When Liu Mang was drinking with Jason Terry and Muhammad, the three remaining old teammates from before his rise, on the afternoon of September 12th, Yahoo Sports exposed a deal, which was about Muhammad.

The deal of virtue.

Hawks and Spurs reach deal.

The Hawks traded Nazr Muhammad and acquired Brent Barry and Robert Horry from the Spurs.

The trade between the championship and runner-up teams in last season’s finals!

It was quite a surprise when the news came out.

Immediately after the Spurs and Hawks issued statements of gratitude to the departing players, the league officials also confirmed the transaction.

With training camp about to start in more than half a month, the trade between the two strongest teams last season has sparked heated discussions.

However, the Lakers and Celtics traded Payton last summer, so it doesn't seem so strange.

There must be some surprise. The Lakers made several attempts to trade Horry back to the Spurs this past summer, but they were all rejected.

People thought that the Spurs wanted to keep Horry, but they didn't expect that they would now send him to the Hawks along with Barry!

The Spurs signed many players this summer. Nick Van Exel, an All-Star player when Kobe was on the bench, was signed by the Spurs with a minimum salary.

The Mavericks used the Alan Houston clause to amnesty their former core, Michael Finley, one of Jordan's successors. The Spurs, who were unwilling to re-sign Bunchy Wells with a high salary, quickly signed Finley.

With Van Exel and Finley, as well as soon-to-be second-year pitcher Udrih, plus Parker, Ginobili, Bowen...the Spurs have too many outside personnel, so they chose to trade some players.

Compared with the overwhelming number of outsiders, the Spurs are short of inside players. They also signed veteran Sean Marks as a center in the offseason, as well as two undrafted players, both inside players, but they are still not enough.

, two undrafted draft picks cannot give Popovich much expectations.

It is impossible to poach people with big contracts. The Spurs must ensure that the salary does not exceed the luxury tax threshold. After acquiring Muhammad in the trade, the Spurs immediately renewed Parker's contract, matching the salary offered by the Warriors to Parker.

With a six-year, $60 million offer that is similar to a poison contract, Parker's salary for the new season is as high as $7.9 million, which is the same starting salary as Kwame Brown's new contract. The Spurs are facing luxury tax pressure and can only trade.

When Popovich does business, he doesn’t like to do business with teams in the same conference. He likes to trade with the top teams in another conference.

The Lakers wanted to take advantage of the Spurs' need for a big man, and proposed a deal in which Odom would be signed first and then traded for Parker and Horry, but Popovich rejected it. Instead, they traded Mihm for Horry and were willing to take in Ness.

Popovich also rejected Trovic's junk contract.

Generally speaking, when the Lakers make a deal, those who actually make an offer usually don't make much noise and don't disclose it.

Popovich would rather allow a stronger opponent in another conference to benefit than let an opponent in the same conference be strengthened, especially the Lakers, who are trying to spend money to recruit role players after acquiring Yao Ming.

The Lakers want to take advantage of Yao Ming's low salary in the last year of his rookie contract and quickly recruit people.

In the end, the Hawks thought about it for a long time and felt that it would be better to have two veteran forwards and defenders. After making the offer, Popovich saw that Muhammad was the bargaining chip in the offer and immediately agreed.

Muhammad signed a five-year, $23.9 million full-level mid-level contract in 2001. In the last year, he averaged 5.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game last season. His average rebounds per game ranked third in the Hawks, second only to

Kwame Brown and Liu Mang.

Acquiring Mohammed gave the Spurs a strong addition inside.

As for the Eagles, with David Lee as a new addition this season, Muhammad's position seems very awkward.

In addition, Josh Smith is in his second year and needs more playing time. Originally, Muhammad sometimes had to play center, but now Rasheed Wallace also needs to appear more in the center position.

There are only two inside positions, and if there are too many people, there won’t be enough playing time.

Indeed, Muhammad is now at his peak and is now stronger than Josh Smith and David Lee.

However, Kwame Brown can do the top defense that Muhammad is good at, and do it better. His mobility, Josh Smith can do better. He is strong in comprehensive defensive ability.

Shi Smith is still young, and before Kwame Brown gains weight, he will still play a big role in the Eagles.

But now that these two young players have improved, Muhammad's position is no longer available.

As for David Lee, he has a low-post singles ability that even the Hawks' interior players don't have. He can relieve Liu Mang's pressure in low-post singles. Instead of Brandon Bass, who has better physical talent, he wants David Lee.

, just because of his offensive skills.

The reason why I kept Muhammad before was because I didn’t know whether Mourning would stay. Now that it’s confirmed, the trade is inevitable.

After confirming the signing target, the Eagles took action decisively.

After the deal between the two teams was concluded, the media gave high evaluations. Both teams' transaction ratings were A-level, second only to the only S-level deal this summer, which was the deal in which the Lakers acquired Yao Ming from the Rockets.

The Lakers' trade rating is S-level, while the Rockets' trade rating is B-level.

Bynum was a fool when he was in high school, but his talent is obvious to the naked eye. If it weren't for Bynum and Butler, the Rockets would only get three first-round picks, which would be a huge loss.

The trade between the Hawks and the Spurs is seen as each getting what they need. The Spurs have been strengthened inside, and Duncan can return to the center position where he is good at...

Of course, the position application submitted by the Spurs for Muhammad is center, while Duncan is still power forward...

…

…

Muhammad originally planned to rest in Los Angeles for a few more days. He has been training since July for nearly two months, but now he has to return to Atlanta early to pack his things.

This chapter is not over yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Muhammad is used to being traded. In addition to staying with the Hawks for four years, his rookie contract was only one year.

The kind who was traded twice. He is used to being traded at any time, so he has been renting a house in Atlanta. He has few things and can just pack them up and have them sent to the Spurs Arena by FedEx. He doesn’t have a girlfriend, and he doesn’t talk to too many people.

What, I just finished drinking with my two old teammates Liu Mang and Jason Terry and headed to San Antonio.

Jason Terry still looked careless and wandered off with Korver, who didn't leave after coming to Los Angeles for Liu Mang's birthday.

After Liu Mang felt sad for a while, he continued to devote himself to new learning.

Now that this is the case, what else can be done?

From the moment Rahim left, the team's transactions were open to anyone except Liu Mang, and Liu Mang knew this better than anyone.

After receiving the news that Horry and Barry have joined, Liu Mang must be very happy. With Horry and a key player, the Eagles have more options at critical moments.

Barry went to the Spurs for the championship, but failed to win the championship. Now he comes to the Hawks and continues to have the chance to win the championship. Before he won the championship, he will definitely be very motivated and have a lot of fighting spirit. This is a great match for the Hawks, the defending champion team.

It's very important to the team.

Liu Mang feels that what the team needs now is someone who has never won a championship...

The team has completed its recruitment. In this case, what Liu Mang wants to do now is to improve himself, make himself stronger, keep the foundation of the dynasty laid by those old teammates who worked hard together, and truly establish the dynasty!

…

On September 14th, McGrady and Iguodala had already returned to Atlanta. James also returned to Cleveland to prepare for the new season. Liu Mang's parents and Levia also returned to Atlanta with Alexia and little Loli.

, it’s good to raise a baby in Los Angeles, but the due date is still more than a month away, so I went back to Atlanta to prepare for the birth of the baby.

Liu Mang will stay alone for a few days.

On the afternoon of the 14th, Liu Mang was practicing three-point shooting in a rented arena. There was a huge gap between his 94 three-point rating and his 95 three-point rating.

Maybe if you really want to say it, the accuracy won't differ much, but if you cross this gap, you can achieve greater development.

Probably equal to the difference between Ray Allen and the Tsunami trio.

It can't be achieved in one or ten or a hundred trainings, but it will be achieved one day. If it doesn't work a hundred times, Liu Mang can have the patience to wait a thousand times.

After watching the three-pointers of the Tsunami trio of the Cosmos team, Liu Mang was full of motivation.

While practicing, the doorbell rang at the arena, and the caddy who had already received instructions from Liu Mang went to open the door.

Liu Mang also put down the ball, wiped his sweat, and walked towards the door.

Hakeem Olajuwon!

Possibly the strongest center in NBA history!

"Oh, Hakeem, I've been waiting for you for a long time, and I can't wait to learn my dream steps from you!" Liu Mang went up to Olajuwon and gave him a hug.

"Haha, Ace, I really didn't expect you, a point guard, to want to learn low-post play. Yes, low-post is men's basketball." Olajuwon didn't care about the sweat on Liu Mang's body and hugged him heavily.

It's the sign of a man.

When Liu Mang heard Olajuwon's words, it was clear that he was targeting a certain NBA owner.

Liu Mang didn't care either. The relationship between the two was average. They had only met a few times at official events. They gave him money to learn something and the other party received money to teach. There was nothing else to worry about.

"Oh, the facilities in this arena are quite complete. Ace, wait a moment while I go to warm up. Here is my video. You can watch it first to understand my steps." Olajuwon took out a video

I handed the CD to Liu Mang and went to warm up.

Professional athletes usually warm up for more than an hour, so pre-match preparations usually start two hours before the start of the match.

Although Olajuwon is no longer a professional player, he is very responsible for his body and spent more than half an hour warming up.

Liu Mang watched the DVD on the TV in the lounge area of ​​the arena. It looked like it was mass-produced, and there was also an advertisement for Olajuwon's training camp. It was obviously an instructional CD sold in a basketball supply store.

If you could learn it by watching videos, not so many people would go to Olajuwon's training camp.

Liu Mang gave up on learning by watching videos. Some details cannot be learned by watching videos.

"Boss of the system, Olajuwon's dreamy footsteps learning has started!" Liu Mang said to the system.

"Ding... Hakeem Olajuwon's low-post singles learning requires superstar points to enable quick learning. It takes three days. Do you want to enable the inheritance training mode?"

"so expensive!"

Liu Mang felt like he had been robbed!
To be continued...