In January 2017, Harden's deal dropped a bombshell on the originally dull NBA market.

Because the Warriors were ahead of the pack, Li Liang decided to stay with the Kings for at least three years, which caused other teams to lose their desire to compete for the championship in the near future, so the entire market entered a dormant state.

All teams are doing some small repairs and small repairs, and there are basically no big moves.

For example, the mid-season trading core players in 2005, 2004, and 2008 have led to the trade of championship-level teams in one fell swoop. It has not happened in the past two years.

After all, the appearance of Li Liang has made the entire NBA free market environment worse and worse.

Unexpectedly, on an ordinary January afternoon, the deal between the Rockets and the Celtics shocked everyone.

The Rockets have indeed had many difficulties this season, holding two major stars inside and outside, but in the end they can only hover on the edge of the playoffs in the West.

The investment in Howard proved to be a failure, and Warcraft is no longer the same Warcraft as before.

The overall environment in the West is so harsh that it is impossible to add up. The Rockets see almost no hope in terms of salary structure, draft picks, market environment and other aspects.

In the summer, the Rockets signed an Anderson for 20 million yuan. The moment the contract was signed, a garbage contract was born.

Influenced by Li Liang, the Rockets wanted to renew Harden's contract in advance last year, but Harden refused.

Then, Harden watched Thunder's elder brother and second brother reach the peak of his life and win the championship.

It is impossible to say that it is not exciting to him. No one can win the championship by one person or one city.

All summer, Harden was stimulated by his two brothers, and they were still thinking about letting Harden go back to the Thunder.

But Thunder did not have the capital to exchange Harden for it.

Besides, Harden can't go back to the Thunder to be the third brother, he has the strength to win the regular season VP.

Seeing that the Rockets had no future and hope, the team lost consecutive games in December.

The relationship between Harden and Howard is getting worse and worse.

The Rockets' uniforms have been seeking to trade Howard out.

After all, Harden is the future of the team.

As a result, no team in Howard was willing to take over.

One reason is that the contract is too big, and the other is that Howard is an expiring contract. If he spends a lot of money to trade and leaves for a season, wouldn’t everything be wasted?

Therefore, Howard's contract was not accepted at all, and the Rockets could only watch it rot in their hands.

Now Harden quits his business. He has never had any temper and applied for a deal to the team in January.

Once an honest person loses his temper, he will be stubborn and even a few cows can't pull him back.

For Harden, he actually doesn't want to run around, he is not Li Liang.

At the beginning of the Thunder, he said that he could accept the status of a substitute.

He was sent away by Presti.

When he arrived at the Rockets, he quickly brought the team out of the quagmire.

Moreover, Houston strip club is well-known throughout the United States, and it feels very suitable for playing here.

But times have changed. How could a player have no ambitions? How could he think of always being in the same place and sinking on the edge of the playoffs?

Li Liang played a good demonstration role for everyone in the alliance.

If a tree moves to die, a person moves to live, and has the strength, where can I not play basketball?

Once Harden applies for a transaction, there is no room for recovery.

And the day after Harden proposed the deal, the Rockets and the Celtics reached an agreement.

This also shows that the Rockets have already had a plan to trade Harden, but they just don't want to implement it.

Once it has to be executed, it will work very quickly.

Business is business, sometimes it’s so ruthless.

So Harden was sent from Texas to Massachusetts to Boston, the basketball holy city.

For the Celtics, getting Harden means that their reconstruction has taken the final and most critical step.

After sending away the Big Three, the Celtics stood up again in just a few years.

This season, the Celtics can be said to be "no tigers and monkeys in the mountains" in the east.

After James left, the stars in the East were dim. The Celtics actually rushed to the top position in the East when the lineup was not favored by others.

Thomas, who is 175, almost played at the VP level, averaging 28 points per game, and led the Celtics to the top in the Eastern Conference.

But Danny Angie was obviously not satisfied with this temporary soaring sky.

Once he has the chance to get a real superstar, he will not hesitate.

Unfortunately, the Rockets are not fools. They don’t want Thomas Jr. in the trade, even if he averages 28 points per game.

The height of 175 is indeed a flaw.

Without the defense of the Celtics, Thomas Jr. would have difficulty playing like this year.

The Celtics lost defensive players like Bradley and new stars like Ingram, but for Harden, these are worth it.

This shocking league deal affected not only the Rockets and Celtics, but also balanced the situation in the entire East and West.

Therefore, some media and reporters said that behind this transaction, there is a possible promotion from the alliance.

After all, the East is really dim now, and it feels like it can't be watched this year's All-Star Competition.

There are no heavyweight stars in the entire East who can make a comeback, they are all ordinary All-Stars.

And what about the West? Durant, James, Li Liang, Curry, the four heavyweights are all gathered in the West.

The remaining stars such as Davis, Harden, Howard, and Paul who have both strength and popularity are also in the West.

There are only Irving, Paul George, DeRozan in the East, and at most Anthony is the one in the All-Star Game. How do you think about this All-Star Game?

Stars are second, and more importantly, the team's strength is too imbalanced.

Just like in the first few years of the 21st century, the Western Conference championship is equivalent to the championship, and the finals are just a formality.

The situation of strong west and weak east has always had a negative impact on the alliance, and the calls for canceling part of the east and west areas have never stopped.

The reason why we first went to the east and west areas was because the eastern and western regions of the United States were too large and the transportation was underdeveloped in the early years, so it was not easy to play basketball from the east coast from the west coast.

Therefore, not only the east-west division, but also the more detailed division of competition areas.

A major reform of the regular season ranking this year is to cancel the rankings of the divisions within the east and west, and directly rank by the record.

Because the transportation is too developed now, the United States is another country that takes planes everywhere.

At the same time, some competition areas have long been meaningless due to changes in team addresses.

For example, the Thunder are in the Northwest Division because his predecessor was the Seattle Supersonics, which is in the northwest part of the United States.

It is almost equivalent to the location of Kashgar, China.

After moving to Russia, Oklahoma was in the central region of the United States, almost equivalent to Wuhan, China.

Is it appropriate for you to divide Wuhan and Kashgar into one district?

Due to multiple reasons, there have been particularly loud calls for the cancellation of the eastern and western regions this year.

Of course, it is very difficult to break the traditions of the East and West.

Since the partitions between the east and west cannot be broken for the time being, why not do some small moves to balance the east and west?

This is not the first time the alliance has done this.

To ensure the balanced development of the entire league through open rules and secret small actions can be regarded as a way of checks and balances.

As Stern's disciple, Xiao Hua should be well aware of this.

So, after 2007, the Celtics rose again through a deal.

However, it is probably too early for them to win the championship for the Eastern Conference team this year.
Chapter completed!