Leon and Morey chatted and ate until nine o'clock in the evening, but Leon didn't order ice cream at this ice cream restaurant, he didn't want to eat ice cream today, and sit on the sidelines tomorrow night and want to have diarrhea.

As he was about to leave, Morey drove his SUV out of the parking lot to take Leon back to the hotel, and Leon said he could take a taxi back. Morey thought that Leon was polite and insisted on sending Leon, but Leon said: "I hope you can sell your car instead of wasting time driving it every day." ”

Leon's words surprised Morey, he didn't know what Leon meant, Leon said: "Driving is a waste of time, if you send me back and then drive back by yourself, you will consume nearly an hour and a half on the road." For an hour and a half you have to be distracted and can't do anything else. It's fine in the season, but if it's an offseason, there are all kinds of trade rumors and news all over the place, and some opportunities are fleeting, and you have to take all the time to think and operate. Driving will give you one hour less free time per day. This hour will decide a lot of things. ”

Morey listened to Leon's words thoughtfully, and said, "That's why you always drive your eighteen-handed broken car?" "When I was in Boston, one of the things that impressed me was that every season Leon would change a car, but not a new car, but an old car that I don't know how many hands I had, and I felt like it would be scrapped tomorrow after driving today.

Leon nodded, he never wasted time on cars, if it weren't for the fact that Boston taxis were more difficult to get, he wouldn't even buy a used car, and now he buys more because of Khamenes and the soon-to-be-born child, otherwise he wouldn't want to drive. Driving is a waste of time for him, and he can't do anything else while driving.

"If you want to be a good general manager, sell your car and dedicate yourself to basketball, after all, we are all halfway home." Leon patted Morey's shoulder, Morey is one meter nine tall, Leon patted him on the shoulder to reach for it, but this did not make Leon look low. Morey accepted Leon's teachings like a junior, and Morey knew that in NBA circles, Fox Leon's words must be listened to.

Leon then took a taxi out of the restaurant, and Morey drove home his SUV — the SUV he bought after arriving in Houston to celebrate his new job as general manager, but Leon had already sold him. Of course, he is reluctant now, but many years later, he did as Leon said, sold his SUV, traveled by online car-hailing every day, and used the time saved to pay attention to the dynamics of the alliance, and truly became a praised and excellent general manager.

Of course, this is a long time later.

The next day, on the evening of Nov. 17, at the Toyota Center in Houston, where the regular season for the Rockets and Suns is about to begin. When the opening ceremony was held before the start of the game, there were not many people at the scene. No way, Houston fans are like this, they obviously bought tickets in the regular season but were always late, and they liked to leave early after watching half of the games, resulting in the Rockets, as a team with a good record and popularity in the league, but the attendance rate was average.

That's it, thanks to the Rockets Yao Ming, you can often see Chinese fans from all over the United States to watch Yao Ming play, and their Chinese slogans are often a sight on the sidelines of the Rockets during games.

After the opening ceremony, the starters from both sides stood on the pitch and hugged each other as they prepared to start the game. Leon walked over to the tech desk to shake hands with Rick Adelman, the veteran coach who signed a four-year contract with the Rockets this summer, and Morey invited him in the hope of changing the Rockets' weak offense in the Van Gundy era and playing as good and fluid offense as the Sacramento Kings under Adelman.

Of course, this doesn't seem that easy, and after Adelman's arrival, many people, especially in the Chinese media, have speculated that the Rockets will play the flashy Princeton offense like the Kings, allowing Yao Ming to play the high post like Divac, using his passing and mid-range shooting ability to lead the Rockets to new heights.

However, Leon, as an industry insider, doesn't see it that way, he doesn't think the Rockets will play any Princeton offense, and there is no need for the Rockets to play Princeton offense. Facts have also proved that in the first few games of the regular season, the Rockets did not play Princeton's high-low and low-post air-cutting coordination, and Yao Ming's response effect in the high post was far less powerful than his power in the low post.

Adelman, as an excellent coach, will not make players adapt to tactics that are not suitable for them, but will look at the dishes according to the characteristics of the players, and Leon also knows that Yao Ming does not like to play Princeton offense. At the beginning of the Celtics, Wang Zhizhi as a member of Leon's men, every time he played against the Rockets, Wang Zhizhi would reveal some weaknesses to Leon about Yao Ming, the two as teammates of the national team, opponents who have been fighting against each other since they were teenagers, and they definitely know each other deeply enough.

So Leon knows very well that with Yao Ming's playing style and preferences, he can't play any Princeton offense and turn himself into the next Divac. Yao Ming, who weighs more than 300 pounds this year, stands on the NBA arena full of giants and makes everyone else look like a short man, standing on the court like a mountain.

Today's starting center for the Suns is still Stoudemire, and Xiao Si, who is 6-foot-10 tall, is already a little hunchbacked, standing opposite Yao Ming like a guard. But with the jump ball in the center circle, Xiao Si's explosiveness came into play, his knee looked fully recovered, and the scrum got the ball.

The Suns got the offensive ball. The Suns reinstated the starting five at the start of the season, while Maddy was absent due to injury on the Rockets' side, with center Yao Ming, power forward Chuck Hayes, small forward Sean Battier, scoring guard Mike James, and point guard Ralph Alston. Except for Yao Ming, who is a pillar of optimus height, everyone is a big chunk, and the Rockets are a little short in other positions.

In response to the shortcomings of the rocket, Leon put Xiao Si in the center position when attacking, and put it in the power forward position when defending, and let Dio defend Yao Ming. Of course, this is going to kill Dior, since Leon came, he has to defend against O'Neill for a while, face Howard for a while, and fight Yao Ming today, the key Leon is not to let Dior gain weight, which causes Dior to feel like he is being run over by a roller every night.

But this kind of misalignment is obviously effective, because Xiao Si can pull Yao Ming out to consume him on the offensive end, and there is not much difference between letting Xiao Si defend and let Dior defend on the defensive end, and the main thing to deal with Yao Ming is to disrupt his rhythm of the game, once Yao Ming has no way to find a feeling on the offensive end, his power on the field will be greatly weakened. In terms of pick-and-roll coverage and offensive strategy, Yao Ming's level is not enough to support a team's half-court offense like Duncan.

And in the case of the Rockets without Maddy, the offense was controlled by Alstom, and his offensive rhythm control was a big cut worse than Nash, and the first quarter of the offense was a three-point miss, and the angry Adelman yelled on the sidelines. The Sun, who got a long rebound, was able to launch a counterattack, Xiao Si became the vanguard of the counterattack, Yao Ming's defense was already very fast, but he still couldn't keep up with the Sun's speed.

In the first quarter, the Suns scored 14 points with a quick counterattack, accounting for nearly half of their scores. In addition to height, another weakness of the Rockets is the lack of athleticism of the players, once they play fast offense, they often can't keep up with the pace of their opponents because they lack physical fitness. At the end of the first quarter, the Suns scored 39 points in a single quarter, and the Rockets offense was also good, scoring 30 points, but the Suns' firepower was too ferocious, causing them to fall behind.

However, the Rockets are not a team like the Knicks who can be easily crushed by the Suns' offensive power, and Adelman is not a flashy coach like Thomas, who will not give up so easily at Houston's home court.