Since the full opening of free agency on July 1, this year's NBA summer has entered an unprecedented fierce arms race. The Boston Celtics were traded for Kevin Garnett in the draft, which was undoubtedly the fuse of this contest and directly detonated the entire free market. The Los Angeles Lakers' announcement of the signing of Karl Malone and Gary Payton in early July pushed the race to a climax.

The day after the Lakers announced that they would sign Malone and Payton, on July 6, the Eastern powerhouse New Jersey Nets announced that they would sign former Miami Heat free agent, Alonzo Mourning, to replace the aging Mutombo, hoping to fight the Boston Celtics.

On the same day, the San Antonio Spurs announced that they had reached an agreement with Timberwolves center Nesterovic to join the defending champions soon, and the Timberwolves already have Nesterovic's compatriot Milicic and no longer need the hard-working center with ordinary talent.

However, the Timberwolves don't seem to be completely reassuring about Milicic, and they have won the 1998 champion Olookandi who was once highly expected and considered the next Olajuwon on the free market, and after having Walker, Olovocandi, and Milicic, the Timberwolves' interior book strength has skyrocketed, although they have lost Kevin Garnett, but it seems that their strength has increased unabated.

However, the Boston Celtics, who were in the limelight before, were not idle, and Angie was on the phone in four games in order to make up the 15-man roster, and finally on the morning of the 8th, the Celtics completed their first signing after the big trade, and Angie acquired veteran Eric Strickland in the free market as a supplement to the point guard position after Steve Kerr's retirement.

When Leon got the news, he was leading his team to the Orlando Magic's training gym for Game 3 of the Orlando Summer League, against the Miami Heat.

As an official unofficial league, the Orlando Summer League only officially began in 2001, and it is a small game organized and organized privately by NBA teams to train young players and select marginalized players. Summer League is usually played once a day, with a total of six teams playing: the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, Washington Wizards, New Jersey Nets, and host Orlando Magic, all of which are Eastern Conference teams.

Six teams play a single round-robin tournament with points for each game, and 4 points are awarded for winning a match. In this match, 1 more point will be awarded for each quarter of the game won, and if the quarter is tied, both teams will receive 0.5 points each. So, at the end of a match, the winning team can earn a maximum of 8 points and a minimum of 5 points; The losing team will receive a maximum of 3 points and a minimum of 0 points.

After five single round-robin matches, the two teams with the highest points compete for the title, and the two teams with third and fourth points compete for third place, so even though it is only a small unofficial league with six teams, it is also very well organized and very competitive.

In the first two days of games, the Celtics won the game, they defeated the New Jersey Nets and the Cleveland Cavaliers respectively, especially in yesterday's game against the Cavaliers, the high-profile champion LeBron James, was treated by the Celtics 1-2-2 area key defense, 3 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists, without the style of the most popular champion.

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

It's fair to say that the Celtics don't have the best rookie of all six teams, but they have the best discipline, the toughest forward line and the most teamwork spirit.

Strickland...... That guy is older than me......" Leon frowned as he watched the message he received from Celtic to sign Strickland. Now the Celtics are in excess of forwards, and there is a serious shortage of guards, whether it is a point guard or a scoring guard, except for Arenas and Reed, the two starters, there is a lack of suitable new players on the bench.

Malik Ciri's biggest significance is to recruit Garnett, and now that his mission is complete, he is mainly retired in the Celtics; Steve Kerr has run out of gas, and although both Angie and Leon have kept Kerr, he clearly has a better future and development in other careers, and it is natural for him to retire and leave the playing profession. Now signing Strickland, this old gentleman used to be a 17+10 master, a proper quasi-All-Star, and a second-team player of the year.

The problem is that he participated in the draft in 1988 and is now 36 years old, although the point guard is getting older and more popular, he can't be old and can't walk. Last season, Strickland's stats slipped to 6.8 points and 4.6 assists, barely qualifying as a backup point guard. However, Strickland's reputation in the NBA has not been very good in recent years, relying on the old and selling the old, being late for training, playing soy sauce in games, and being a headache for team management and coaches.

Leon thought about how the Lakers Galaxy battleship sank in his memory, and thought to himself that Angie had added another element of instability to his team. Arenas's stinky temper, I don't know if it will smell like Strickland or be incompatible, in short, the babysitter 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, with the Celtics and Heat game being the first game of the day, followed by the Cavaliers and Nets, Magic and Wizards.

"Everyone, take out everything you learned in training and what you have summarized in the video, and I tell you again, I will not call a timeout in the game, please solve all the problems yourself. Alright, come on, boys, it's summer league, but we're going to win no matter what! Leon's roar echoed through the training hall, and the players from the other teams looked at him.

Fortunately, this is not the first day, they are used to it, this Iron Fist coach from Boston, his deeds of playing a team alone in Indiana can be widely praised among young players, and now it has reached the point of spreading that Leon can knock over the big shark O'Neal with one punch.

The game was quite intense, and it was the most motivating game the Celtics played since the start of the summer league, and they didn't face much resistance against the Nets and Cavaliers, but the Heat had Dwyane Wade, a junior draft player - Obviously, Wade was more mature than James, who had not played in the NCAA, and was more calm in the face of the Celtics' systematic defense, and knew how to deal with it.

And his sharp breakthrough made the Celtics helpless, and in the first two games, Dareham Porter, who almost played himself as Chamberlain in the summer league, was fouled by Wade in a row, and Leon had to replace Dareham Porter with substitute forward, Haslem.

Although Haslem is not tall, his height is 6'8, but he is actually 6'6, but he has flexible feet, has played overseas for a year, has a lot of experience, and has a very tough style, and is obviously not at the same level as other young people on the field.

After he came on the court, Wade was also limited, and several attempts to break through and go straight to the basket were interfered with, and the Celtics used this wave of defense to launch a counterattack and establish an advantage in one fell swoop.

At 121:109, the Celtics won another game and scored 6 points to finish 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, ready to watch the remaining two games, after all, the performance of the two super newcomers is still very concerned about him.

Suddenly, a man sat down silently beside 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. (To be continued.) )