A week later, the league approved a deal for the Nets and Magic.

The Nets made a deal with the Magic, and in the end, the Nets sent Stephen Marbury away to Darrell Armstrong, Corey Margetty, and the Magic's 2000 first-round pick.

Many people expressed surprise at this trade, mainly related to Marbury's performance last season.

After being traded to the Nets, Marbury played in a total of 31 games, scoring 21.3 points and 8.9 assists per game, including the fourth-highest assists in the league.

In addition, in the final four games of last season, Marbury averaged 36.5 points per game.

There's no doubt that Marbury has become a star player, and as long as he continues to do so, he has a good chance of becoming a superstar.

Such a superstar seedling, and he is still a core player of the team, was traded by the Nets.

In the eyes of most people, the Nets are clearly losing money on this deal.

Among them, Darrell Armstrong is a non-draft player, averaging 13.8 points and 6.7 assists per game last season, which can only be regarded as a good starting point guard, the point is that he is 31 years old this year and is about to enter a decline.

What about Corey Margety, who entered the NBA this year as a rookie, has yet to be proven, and no one knows what his future holds.

Judging from the results, the most valuable thing is the Magic's first-round draft pick, the loss of core Hardaway and several key players, even if Marbury is obtained, the Magic team is very likely to decline.

"Haha, it looks like I'm going to be the boss of the team!"

In a New York residence, Keith Van Horne was stunned for a moment when he learned that Marbury had been quietly traded, and then couldn't help laughing.

In the 1997 draft, Keith Van Horn was second only to Duncan, averaging 19.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game as a rookie, and was also the team's leading scorer.

The following year, last season, Van Horn improved again, averaging 21.8 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, and formed the league's most terrifying scoring duo with Marbury.

There is no doubt that Van Horn is a star player, but after Marbury joined the Nets, he felt threatened, so he openly and secretly competed with Marbury to become a big man.

In Van Horn's view, the team traded away Marbury, and he was afraid that they wanted to rebuild the team around him, which naturally made him very happy.

Unfortunately, Van Horn was happy for one night, and the next day he received a call from his agent, and his original good mood instantly turned into a terrible one.

Because, he was also traded by the team!

On this day, the Nets once again became the protagonists, this time the trade object was still the Nuggets, and the content shocked the world.

In this trade, the Nets sent Keith Van Horne, the Nets' 2000 first-round pick and the 2000 first-round pick from the Magic, and eventually Chi Liang, Chauncey Billups and Eric Williams.

Surprisingly, it wasn't George who was the Nuggets who operated the trade, because George chose to leave the Nuggets since Ji Liang was put on the shelf.

The reason is simple, he doesn't want to be saddled with infamy.

The Nuggets performed well last season, and George's operation was indispensable, first selecting the 'Denver Light' Ji Liang in the draft, then getting Van Exel for cabbage, and finally catching McDyce in the free market.

Such a 'coquettish' operation made George almost overwhelmingly the best manager last season, and naturally there was no shortage of next home.

George knew very well in his heart that with Ji Liang's performance and character, unless he suffered a major injury, he was likely to become a superstar, and he was naturally extremely reluctant to preside over this transaction.

Of course, there is also more or less the factor of the team owner NC.

The deal was a surprise, and no one expected the Nets to offer such a good bargaining chip.

On the face of it, both sides each got who they wanted.

The Nuggets get Van Horn and can form an interior combination with McDyce, and the offensive ability alone is definitely one of the best interior combinations in the league, no worse than the Spurs' twin towers.

Of course, don't mention defense.

For the Nuggets, Van Horn is a low-salary, high-energy star, because this year is the third year of his rookie contract, and he only needs a salary of 3.45 million.

From a technical point of view, Van Horn is a very good shooter with a long range and a lot of angles. But because he didn't have enough flexibility and speed to play as a small forward, the power forward was the only position he could handle.

Due to the soft style of play, Van Horn's defensive style is really disappointing, and the actual role is far less than imagined, and he is a typical star with flashy statistics but cannot help the team much.

Just look at his shooting percentage, as the team's power forward, he only shot 42.8% last season, which is lower than Marbury.

Although Van Horn has many shortcomings, there are still many teams who covet his offensive ability.

In addition, there are two first-round picks for next year, especially the Nets' 2000 pick, which is still an unprotected pick.

Since 1996, the quality of the draft players in recent years has been excellent, which has also led Nuggets management to consciously accumulate draft picks, hoping to select quality players next year.

For the Nuggets, they make up the 'mini-three' of McDyce, Van Horn and Van Exel. Coupled with Ron Mercer, who was traded from the Celtics, he is very strong on paper, and he can still retain a strong competitiveness and has the possibility of attacking the championship.

But in the eyes of most people, the Nets clearly made money, and ESPN contributor Kevin Pelton specifically rated the deal, with the Nets getting an A to be the trade winner, and the Nuggets only getting a B-.

The most critical thing is Chi Liang, since he entered the NBA, Chi Liang has been creating miracles, almost everyone is optimistic about his future, but unfortunately because of discord with the team owner, he was finally ruthlessly traded by the team.

After getting the news, Nets fans rushed to think that the era of the Nets was finally coming!

One side is happy and the other is sad, but the Nuggets fans quit, and they are full of anger, Chi Liang was given the title of Denver Light by them, which shows their love for Chi Liang.

So, like stabbing a hornet's nest, Nuggets fans began to blame Nuggets management, and radical fans even angrily smashed the windows of team management and owners.

For a while, the city of Denver seemed to be in chaos, even the police who maintained order were secretly scolding in their hearts, and while they were still anxious to maintain order, they secretly scolded the Nuggets management NC.

In addition, even Alex Inglish, a famous player who has always supported the Nuggets, believes that the Nuggets made a very wrong decision.

Inglish has a very high opinion of Chi Liang, in his opinion, although Chi Liang's talent is far from Jordan, O'Neal and others, he is very good at using his talent!

The most important thing is that Ji Liang also has a top-level overall view, vision, passing awareness and passing skills, as well as a very mature understanding of the game, but he is still very hard-working, so Ji Liang can always perform miracles in the game.

That's why ESPN contributors would consider the Nets to be the winners of this trade.