(I'm sorry for the late update because I have an urgent matter in the evening.) Every time I make an important recommendation, I have an accident, I'm really sorry, and another chapter of water. Before leaving Boston for his trip to the West, Leon had a warm and merry Christmas at the home of Ayatollah Khomeenez. Khamenez's father, Pagliuca, invited his daughter to his home with Leon for Christmas, but Holmenis refused her father after much thought, and she wanted to be with her family during such a holiday, but she wanted to be alone with Leon, and in him Holmenis's fatherly plot was greatly satisfied.

After that high fever, she found that Leon's personality seemed to be more lively, no longer smiling like in the past, occasionally joking, telling witty things, and of course still a mature and steady person in general. This adds a little more to Leon's charm.

Of course, Christmas is indispensable for Christmas, and the protagonists of the battle are last year's Finals opponents, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Philadelphia 76ers. As for the other New York Knicks vs. Toronto Raptors, it's a complete side dish. Of course, it is a little regrettable that the Los Angeles Lakers' super center O'Neal had to miss this key game due to a toe injury, but the powerful Lakers still beat the 76ers again at the Staples Center with the overall performance of 10 players scoring and 4 double-doubles, and ranked first in the league with a 20-4 record. On the contrary, last year's Eastern Conference champions have long since fallen out of the top eight in the East.

After the game, when she saw her idol Iverson score a game-high 31 but had to accept the team's loss, Khamenez was very calm, and she explained to Leon: "As long as my idol has a good performance, I am satisfied, as for winning or losing, I am not a 76ers fan anyway, I don't care." ”

"Do you only watch superstars and your idols?" Leon asked as he turned off the TV.

"No, I'll still look at you." Khomemenes bit her lip with her teeth after speaking, and her two big eyes stared at Leon, looking at his well-defined and good-looking face, she couldn't help but lean in and kiss it gently.

Leon smiled and kissed Holmeniz, then got up from the couch and went to the kitchen sink to light a cigarette and smoke. Khomeenes stood up and leaned against the wall and said, "Since you arrived at the Celts, there have been more and more days of smoking with a frown like this. ”

"It's a fun and complicated game, and sometimes I have to use my brain with all my might." Leon flicked the soot at the edge of the pool, then took another hard puff. He still likes to smoke when he thinks about cigars compared to cigars, and only when he is relaxed and happy will he take out the big cigar that Auerbach gave him.

Ayatollah Khamenes walked behind Leon and hugged him gently, leaned his face against Leon's broad back and said, "Sometimes you don't have to think too much, look more at the present, think about what you should do most." An assistant coach doesn't need to do much, does it? Wouldn't it be nice to just concentrate on reading and loving you, just like me? ”

Listening to Khomeenez's words, Leon looked up and smiled, smiling brightly, thinking that her words also made some sense. Regardless of Leon's special position with the Celtics, his position is still that of an assistant coach, and his focus is on assisting the head coach to complete the team's training and tactical design. Even if he often plays an important decision-making role in drafts and trades, he is only a senior staff officer, and the decision-making and command power is still in the hands of the president and general manager.

Recently, Leon has been thinking about completing another trade to change the unfavorable situation of the Celtics' lack of offensive ability on the inside. However, after going through the league's player manual, and trying to communicate and discuss with Wallace repeatedly, there was never a chance. Leon already has his own small network in the NBA, the last time the Celtics and Nuggets traded, Leon had a direct talk with Van der Vicic, the two met at the Development League conference in New York, and then crossed paths many times because of scouting work, which is also one of the important factors that contributed to the deal.

Even so, the Celtics' desire to trade for a quality interior line was not satisfied, with the Seattle SuperSonics having the idea of trading Wen Baker, but they wanted to use Arenas as a leverage to join the trade, which coincided with the Arenas outburst. The deal was directly vetoed by Angie, who didn't want another old fritter on the team.

Leon is also not very satisfied with a player like Vin Baker, only Kevin Garnett really wants to get the interior line in his heart, but it is too difficult to get this wolf king, not to mention anything else, the contract amount of more than 20 million will cost a lot of team space - including the Timberwolves.

Leon now has a rough plan in mind, which is to put it in the summer of 2003, when Kevin Garnett's contract is about to expire and the draft is full of talents that year, and use his chips to turn the clouds in that period. The first hurdle in this plan is whether or not to get the 2003 Grizzlies first-round pick. In a three-way trade between the Grizzlies, Spurs, and Celtics, the Celtics got a strange first-round pick, which had something to do with the Grizzlies' pick trade with the Pistons.

To put it simply, in 1997 the Grizzlies made a trade with the Pistons, and the Grizzlies got Otis Thorpe, and the Pistons could choose one year of the Celtics' six-year first-round pick in the 1998-2003 season, and of course the decision was up to the Grizzlies, who would decide which year to send the first-round pick based on their pick in the lottery. Of course, this pick is protected. From 1998 to 2001, the Grizzlies were reluctant to give up their first-round pick because their record was terrible and the pick in the lottery was quite high.

Of course, the general manager of the Grizzlies played a wishful thinking that he had a bad show in the past few years, won a high show, and then improved his record by rebuilding, and then the draft pick would decline, and it would not be distressing to give it to the Pistons at that time. Who knows that every year the Grizzlies are still rotten, so they simply handed over the other year's draft pick to the Celtics.

The problem is that the Grizzlies don't know if the '02 pick will go to the Pistons, and if it does, then the Celtics will get the Grizzlies' 2003 pick. If the Grizzlies are unwilling to give the 2002 draft pick to the Pistons, subject to the Stepian clause, then the Celtics' draft pick will be extended to 2005, which is obviously something the Celtics don't want.

Through the memory fragments obtained from that fever, Leon knew that the stupid Grizzlies would hold on to the draft picks of previous years until they surrendered their most valuable '03 pick to the mighty Detroit Pistons. It's ridiculous that the Pistons also failed to take advantage of their chances, missing out on a group of geniuses, or rather, they got a genius but didn't cherish it. Leon also knows this history that future generations are familiar with, and because of this, he desperately wants to get the Pistons' pick in 03, as long as it is not the champion, even if it is not a leader. So, the core of the problem is how to get the Grizzlies to give the '02 draft pick to the Pistons. It was an extremely difficult question, and Leon found that the only thing he could do was wait, and perhaps Auerbach would have some solution, but it was too early to say.

Thinking that the first difficulty in achieving his goal would be difficult to overcome, Leon couldn't help but sigh, the cigarette in his mouth was gone, he snuffed out the cigarette butt and threw it into the trash, turned around and hugged Holmenes, and then picked her up and went upstairs with him.

People sometimes have to focus more on the present.

……………………

After Christmas was over, the Celtics had a half-day training session on the 25th, and Leon began to focus more on training those good youngsters, especially Joe Johnson.

When selecting him in the draft, Leon was more interested in his trade value, and a rookie like this who is both balanced and well-rounded offensively and defensively will often be a good trade chip. But after multiple failed attempts, Leon decided to spend more time on him and let his strengths shine. Leon always remembers what Winter once said to him when he was in Los Angeles, "Always let the tactics serve the team, bring out the strengths and values of the players, rather than let the players adapt to the tactics unconditionally, then you may be able to achieve temporary success, but you will not become great." Because of this, even though Leon has no less than 600 tactical routines and variations in his head, he never uses them to bind his players in training.

He feels that the Celtics have quality potential, and that any tactical trick to prescribe them until that potential is truly realized will limit their growth.

Then, on December 26, the Celtics flew to Salt Lake City, and after five days, they faced the Utah Jazz again, a team that has relied on a tactical system for nearly 15 years and is as solid and white as the ice and snow that never melts on the snowy mountains.