On the evening of December 29, the "big battle" between the Heat and the Hornets was going on at the American Airlines Center on the south coast of the United States.

The head coaches of both teams tried their best to find ways to lose.

Byron Scott, the master of ball control, and Pat Riley, who may be the best head coach in history, are trying their best to replace all the players who are playing well and lose as much as possible.

Neither team can win. At this stage, the head coaches of both teams are carrying out this season for the future of the team.

While Pat Riley has to worry about losing, he also has to think about what Wade can bring back.

Pat Riley doesn't want players who have been developed by the Eagles to prevent the team from being too strong, on the edge of the playoffs, and ultimately accomplishing nothing this season.

He wants the Eagles to select players who have just begun to train, or players who will not help much on the offensive end. Pat Riley believes in the Eagles' vision. The Eagles' vision is too vicious. The Eagles can pick the first pick in the second round.

After selecting Millsap and giving him the same four-year contract totaling $5.22 million as the player selected with the 24th overall pick in the first round, he obviously has great confidence in Millsap.

Riley wants raw talent that he can polish by himself to increase his sense of belonging to the team. He doesn't want players who have already integrated into other teams.

Or it could be a player like Prince who has little offensive effect but can affect the game and has high trade value.

The key is that Prince is very loyal. Just like Wade, he will not leave a team easily. This is Prince's best quality.

Pat Riley proposed a trade plan that the other party could not agree to, and he expected the Eagles to reject it.

Let’s talk about the specifics slowly. No one can guarantee the condition of players who have undergone minimally invasive surgery before they recover and resume playing games, even if they are players who have just turned 25 years old.

It is not easy for the Hawks to take advantage of Pat Riley. Even if no one expects Wade to return to his previous form, Pat Riley will not let go easily.

For Pat Riley, the biggest problem is that Wade, who has no meniscus, has torn his cruciate ligament. This is the first time the NBA has had an injury record!

Unlike Jordan's fracture, Wade's cruciate ligament was damaged when the meniscus was removed. What he had to do was a minimally invasive surgery that every team was extremely reluctant to let players do. There are many people in their twenties and seventies.

There was an example of bleeding after minimally invasive surgery during his peak period, so so far, except for the Hawks, no team has shown any inclination to get Wade.

This is a tough question for Pat Riley.

But Pat Riley still wants to take a bite of the Eagles, but what exactly he wants to get, Pat Riley himself has no clue now.

If the Eagles refused directly when he didn't have enough chips to reply, Pat Riley wouldn't think so much.

But the Hawks responded. There was a feeling that they wanted to gamble on the small probability of Wade returning to health. Pat Riley was naturally more active. There were two options. One was to get a superstar or All-Star player who could be traded.

Another bargaining chip is to supplement role players.

Pat Riley also knows that if the asking price is too aggressive, the other party will definitely not agree. The momentum is good. At most, it will take a year or two for the role players to grow up and it will soon be a dynasty-level lineup, especially if Liu Mang returns.

There is a high probability that he will enter his peak period in a year or two. Tracy McGrady is only 28 years old, so there is no rush.

…

…

On December 30th, the game day came between the Eagles and the Nets.

I discussed it with Pat Riley again during the day, but still couldn't reach an agreement.

For the Hawks, no matter what kind of reward they use to get Wade, their 100% strength will be lost this season. Wade will definitely not come back until next season. Liu Mang may use injury medicine to treat Wade.

There are some potential injuries, but he will definitely not do anything counterintuitive like using superstar points to speed up recovery.

In this way, the Hawks will not pay a particularly high price to trade Wade, which would be a big deal.

The transaction is temporarily at a standstill, with both teams weighing the matter.

Liu Mang is not in a hurry. Anyway, there is no way to partner with Wade this season. The games this season still have to be played one by one. Let’s beat the Nets first!

At 7 o'clock in the evening, the game between the Eagles and the Nets began.

After the game started, the Nets gave Liu Mang a very special feeling.

Carter and Kidd seemed to be working well together, but there was no communication throughout the whole process!

The Hawks' play style is very simple. Liu Mang and Prince or Rondo and Battier flank Carter, and the offense can be played normally.

This season, the Nets rely on Carter to score and win games. With Kwame Brown and Marion guarding the basket, the Nets' weak interior offensive capabilities are basically helpless. They can't make any open shots given to them by outside shooters.

On the offensive end, McGrady or Rondo holds the ball, and Liu Mang is responsible for taking shots.

Liu Mang played for 35 minutes. Facing Kidd's defense, he made 14 of 31 shots and 5 of 10 three-pointers, scoring 42 points. The Hawks easily defeated the Nets 110-95 and won two consecutive games.

After adapting to the Heat, Liu Mang became more comfortable playing the Nets. He scored 40 points in three consecutive games, helping the Eagles improve their record to 20 wins and 11 losses, ending the 2006 journey.

…

The average points per game increased by another 0.2 points, and Liu Mang's average points per game have increased to 29.6 points.

At this time, Arenas, who had come to Atlanta to prepare for the game against the Hawks, was about to cry!

At the beginning of this season, almost no one in the league was competing for the scoring title. Arenas ranked first in the scoring list two months before the season started. He thought his spring was coming.

Although the Wizards are only on the edge of the playoffs, his personal performance is outstanding.

Who would have thought that Liu Mang would suddenly start to score high while playing hard!

Three consecutive 40 games! He has already scored 40 points 7 times this season, and it’s only been two months! Arenas thinks it’s good if he can get 40 points 7 times in a season.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Arenas feels that the winter in Atlanta is extremely cold...

…

Liu Mang didn't pay attention to competing for the scoring title at all. It's not like he had never won the scoring title before, he had already won it twice, and it could no longer attract his attention.

He scored high points and took a lot of shots during his playing time, just to give the substitutes an advantage to squander when they came on the court and to give young teammates a chance to make mistakes.

Only by making mistakes can you find your shortcomings and then improve them.

Liu Mang didn't know when he started to like the feeling of seeing the new players on the team improving little by little.

After playing for two months in the new season with an uncertain future, Liu Mang gradually fell in love with this feeling. If his teammates don't play well, he needs to work harder to win. He also likes this sense of struggle.

If occasionally there is a situation where a substitute can widen the score difference and he can sit back and watch, he is also happy.

2006 is over. Except for the Hawks who only played 31 games and the Lakers who only played 33 games, most teams have played 34 to 36 games.

In the East, the Cavaliers and Bulls are still fiercely competing for first place in the East.

Due to the Heat's three-game losing streak, the Hawks' third position is very secure.

The Raptors' 19-15 record ranks fourth in the Eastern Conference.

The Heat are still fifth in the Eastern Conference with 18 wins and 16 losses, but there is no gap with the Magic, which is sixth in the Eastern Conference with 17 wins and 18 losses.

Starting from sixth place in the Eastern Conference, the other teams in the Eastern Conference have a winning percentage of less than 50%.

In the Western Conference, the Mavericks are ranked first in the league, with 30 wins and 5 losses, making them the first team in the league to win 30 games.

The Lakers are second in the Western Conference with 26 wins and 7 losses.

The Spurs are close behind with 23 wins and 11 losses.

The strongest teams in the Western Conference are these three teams.

Due to the collapse of the Heat, the Hawks have temporarily lost the pressure of record. They have no problem maintaining the top four. The Hawks have no intention of competing for first and second place. They insist on fighting and ruthlessly recruit the main players. Like the Heat this season.

It is still possible for Wade to play more than 40 minutes in almost every game before his serious injury, but it will definitely have an impact on the progress of the Hawks' role players, and it will also have a huge impact on physical fitness. This season, McGrady, Ja

Players such as Terry and Kwame Brown who have played a lot of playing time in the past few years have more or less lacked physical strength in the final quarter and performed poorly.

Since there is no record pressure, Liu Mang doesn't pay much attention to unimportant opponents.

In the next 10 days and 6 games in early January, the opponents were relatively weak. They were not as scary as the five consecutive visits to the Suns, Mavericks, Lakers, Heat, and Nets. If the Nets hadn't completely collapsed and the Heat were affected by injuries,

With the strength of the two teams last season...it's really disappointing.

There are still four months and a total of 51 games. The Eagles' schedule immediately switches from the easiest in the league to the toughest in the league.

There are 17 games in January, 12 games in February, 16 games in March, and April suddenly becomes the easiest, with only 6 games in 15 days.

The six games in 10 days starting from January 1st can be regarded as relatively easy opponents for the Eagles to get used to the difficult schedule.

Wizards, Grizzlies, Rockets, Timberwolves, Celtics, Bucks.

With such an opponent, Liu Mang focused on bargaining with the Heat.

Liu Mang is not in a hurry. When playing games, he works hard to score points, grab rebounds, and help the team win. In his free time, he spends his free time with his boss, Coach Kruger, and negotiates with Pat Riley.

Although Wade's surgery was successful, the minimally invasive surgery on his knee was bound to have a considerable impact on Wade's explosive power, and Pat Riley became the more anxious one.

…

…

"Uncle, come and see, the voting results of the first phase are out!"

At nine o'clock in the morning, Liu Mang had just finished running, practiced a set of shooting, came back, took a shower, and was about to go back to sleep, when he was pulled to her room by the little Lolita.

On the computer screen are the first-stage voting results of the 2007 All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas.

The new All-Star Games will not be held at the home stadium of any team, but will be held in Las Vegas, a green desert.

Liu Mang was pulled to the computer, and the first thing he saw was the Eastern Conference All-Star voting.

Kevin Garnett ranks first in the Eastern Conference with 1.16 million votes.

This is expected. Garnett's popularity is already high, just like in the original time and space when he arrived with the Celtics in 2008 and immediately became the vote king. When he arrived in the big city of Chicago, he had such a good regular season record.
To be continued...