After losing Lance Stephenson, the Pacers chose to sign Rodney Starkey for $120 a year in order to strengthen their bench on the defensive line. Ye Xuan continued to live a leisurely holiday life in Indiana, except for going to the stadium to practice in the morning, he usually stayed at home, and he felt that he had completely returned to the otaku life when he was a student.

However, as a game nerd, Ye Xuan still wants to experience the atmosphere of those international game competitions, so on July 21st, Ye Xuan also went to the key arena in Seattle to watch a TI4 final, and finally the Chinese NEBEE team defeated the VG team also from China 3:1 in the final, and won the immortal shield of the 4th International Invitational Tournament.

The holiday life was very leisurely for Ye Xuan, but this leisurely life was interrupted by an accident. Originally, after Ye Xuan renewed his contract with the Pacers, he felt that the strength of his team was still very strong, and he still had the opportunity to continue to win the championship in the next few seasons, but at this moment, a bad news came, which made the Pacers' journey in the new season full of haze.

On August 2, during the Blue and White match of the United States team in Las Vegas, the Indiana Pacers' leading small forward Paul George unfortunately injured his right leg in a defense. In view of the extreme severity of George's injury, the head coach of the U.S. men's basketball team, Lao K, had to announce the end of the team's training game halfway.

Although it was only an intra-team match, the players worked very the field in order to be able to enter the final 12-man squad and represent the United States in the World Championships. However, when the game began at the beginning of the fourth quarter, an unfortunate scene suddenly occurred on the court, Pickled Pepper twisted his right leg and fell directly when he landed in the process of chasing and blocking Harden. Viewed in slow motion, the tibial part of the pickled pepper is severely bent at a 90° right angle, and there is likely to be a risk of breakage.

Pickled Pepper's injury was obviously more serious than everyone on the field expected, lying out of bounds he couldn't move at all, and the team doctor of the American team and the coach Coach K came forward to understand his situation as soon as possible. As George struggled to get up on the floor, the atmosphere became more and more solemn, and a few minutes later, Pickled Pepper was carried off the field on a stretcher.

At this time, many players of the U.S. men's basketball team looked serious, and Warriors' Stephen Curry directly covered his head with a towel and covered his eyes, as if he did not dare to look directly at what was happening on the court. After that, U.S. men's basketball assistant coach Williams rallied his teammates from both teams to get together and pray for George.

Due to the severity of George's injury, coupled with respect for him and his family, Coach K Sr. officially announced the end of the game on the court. By this time, George had been carried onto a stretcher, and his injured right calf was held in place by a thick plank. When he was carried off the court by the staff, his teammates from the U.S. men's basketball team stepped forward to comfort him, while the fans stood up to applaud George.

And for the Pacers, this is undoubtedly a heavy blow, just won the championship, and confidently recruited to fight for the title defense in the second year, only to have their own team core suffered a broken leg because of an inconsequential national team intra-team match.

Not to mention whether Pickled Pepper can return to its current competitive state after recovering from injury, even if Pickled Pepper can recover its original strength, it will take a long time to recuperate and slowly undergo surgery and recovery training. According to the preliminary report from the hospital, it is conservatively estimated that the pickled pepper injury will require about 300 days of rest, and even if the condition is good, it will take about 260 days of rest to reappear on the field. This means that Pickles Pepper could miss the vast majority of games in the regular season, or even the entire season.

In this way, if the Pacers still want to compete for the championship in the new season, they can only rely on Ye Xuan to lead the team alone, although the team is still at the forefront of the East in the team strength rating after losing the pickled pepper, but this is undoubtedly a challenge for Ye Xuan, who has just spent his rookie season.

So after Ye Xuan had surgery on his leg in Pickled Pepper, he immediately went to the hospital to visit Pickled Pepper, and with Ye Xuan, there was also Hibbert. Obviously, Pickled Pepper still had some lingering feelings about this injury, so he didn't talk too much about this injury with Ye Xuan and the others. It's just that I'm sorry that Ye Xuan has to fight alone next season, Ye Xuan is also righteous enough, and immediately patted his chest to pack a ticket to lead the team to the playoffs with Hibbert and them, and then wait for Pickled Pepper to return from injury and win another championship.

Then the three of them chatted casually about other things, after the doctor reminded Pickle Pepper that he needed to rest, Ye Xuan and Hibbert left, not that the other people of the Pacers team did not come to visit Pickle Pepper, but because Pickle Pepper was injured at this point in time, the other teammates were basically out on vacation, and they couldn't come back for a while, only Hibbert and Ye Xuan were still in Indiana, Ye Xuan obviously didn't have anything to play yet, and Hibbert didn't go out on vacation because he wanted to accompany his wife who was about to give birth.

But to be honest, this injury of Pickle Pepper is indeed a blow to the ambitions of the Pacers' top management, I thought that I was now sitting on a luxury championship lineup, and naturally there would be veterans who wanted to hug their thighs, but as a result, Pickled Pepper's injury, the Pacers' new season strength prediction fell out of the top ten in an instant, and the veterans also switched to other places, which made the Pacers executives very embarrassed.

And due to Pickle Pepper's injury, Lance Stephenson fled Indiana again, the Pacers' forward line suddenly seemed a little stretched, Chris Copeland obviously can't keep up with the Pacers' current footsteps, so even if Solomon Hill is promoted to the starting small forward position, the bench small forward position will not necessarily be filled by Copeland, plus the Pacers' current guard line looks a little bloated after signing Rodney Starkey, so the Pacers management has begun to seek a trade, Players on the shelf include C.J. Watson, Chris Copeland and even George Hill are on the trade list.

This is also a point that Ye Xuan didn't expect, his team has just won the championship, but he is about to start cleaning up the old players, although Ye Xuan knows that there is also a reason for signing a new contract, but he is still a little uncomfortable in his heart.