of you in exchange for him, for draft picks!

No matter how invious they are, the Knicks have done it this summer.

After Mo Xi got off the plane, he sighed softly and said to the few people behind him: "I still have to go to a place first, you guys go first." ”

Ding Xiaowu nodded silently, but Wang Zhizhi was very curious and couldn't help asking, "What else are you going to do?" In fact, he was still a little nervous, and hoped that Mo Xi could accompany him.

Mo Xi said softly: "I'm going to find an old guy, I want to see if he wants another championship, although, he's not too old." ”