"The Knicks don't give a second-round pick, they just agree to one for one?" Wes Unseld's eyebrows furrowed.

The Wizards were meant to be robbed because one side had a need and the other didn't. But John Wallace's two consecutive brilliant performances made the Knicks' waist stiff. Perhaps, Oakley and the Knicks have reached a new agreement, and Ben Wallace is no longer so important!

I don't make a lot of money, do you want to continue to change?

Unseld asked his secretary to bring the video footage of the Knicks' two games, and then watched it with the team's scouting director and a few aides.

After watching the two sets of video, the Wizards' scout supervisor said: "In the first game of the Knicks vs. the Magic, John Wallace played really well, but in the second game, it was obvious that the Hawks deliberately let him go in exchange for an advantage on the inside." Defensively, John Wallace struggled to face the Eagles' center. ”

Wes Unselde nodded and said, "Lauderdale is 2.24 meters tall, and I'm afraid it will be difficult to change to Big Ben." On the offensive end, Big Ben doesn't have any skills at all. ”

One of Unseld's assistants said: "Yes, Big Ben's height is too short, he can only play inside, and his skills are incorrigible, and we won't lose anything by exchanging him for John Wallace." ”

The scouting director said: "John Wallace doesn't have a high ceiling, it's hard to be a star, and we're not short of strikers. I think even if I want to make a trade, I can wait another time. We all know the value of summer league, and maybe he'll be the prototype when he gets off the game, so we can earn an extra draft pick. ”

"Who's the Knicks' next opponent?" Unselde asked the secretary.

"Their next opponent is us." The secretary shrugged.

"Ouch, it's us, that's just the right time for him to touch Big Ben!" Unselde Road.

At the same time, Li Wei was calling Charles Oakley in New York.

"Charles, I want to trade John Wallace for your good brother Ben Wallace, but the Wizards won't let him go. We're going to play the Wizards in the end, and you'd better talk to him about it, and don't take it too seriously when you meet John. ”

Oakley raised an eyebrow: "Isn't that good?" It seems that there is a suspicion of match-fixing! ”

Li Wei said: "I saw your face, so I exchanged John for him." If Big Ben comes, he will get a two-year renewal with a total amount of two million, I mean what I say, it's up to you whether I want him to come or not! ”

Oakley immediately called Big Ben, and then contacted Li Weidao again: "Coach, Big Ben is a straightforward person, and he doesn't dare to go too far, you better design more blocking tactics for John, I believe that Big Ben will leak people when he assists in defense." ”

"That's fine, John has always had a lot of tactics and he's the heart of our summer league offense and defence."

Hanging up the phone, Li Wei breathed a sigh of relief.

Daben is a person born in 74, and he will turn 23 years old this year, and his physical condition is at its peak. Maybe in terms of experience, he wasn't as good as he was a few years later, but it wouldn't be a problem to strangle a player like John Wallace.

John's biggest shortcoming is that his physical fitness is very average, otherwise he would not have slipped all the way to the 18th pick after achieving outstanding results in the college league. When encountering an opponent with poor confrontation, he can use his technical advantage to easily hang and fight, but as soon as the intensity of the confrontation rises, the consequences are difficult to predict.

Pushing open the door to the presidential suite, the young head coach was about to talk to D'Antoni about his next tactics when he suddenly saw Stephen Jackson standing outside the door.

"Coach!" The martial saint lowered his head and turned into a defeated rooster again.

"Yo, Stephen, you got it?" Li Wei smiled.

"Figured it out." Stephen Jackson bit his lip and said with some resentment: "Bruce and I talked for a long time tonight, and I know that you all look down on me and think I can't become a star." I'm going to be a star, but also to prove that I can be a good rotation player, and I'm going to use my defense and attitude to win playing time! ”

"It's good to figure it out." Li Wei nodded, "If there's anything else you want to say, just say it, I like direct people." ”

Stephen Jackson hesitated for a moment, and then said loudly: "Also, after I hit the price, I will definitely not stay in the Knicks!" I'm going to go to another team and become a superstar! ”

"Hahaha, good job, ambitious!" Li Wei applauded him, "If you can play at a high price, and other teams are willing to give you a big contract and treat you as a core training, I will also be very happy." ”

Stephen Jackson was surprised: "Coach, aren't you angry? ”

Li Weidao: "You can become a superstar, why am I angry?" Stephen, you can not stay with the Knicks in the future, but every day in the Knicks, you have to understand your status, if you can't even play as a role player, you can't play at your value, and I won't give you that opportunity. ”

"Don't worry, even as a role player, I'm going to be the best role player." Stephen Jackson was still a little reluctant, but there was no other way, "Next game, I'm going to feed John?" ”

Li Wei said: "We will not only feed in the end, but also feed it in a big way." Let's go to Mike's room in a moment, and we'll discuss the battle plan together. ”

Stephen Jackson pouted, "I knew you wanted to use John as the core, but I'll be better than him one day!" ”

"Hahaha!" Li Wei chuckled, "You are just a child, you always think you know a lot, but you don't understand anything." ”

"Isn't it?" Stephen Jackson raised an eyebrow, a little confused.

"Well, it's not for you to think about the team, just do what you have to do. Defense, rebounding, open shots, and drawing defenders around John to you. ”

Two days later, Long Beach Coliseum.

The Washington Wizards' summer league lead coach is Jim Broveley, a guy Li Wei doesn't know at all. However, the deputy next to Broveley is very familiar to the young coach, he is Mike Brown, the mentor of LeBron James in his previous life!

Li Wei walked over and chatted a few words, and was very polite to Mike Brown.

Mike Brown is only 28 years old this year, and he is a new rookie in the NBA coaching world. Seeing that Li Wei was polite to himself, he was surprised and very happy.

The Wizards traded all the draft picks in '96, and the first-round pick in '97 was stripped by the league because of the contract incident of Juwan Howard, the player who signed the NBA's first 100 million yuan contract. In the summer league, they can only get the rookies with the 17th pick in the second round this year, 1.83m short playmaker Gerd Sam Gold, and the others are all undrafted.

However, Li Wei did not despise the Wizards at all, because the short black man on the inside of the Wizards team was Ben Wallace!

As soon as the game started, the Wizards sent Ben Wallace to guard John Wallace. However, Big Ben's enthusiasm is not high, coupled with the Knicks' frequent blocking and dismantling, allowing John to score eight points in the blink of an eye.

Wizards assistant coach Broveley shook his head, and he could see that Big Ben wasn't working. It seems that the team's trade rumors have also affected Ben.

Called a timeout and sent Big Ben to defend the Knicks' power forward Stephen Jackson, and Broveley put in a tall, strong center.

The Wizards have always wanted Ben Wallace to play power forward because he is too short and can only play inside. But Big Ben wants a basket without a basket, and he has to play with his back without a back, he can't open up space and can't score points, and it's also very chicken to play a big forward.

John Wallace now likes to play tall centers on the offensive end, anyway, the opponent is tall, and he will definitely not be able to defend the outside, he can just soar three points on the outside!

As for the defensive end, he can also barely carry it. Saying that his physical fitness is average, it is compared with the NBA-level interior tank, and compared with these undrafted picks who can't play, he still has an advantage.

John Wallace had a good hand today, and quickly threw away, and when Broveley saw this, he hurriedly changed to a short man to take his place with him.

Li Wei's purpose is to brush up on John Wallace, and winning or losing is secondary. In fact, no one cares if they win or lose in the summer league. So the Knicks were all pick-and-rolls, fast breaks, screens, off-ball runs, and all offense revolved around John Wallace.

For Wizards assistant coach Broveley, the first priority today is to check for the team's undrafted picks, and the secondary task is to defend John Wallace. After changing several defensive schemes, none of them worked well, and he frowned.

The rhythm of running and bombing is too difficult to keep up, and it is simply unrealistic to solve the problem from the defensive end, so you can only bomb!

But in this way, it goes against his original intention of inspecting the players!

At the end of the game, Broveli felt uncomfortable, not because he cared about losing, but because the Knicks were playing too differently and he was not used to it.

Because of the deliberate brushing of John Wallace's data, the Knicks only won by a small margin, and the score was fixed at 111-108. The hero of Syracuse scored 38 points tonight, and although he didn't go up to forty, he had 11 rebounds and 10 assists, a big triple-double!

On the Wizards' side, Ben Wallace only played ten minutes, grabbed three rebounds, and was replaced. Broveli was familiar with his technical characteristics and wanted to examine more of the others, so he compressed his time.

Washington, Wizards management watched the game live.

Unseld lamented: "John Wallace's play is so consistent, I guess the Knicks can't back down." ”

Unseld's assistant said: "Then let's change it, John Wallace is indeed better than Ben Wallace, and one for one is also earned." ”

Knicks management soon received a call from the Wizards.

Unseld said on the phone: "Okay, you don't have to deliberately brush up on John's stats, we know that he has all-round scoring ability." One for one, for Ben Wallace, we agreed. ”

"They agreed?" After Li Wei heard the news, he smiled lightly.

Now that the Wizards have agreed, do you want to add some more price codes?

After thinking about it for a while, Li Wei did not continue to bargain.

The Wizards agreed to a trade because they felt John Wallace was more valuable than Big Ben, not because the team needed it. Their talent up front is so great that they even traded Rasheed Wallace for a veteran defender in his thirties last year.

You know, Rashid Wallace is the No. 4 pick in '95, with a higher pick than Garnett, a proper future superstar, such a Wizards team is not uncommon, how can he spend a lot of money in exchange for the very marginal John Wallace?

Besides, what is the quality of the summer league data, everyone also knows that John Wallace is not three, playing power forward is short, playing small forward is slow, and playing center like summer league is even more unlikely to happen in official games.

The Knicks' opponents in these three games were all more vegetable, and it happened that John Wallace's hand was also bursting. If the deal doesn't go along, you run into a strong opponent later, and John Wallace doesn't feel good, then it's trouble.

So, let's take it when you see it!

"Dennis, you have to tell Wes Unseld that our John is worth enough to be worth Ben plus a first-round pick, and they owe us a favor for Ben alone!"

Unselde heard that the Knicks were a little unwilling, and chuckled: "It's easy to say, in fact, it's not much use for us to trade John, but I saw that you like Big Ben very much, so we decided to benefit each other." Big Ben is a very active young man, and Coach Bixduff has always been reluctant to give him up. ”