The hot month of July is beginning to descend on the North American continent, and the hot summer has officially arrived, and the whole country is enveloped in scorching heat, and this summer seems to be especially hot. As a low season for professional leagues, and as an odd-numbered year, there are no tournaments, so players are either comfortably on vacation or busy with various business and social events. But for those newcomers who have just joined the NBA league and are ready to start their careers in three months, Summer League in July is a necessary transition. Even a genius like LeBron James should try the waters on the summer league field and get a feel for the atmosphere of the professional league in advance.

With 30 teams scattered across the country, the host cities of the summer league are divided into four cities: Las Vegas, Minnesota, Los Angeles and Orlando, and the Boston Celtics chose to play in Orlando to train their rookies and see if they could recruit and find some useful cheap players in the summer league.

Because the trade was officially completed on July 1, after Kevin Garnett joined the Boston Celtics, their staffing was really stretched. For this reason, Fox Leon had to personally lead the summer league team, ready to use his vicious eyes to find a treasure in Orlando.

At the hotel in Orlando, Leon is agonizing over the team's roster. Summer League also needs to make a 15-man roster, the problem is that now the Celtics can't make up 12 men, and he has to put together 15 players for the summer league team.

In fact, it is not difficult for Leon to get 15 people, in a summer training camp like Orlando, three-legged toads are hard to find, and two-legged young players are everywhere. Some of them are undrafted players who didn't make it to the draft this year, and some of them are players who are in the development league or other leagues, and they all want to rely on the summer league to show their faces in front of NBA coaches and scouts, and they can't get a valuable tryout, or even get a short-term contract to find a chance to enter the NBA.

So, it's full of basketball gold diggers, and if Leon wants to, call some local scouts or agents, and they'll be able to provide Leon with a dozen young lads who can play.

But Leon is coming to Orlando this time with a mission, and his goal is not only to train his two rookies, but also to find one or two available talents to fill the Celtics' roster as much as possible. For this reason, Leon released the news, saying that the Celtics need the addition of players with base salaries, and hopes that those players who think they have the ability to enter the NBA can sign up for the Celtics' summer team.

As soon as the news came out, Leon soon received a large number of calls and text messages, all of which were called or sent by some third- and fourth-rate agents, recommending their players to Leon. Leon didn't care about 3721, first asked these agents to send the player's basic data and information to his mailbox, and then he began the painful screening.

While these agents will exaggerate in their player reports, the numbers don't lie, and Leon quickly set a standard in his head with his powerful data processing skills. For him, he doesn't need those who are strong in scoring and rebounding in the lower leagues, because he knows that there is no room for such players to play in the NBA, and he wants guys with special abilities in other areas.

After two overnight screenings, on July 6, Leon finally selected a list of 12 Celtic summer league players, of which except for Marquis Daniels, Boris Dior, Alexander, Delham Porter, Bellman, five players who are playing for or will play for Celtic, the other seven are all undrafted players in recent years.

Leon doesn't look at position when selecting players, which means that he doesn't deliberately choose two or three people in each position in order to put together a team, but selects players based on ability. So among these seven people, there are 4 forwards and 2 shooting guards, and the Celtics are currently the most scarce point guard.

However, Leon also knows that it is unrealistic to find a draft or young lower league player to fill the gap in the point guard position, point guards rely very much on experience and maturity, these young little point guards are all taking the speed route, the point guard's skin is the heart of a point guard, and Leon does not expect to find a good point guard in the summer league.

On the contrary, the forward line eats the body, as long as you dare to fight, every summer league will produce one or two forward players who have established themselves in the NBA, like Ben Wallace was one of the leaders, and now he is the defensive core of the Pistons.

Of course, it would be easier said than done to find another Ben Wallace, and these forwards all have the same glaring flaw as Ben Wallace - undersize, two of the four forwards are the height of small forwards, and both small forwards are the height of guards. There is no way to do it, if they have a normal position height, they will not be defeated.

Early in the morning of July 7, Leon made his way to the University of Central Florida basketball arena in Orlando, which was the venue for the Celtics' summer training camp this year. To make it easier to manage the players, Leon and the Celtics Summer League team arrived in Orlando a week early and rented college grounds to train there, in order to avoid possible distractions from Boston and allow the players to concentrate more on practice.

Leon came very early, and when he opened the door to the training hall, it was just dawn, knowing that it was summer, and it was completely bright at six o'clock. At this time, the arena was empty, and there was no one. Last night Leon sent a text message to all the players who participated in the training camp, asking them to arrive early, without specifying the time, just to see if there was any earlier than him.

As a result, Leon sat on a bench on the sidelines and watched the sky gradually brighten outside, and the 12 players arrived one after another, and for the last player to arrive at the arena, Leon said to him bluntly: "You don't have to come again tomorrow, professional basketball is not for you." In this way, the list of 12 people became 11 people, and the whole team was silent for a while.

This improvised patchwork team, with no organization and discipline, everyone with their own purpose, stood right in front of León. As a coach, no matter what the ultimate goal is, leading a team well should be the most basic requirement for yourself.

"Today is the first day of training, some of you are eager to play in the NBA, some are about to play in the NBA, some are in the NBA for a few years, but I don't see the basic qualities that a professional player should have. You're coming later than a coach! Leon began his lecture, which was also the first step in his selection.

"If you want to play in the NBA, then please come and train earlier, if you are about to play in the NBA, then please come and train earlier, if you have been playing in the NBA for a few years, then you should come and train earlier!" Leon's sudden roar startled everyone.

"Of course, I didn't tell you that time is also a problem, so from tomorrow, at half past five in the morning, I will accompany you." At half past five, NBA teams don't train so early. But it's not an NBA team here, it's an even more brutal NBA candidate.

Leon soon began his first training program, which was neither tactical exercises, nor basic exercises, nor elaborate off-ball simulations, but the simplest physical training - lap running, and running for a whole morning.

Leon knew that a week of training was nothing at all, so this week was more of a test than a training session, testing the will, endurance, motivation and fundamentals of the players. Passing these tests, combined with the performance of the Summer League, León will make his choice.

A morning run was exhausting for everyone, and two guys even started complaining that they shouldn't go to Celtic's summer camp, feeling that such training was pointless and that they couldn't improve themselves. These two people were naturally blacklisted by Leon silently, and the training camp is called the training camp, which is actually a place for players to show themselves, and the real training improvement depends on their own efforts on weekdays.

The two rookies, Daniels and Dio, also looked tired, which obviously didn't seem to be the same as they imagined NBA training, but because of Leon's brutality, they didn't show any emotion.

What really caught Leon's attention was a small striker who showed a lot of energy and vigor in the morning physical training, and did not show a trace of impatience, as if he was satisfied with everything, and he came early in the morning.

Therefore, Leon silently put his name on the watch list, this guy named Haslem. (To be continued.) )