After arriving at the hotel last night, Leon spent two hours going through the papers on the table and in the drawers. Rao is his memory is amazing, in extreme distress and in a short period of time, it is impossible to remember completely, and finally looked at him lying on the table and fell asleep.

Thankfully, the conversation over breakfast was tentative, and Leon remembered enough for two hours to fool him around, and then he was given more information in the coaching staff's chat.

First of all, the Celtics hold the No. 11 pick, in such a draft year, this position is really embarrassing, high or low, if you want to pull out the big one in the short, it may not be their turn to pull out.

Players like the ones Leon just mentioned, Kenyon Martin, Michael Miller or Chris Meme, basically don't fall out of the top 10, and the Celtics, who are in 11th place, can be said to not be able to eat hot.

Such a poor draft environment is also a time to test the ability of the management team to dig gold.

Chris Wallace leans toward UCLA's Frenchman, Jerome Moiso, in his first-round draft intent, while Vogel and O'Brien are more bullish on Joel Pulzbilla, believing it would be safer to pick the white center.

"We can't always look at the U.S., and I think in a draft year like this, in a position like this, you need to take a gamble and look a little bit more open and look at the players overseas. And I think Moiso is proven in the United States, he did very well at UCLA, and Vogel also has a video of him playing when he was a student in France, so it can't be said that the potential is unlimited, at least it is worth cultivating. "Wallace has been emphasizing Moiso's French identity and it seems that he values Moiso's background as an overseas player.

In the NBA, many players have been tracked and followed by scouts since they first entered high school, all the way to college, and many scouts have a better track record of the growth of super-newcomers on the basketball court than their parents, and these materials will play a role in the draft.

On the contrary, there is much less information about some overseas players, although Jerome Moiso has played two seasons in the NCAA and has a good performance, but how much potential he has, the average NBA scout is still unsure because of the lack of information.

Since 1998, Chris Wallace has been actively exploring the overseas player draft market, hoping to find high-quality rookies in the low pick through overseas competition in the face of fierce competition in the local basketball market.

So, in 1998, Wallace wanted to get Dirk Nowitzki, a young man from Germany, with the eighth pick, but he didn't expect to be robbed by the Bucks and Mavericks; In 1999, the Celtics didn't have a draft pick in the first round, but at the end of the second round, Wallace had the opportunity to pick Manu Ginobili, the talented defender from Argentina, but the Celtics team still had doubts about such a risky option, and they eventually took Gise Clark - who is no longer on the Celtics' roster this year.

Now, Wallace doesn't want to miss out on those potential talents overseas.

"It's an idea to look overseas, but after all, Moiso has played in the United States for two years, and how many pounds and taels can be evaluated. If you look at the performance, Purzbilla is clearly more outstanding, and we need a solid inside. The only hope I have now is for the other teams not to take him away in the top 11. "O'Brien prefers to go with Pulzbilla.

When Leon heard the names of the two, Moiso and Pulzbilla, the information he read last night came to his mind, one was a 6-foot-10 power forward, who passed both offense and defense, and had a hand-to-hand distance; The other is a 7-foot center in Minnesota, who played two seasons at the University of Minnesota, has improved significantly, has a strong deterrent on the defensive end, excellent rebounding protection, and blocks are also explosive this season, and is a more optimistic newcomer this year.

'I'm also more inclined to Pulzbilla, but it might be a bit difficult to wait for him to fall to 11th place, there are several teams that want to get him, and there should be teams in the top 10 who will take him out early and then trade him, so it's hard for us to get him. However, Moiso does have the ability to do so, and he does have some talent on the offensive end. Vogel gave his opinion, and this year's players have been generally rated for their lack of potential on the offensive end, with Moiso looking to have a bit of a game on the offensive end.

The discussion came and went, and the discussion object of several people mainly focused on a few interior players, especially the player's rebounding protection and basket protection ability.

Leon also knows something about this, and from last night's data he knows that since 1997, the Boston Celtics have never found an ideal basket guard.

The team has tried Travis Knight, Vitaly Potapanco, and Tony Masenberg in three seasons, with Knight and Masenberg both players who were traded out of the contract within a few days, and the Celtics have never found a defensive interior that fits their tactical system.

At the same time, Pitino is more like an NCAA coach than an NBA coach in his evaluation of centers.

"More like an NCAA coach than an NBA coach......" Leon recalled in his head, which was also mentioned by Auerbach in his evaluation of Pitino, and now Leon obviously does not understand it, because he also does not know what the difference between an NCAA coach and an NBA coach in the use of a center is.

"Why don't you pick an outside player?" Leon asked suddenly, he hadn't spoken much during the exchange, and after listening for a long time, he finally voiced his doubts.

"We already have Kenny Anderson and Paul Pierce, and we need to make up for the shortcomings, not double stacking." Wallace responded, probably thinking Leon's question was naïve.

However, the Trail Blazers missed out on Michael Jordan for the same reason. The key is to look at the potential, after all, the team lineup is not static, is it? "Leon also has his reasons.

"Hahaha, a wonderful reason, I just don't know where your Jordan is in the 11th pick." Pitino couldn't help but speak.

In his opinion, if he can find a passable interior player this year, the Celtics' record will definitely improve in the relatively weak East.

"I'll find him in the training camp, and I don't know what happened to them just by looking at the text." In the face of Pitino's ridicule, Leon did not budge.

The others were a little surprised that this new scout dared to confront Pitino like this, considering that Pitino has the highest authority on the Celtic team, and he is also a very controlling person in terms of personality, even Jim O'Brien would not dare to talk to Pitino like this.

But what surprised others even more was that in the face of Leon's counterattack, Pitino didn't say a word, he wiped his mouth and said: "I still have appointments with a few reporters, you guys prepare for tomorrow's training camp, Vogel, I need detailed footage of Purzbilla, Moiso, and Margloyle, get ready." ”

With that, Pitino left.

"Yes, boy, no newcomer has dared to talk to Pitino like that, it seems that you had a good relationship before, or maybe he owes you a lot of money." Wallace patted Leon on the shoulder and said with a smile.

Leon just smiled and didn't speak, but he thought to himself, even Auerbach he dared to choke, what about Pitino.

……………………

After breakfast, Leon shut himself in his room and began to carefully read the information given to him by Wesland, which was close to fifty scouting reports.

Based on the information he got at breakfast in the morning, he first singled out the profiles of Purzbilla, Moiso and Margloyl and put them first, and then eliminated the profiles of newcomers such as Kenyon Martin, Michael Miller, Chris Meme, and other newcomers that the Celts had little hope of choosing.

Leon then took the lead in looking at the players whose ratings were basically selected in the second round, and he didn't pay attention to the player's evaluation of their skills, but only their upbringing.

Leon didn't know anything about basketball, but he wasn't too far away from knowing anything compared to professional scouts.

That's when Leon remembered the three words Auerbach had said to him, "Trust your instincts, ask one more why, and see what's beyond basketball."

Leon decided to save his instincts for training camp and why for day-to-day communication, and as for things outside of basketball, it was a great option to look at the upbringing of these players.

Although Leon doesn't know how to succeed on the basketball court, he believes that all successful people have similar traits, hardworking, studious, and persistent, and players with these traits have the basis for success even if they have one or another flaw.

So, Leon took a hard look at their basketball experience at school, and specifically selected some players who had a poor team performance in the early days, and then went on to improve by leaps and bounds under his leadership, even if their team didn't go very far in the NCAA, Leon could feel that this kind of upbringing experience would definitely help them adapt to the professional league.

"Michael Reed, the predicted pick is around 10 in the second round, left-handed, not stable in the middle and long range, and his body may not be able to adapt to the fierce confrontation in the NBA...... However, the team's record, from 8-22 in the first year, to 27-9 in the second year, reached the semi-finals, and then to 27-3 in the third year, well......"

Leon noticed a player named Michael Reed, who averaged close to 20 points per game and the team had reached the national semi-finals, but the prediction fell to the second round.

The reason is actually very simple, because he scored 21 points in his first season in college, and then it dropped year by year, reaching only 17 points in his junior year.

If he participated in the draft directly with the help of the team's momentum of reaching the Final Four last year, the ranking would have been very high, but he chose to play for another year, in the NBA, which has a strong vision, playing another year means wasting a year, not to mention that his data this year is not good.

Leon thought about it and decided to put him on the watch list and threw him into the pile of materials in the first round.