(Ask for a commuter pass)

Mutombo left the 76ers

This is September is about to pass, October is approaching, the NBA's biggest news, in the current period of time basically all teams have prepared the team's lineup for this season, especially those who are aiming to win the championship or break through the team, in this case the trading market is naturally unlikely to be how active, and it can even be said that the trading market has basically been closed to every strong team, but no one thought that when basically all the team training camps opened, The 76ers actually sent away the team's defensive pillar Mutombo, who is currently one of the best centers in the league and one of the best defensive players, if Iverson is the team's offensive source, then Mutombo is the team's defensive source, almost irreplaceable figure.

When Mutombo first came to the 76ers two years ago, Larry Brown was very ambitious, because he saw from the 1999 and 2000 Finals that if you want to beat the Spurs and Timberwolves in the West or even the Lakers, you need to have a player who can eat Garnett, Duncan and O'Fat. It's just that in the 2001 finals, he was swept by the Timberwolves, and Mutombo was also a little powerless in the face of the Timberwolves' Garnett and Xiao O, although it inhibited the play of these two well. But it didn't bring the 76ers even a single victory. It's fair to say that Larry Brown's decision to poach Mutombo proved to be a success after this season, but it was also a failure.

It doesn't matter what his first season with the 76ers is. They still made it to the finals, albeit poorly. But after all, it is the first season, and everyone has great expectations for him and the 76ers, and for many people, especially 76ers fans, the defensive and offensive combination of Mutombo and Iverson is almost perfect, but such perfection and anticipation are not long-lasting. This is especially true last season, when the defending champions of the East were beaten by the Wizards in the first round.

Larry Brown first doubted his squad last season, and in 2001 he was confident that the team could get better and better, and that he could lead this group of players to a championship for the next time. But it all came to an end in the first round last season.

In that series, the 76ers exposed all their shortcomings, especially the team's offensive point is too single and the team's offensive firepower is too poor, this team has almost no stable scoring points except for Iverson, in this case, the 76ers' defense is not much of a role even if it is excellent, as a championship-minded coach, Larry Brown naturally knows where his team should strengthen, he must strengthen the team's offense, whether it is signed from the free market or traded his own playersIt's just that this year's free market is too small. There is no full free agent who has the quality and meets the requirements of the 76ers, which makes him have to make a choice, because the only 76ers have trade value at the moment is Mutombo, because the relationship between him and Iverson has become more and more stiff recently, and the team's management is not very patient with him, so this forces him to make a decision, a decision that must be changed.

In the end, the coach chose to send the team's second-in-command Mutombo to the Nets in a trade for offensive all-round forward Keith Van Horne, who is a golden partner with Marbury. The two played 20+8 data in the 1998-1999 season, which can be said to be a very large number of offensive players in the league, just because of the recent arrival of Kenyon Martin and the growth of Richard Jefferson, the all-round forward is in an awkward position in the New Jersey Nets, it can be said that the living space is constantly being eaten away by Jefferson and Martin, which makes the player who could have contributed more than 20 points per game to only average 16 points per game last season, but even so, The 1997 star is still one of the best offensive interior players in the league right now, which is why Larry Brown chose to trade Mutombo for him.

As for the Nets, there is no shortage of players at the current team at the No. 3 and No. 4 positions, and the team is also not short of offensive players, Jefferson at the No. 3 position and Martin at the No. 4 position are even more talented and capable than this Van Horn, and the current team just lacks a barrier like Mutombo, and finally because of this, the two teams completed what can be said to be one of the biggest deals of this offseason.

It's fair to say that this deal between the Nets and the 76ers is a take-or-take deal.

And when Zhuang Fei saw this deal in his office, he sighed a little, for Zhuang Fei, what he saw from this deal was not only the change in the strength of these two teams, but also the change in strength of these two teams because of this deal Zhuang Fei actually didn't care too much, what he cared about the most was Larry Brown's current situation in the 76ers, the NBA's typical college coach is now in a bad situation in the 76ers, otherwise he would not choose to trade the most important pillar player in his system, It can be said that even if the 76ers exchange for Van Horn this year, this 76er will not be better than last season in terms of competitiveness, and may even be worse.

"In the NBA, it is difficult for any coach to have absolute autonomy, I think he must be very uncomfortable now" Zhuang Fei thought of the extremely stubborn old guy and said with a wry smile, there are not many coaches in the entire NBA who can control the absolute power of life and death of the team like him, and it can even be said that it is rare, and even a rare one like him may not really be able to do everything he wants to do.

When thinking of this, Zhuang Fei finally sighed, this is the NBA coaching environment

October 5, 2002, Boston North Shore Garden player

The matchup here is a preseason game between the Boston Celtics and the New Jersey Nets. It was also Celtic's first competitive game of the season, although it was only a preseason game. But the number of Celtic fans at North Shore Gardens for this game is still staggering, because the 20,000-capacity North Shore Gardens are actually full today. In the current NBA, the only people who can fill up the preseason games are probably the Grizzlies and the Timberwolves in the past, and now there is a Celtic, which can also see the expectations of Boston Celtics fans for the team this season, and these people can't wait to see the new look of the team.

Last season's Nets missed the playoffs due to Kidd's injury, which led to a lack of leaders on the team, but despite the team's poor performance last season, it also provided plenty of opportunities for young players like Martin and Jefferson on the team. The growth of these young players and the return of Kidd have also made this team full of ambitions, and the acquisition of Mutombo from the 76ers not long ago this season has made this ambition almost obvious, and the team's goal this season is definitely not as simple as the playoffs, but for the Nets. Whatever their true intentions, one thing they can't avoid is that this Celtic will definitely be one of the biggest stumbling blocks in their path to their goal.

So although this game is only a preseason game, neither the Nets nor the Celtics treat this as an ordinary preseason game, the Nets want to use this game to test their strength, and Zhuang Fei is also ready to use this game to polish his lineup.

In such a situation that the two sides do not want to keep, the beginning of the game is extremely intense, it can be said that the two teams started a decisive battle at the beginning, whether it is Martin and Jefferson because of Kidd's tandem constantly flying in the sky, or Maddie continues to complete a wonderful single under Yao Ming's strategy, these two teams basically show the best state of the two teams so far.

And officially because the two teams were full of firepower at the beginning. So the continuity of this game is also a big problem, after the first quarter of the game, the Nets in the two teams are a little weak, this game because of Mutombo, their cooperation has not been fully figured out, although Kidd is very organized, but he is not very familiar with his new teammate who is a big name, and sometimes the passing is not very accurate, after all, the 76ers went behind other teams in the team's run-in because of this big deal, but even so. The team also lasted with the Celtics until the last four minutes of the first half before collapsing, and at the end of the first half, the Celtics also stretched the gap to 10 points.

It can be said that in the first half, Zhuang Fei was extremely satisfied with the team's Yao Ming, Xiao Ao, Maddy, Jackson and James Posey, a starting lineup, and the performance of James Posey and O'Neal Jr. in the first half of the game was normal, and there was no weakness due to the national team as Zhuang Fei imagined.

At the beginning of the second half, Zhuang Fei asked Arenas to bring the team's newcomers Barnes, Prince and Kirilenko and Haslem to fight against the Nets' starting lineup, after halftime, the Nets also eased up, and the strength of the Nets is indeed very strong, it can be said that the so-called second team of the Boston Celtics is not the opponent of the Nets at present, In particular, the performance of the three newcomers of the Celtics is a little struggling, whether it is Barnes or Prince or Haslem, this game is the first time that the three of them have cooperated with Arenas, and the three of them are not familiar with the rhythm that Arenas is familiar with, although they have also been in contact during training, but at present, the Celtics have not carried out more in-depth technical and tactical training, and now it is just some physical reserve exercises, it can be said that the second lineup of this Nets looks a little messy, Therefore, the second team of this team is also relying more on Arenas and Kirilenko to maintain the score, but even if the situation has been in a backward position, Zhuang Fei has no intention of substitution.

It was not until the two teams completely tied the score after the end of the third quarter, and it was also in the fourth quarter that Zhuang Fei re-sacrificed his entire starting lineup, and in the entire fourth quarter, Zhuang Fei's Boston Celtics and Nets once again staged a full-fire duel like the first quarter.

And when the matchup was over, the scoreboard at the North Shore Gardens was 108-106, Kidd missed a three-pointer, and the Boston Celtics won their first game of the season at home, albeit just a preseason game.

In this game, Zhuang Fei was basically satisfied with the performance of Barnes and Prince and Haslem that the team focused on, and he naturally knew that these three people needed to find the rhythm of the NBA at the moment, and it didn't matter what they did in their first game

"Zhuang, are you really going to buy that team?"

At Zhuang Fei's home in Boston, Zhuang Fei's agent Chris looked at Zhuang Fei in surprise, and the smile on the face of the NBA coach made him a little suffocated.

"Yes, this is a strategy that I have formulated before, now you just need to do what I tell you" Zhuang Fei looked at Chris's surprised eyes and said with a smile, after the end of the home game with the Nets, Zhuang Fei's agent was beaten by Zhuang Fei as soon as he returned to the United States after solving all the handovers with the Russian billionaire Abu about Charlton.

"Okay, I understand, it's just that I'm thinking that Charlton has done a great job investing in you, but there is only one Abu in the world, I don't think you can have such a good opportunity" Finally, seeing Zhuang Fei with a determined face, the manager was also a little helpless.

As soon as he returned to the United States, he was ordered by Zhuang Fei again to buy Manchester City in the Premier League, obviously, this is another complicated job, even if he finishes the work, he will not think that he can still stay in the United States, thinking of his wife and children at home, this agent is also a little helpless.

"Chris, now we all need to work harder," looking at Chris's wry expression, Zhuang Fei also patted the agent's shoulder and said, and the manager could only nod helplessly.

Although his salary is now several times that of Paul Allen, this work is also several times harder.

This guy is not a basketball head coach at all, and at this time, the agent also thought of it helplessly. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )