After returning to the MGM Grand Hotel, the two guards were greatly relieved to see that Leon did not go to the casino, but to his room, and went back to report to Shangfeng. At this time, Leon had no intention of gambling, and gambling in the NBA offseason was much more exciting and enjoyable than winning money in the casino.

Back in the room, Leon first called the housekeeping department and asked them to bring them a few large pieces of white paper, a carbon pen, after getting these things, he cleaned up all the things on the coffee table, spread the white paper on the coffee table, and began to scribble on it with a carbon pen.

This is a habit of Leon in the offseason, when thinking about the current situation, he will sort out all the news, rumors, ideas, and details in his head, and write them on a large piece of paper in the form of diagrams, tables, and words, so that everything looks clear at a glance.

Just over a week has passed since the Finals defeat on June 15, and the entire NBA has recoiled from last season's heat and is starting to brew a storm for the next season. That's what the NBA is all about, season after season of reciprocating, one good show has just ended, and the next one is starting to be planned behind the scenes. In fact, before the Finals are over, the teams that entered the offseason early have already started their moves.

"Start from the west...... The Timberwolves cut Rakocevic and the Houston Residents traded a future draft pick for Jeff Van Gundy, which is not good news for Yao...... The Nuggets signed three free agents, all on short-term contracts...... There's also Jeff Tripnile in there, and it seems that Miller is quite righteous...... That's pretty much all there is to the west, and there is no big move for the time being...... However...... "Leon first went through some of the small moves that the Western team has seen at the moment in his head, and in general there is nothing special to note, and the Western team does not have a particularly big impact on the Celtics.

However, the Timberwolves' decision to cut Rakocevic still caught the attention of Leon, the sharpshooter from Serbia, who was drafted by the Timberwolves in 2000 and came to the United States in the 2003 season, spent a relatively unsuccessful season with the Timberwolves, playing 42 games and averaging only 1.9 points per game. European players are most popular in the NBA are still inside and forward, and guards are difficult to gain a foothold, even if a genius like Petrovic has suffered a lot to really play in the NBA.

"The Timberwolves have a total of a few point guards, Steckleyland is not old, Weeks is not worth mentioning, and the only thing left is Henderson, but he played this year purely to catch ducks on the shelf...... It seems that the Timberwolves must have made a move on the point guard position in the draft. "Leon knows the state of each team's lineup, the point guard is a very important position for a team, and the first thing to consider if any team wants to strengthen is to put a reliable person on the point guard. Now that the Timberwolves have cut Rakocevic and they don't have a good reserve of point guards on their own roster, it looks like they will strengthen their point guards through trades.

Leon knows that if the Celtics want to get Garnett, the trade will definitely take place after the draft, and if the Timberwolves strengthen Garnett through a trade before the draft and give Garnett hope, then it will be much more difficult for the Celtics to get Garnett, so blocking the Timberwolves trade will also become one of Leon's tasks.

With that in mind, Leon drew a circle on the Timberwolves' position, and then he was going to analyze the situation in the East. He moved his pen to the right of the large piece of paper, but he didn't write anything down for a long time, because there has been little substantive action from the entire Eastern Conference team since the playoffs.

The only substantive action that made him watch was the dismissal of their head coach Rick Carlisle after the Eastern Conference Finals by the Detroit Pistons in favor of former 76ers coach Larry Brown. This is very important news for Leon, but his mind is on how to trade to get Kevin Garnett, and he has to put it back on the back burner of Rick Carlisle.

Returning to the player's operation, Leon's memory is excellent, basically since the beginning of the playoffs so far, he knows all kinds of rumors about the actions of all teams, and now the teams in the East only have rumors and intentions, no substantive actions, then he has to find information in his favor from those clues of intentions.

The most high-profile trade in the East this season was not the Celtics sending Joe Johnson for PJ Brown, but a big trade made by the Milwaukee Bucks in February, where they sent away the team's core player Ray Allen and a draft pick to get veteran point guard Gary Payton and Desmond Mason from the Seattle SuperSonics.

It was undoubtedly a strange deal, and the Bucks' original three Musketeers, who were point guard, shooting guard and forward, complemented each other perfectly, and now they have sent away Ray Allen, but they have Gary Payton, another point guard, and Sam Cassel is in a clashing position. And both of them are notoriously foul-mouthed and big-mouthed, and it's not appropriate for anyone to be a substitute, so the Bucks came up with a strange two-point guard starter.

Such a strange backcourt lineup will not work well, they were eliminated early in the first round by the Nets and went home fishing, and the Bucks are bound to make other moves this summer. Seven years ago, they traded for Ray Allen in the 1996 draft, and after seven years of ups and downs, he was finally sent away, and the Bucks held the No. 8 pick in the 2003 draft, and it looks like they will start a new rebuild.

"Payton has just been traded, and it seems unlikely that he will be sent away, and if Payton doesn't leave, only Cassel will go...... The Timberwolves just lack a point guard...... "Leon can't help but link Kassel with the Timberwolves, if the Timberwolves get an old ball like Kassel, the strength will definitely be improved."

Thinking of the Bucks, Leon remembered two rumors he had heard recently, the first being that the Bucks wanted to make a deal with the Magic and send away two of his nobodies in exchange for some cash. This kind of news that will only be carried by one sentence on the media page, Leon savored it but smacked some flavor.

Leon has been immersed in NBA drafts and trades for years, and he knows that a cash-for-money deal like this is likely to free up salary space for future trades. Combined with another rumor, it has recently been rumored that Michael Jordan will join the Bucks as the boss, and the new boss will definitely make a big move. It can be seen that the Bucks will definitely complete the Kassel trade around the time of the draft.

If you don't want such a trade to happen, there are two ways, one is to rob it, trade better chips for the favor of the Bucks, and get Cassell in your hands. But Cassel's contract next season will reach more than five million, and to get Cassell, one of Arenas and Reed must be included in the trade list, and the two rookie contracts add up to more than two million, so Leon will not give such a high-quality rookie contract to the Bucks.

The second way is to obstruct it, delay the deal, or even abort the deal. There are many ways to delay the trade, such as reporting the trade violation to the league before the other party's trade begins, because the Timberwolves have the example of Smith's yin-yang contract first, and have been on the watch list, and once the league intervenes in the investigation, the trade will definitely be delayed; Another example is to encourage Cassel to ask for a big contract, Cassel's contract will expire next season, and if Cassel asks for a contract commitment from the Timberwolves before he is willing to be traded, it will undoubtedly have an impact on the completion of the deal.

With these calculations in mind, Leon has a bottom, and lays out his plans and ideas on a piece of paper, and opens a schedule in the middle, and in the coming days, he will closely follow the movements of each team until the draft officially begins.

After spending another two days in Las Vegas, Leon decided to leave and head to New York, where the 2003 NBA Draft was about to begin, and he had two more things to do before the feast began. (To be continued.) )