No.1 in basketball scoring-Chapter 147: Mid-term trading will inevitably involve growing pains, but the road ahead is wider!

Chapter 147: Mid-term trading will inevitably involve growing pains, but the road ahead is wider!

While Zhang Yang was making a buzz with his signature AJ deal, the Hornets quietly completed a trade.

The Hornets sent Brevin Knight and the expiring minimum contract of the undersized power forward Lonny Baxter to the Celtics in exchange for the high school center Kendrick Perkins, the No. 27 pick in the ’03 draft, and point guard Dan Dickau.

After completing this trade, the Celtics seemed to hit the start button, as trades just kept coming.

They immediately followed up with a trade with the Timberwolves, sending out Ricky Davis, center Mark Blount, and guard Marcus Banks, to get back Wally Szczerbiak and the famous top draft pick Michael Olowokandi.

Two consecutive trades by the Celtics sparked a trading frenzy mid-season.

The Kings and Pacers stopped tugging at each other, both worried that the other might deal with a different team, and exchanged their theoretical best players, Peja for Artest...

...

Several major mid-season trades stole some of the spotlight from Zhang Yang’s signing.

Zhang Yang figured that Tellem and AJ were probably not very pleased.

But over here... Chandler Parsons?

Zhang Yang had long guessed that Brevin Knight would be traded away, the coaching staff had already made it clear to Felton, and hinted at him.

Lately, Brevin Knight’s assists were flying high, and Zhang Yang guessed that the coaching staff wasn’t just trying to make Brevin Knight’s stats look good for a better trade value—trading parties aren’t that silly. The intent was to showcase Brevin Knight’s abilities to his potential future team.

Brevin knew well that he would eventually be traded away or let go.

Having played for just over a month in the new season, Felton, though ranked lowest among the ’05 trio of point guards, less talented than Deron and less battle-ready than Paul, had already proven to be as effective as Brevin Knight on the court, and it was only a matter of time before he took over the starting position.

Instead of waiting to be sidelined, Brevin would rather give it his all upon being notified of the trade, striving for a higher appraisal and a better deal with his new team.

Zhang Yang was very happy with the trade; first of all, he was happy for ’Fat Boss’ Tellem’s delight.

As for himself, not only was he not sentimental about Brevin Knight’s departure, but he was also excited about the greater opportunities it brought him!

Without Brevin Knight feeding him the ball, his fast-break assist scores were bound to significantly decrease. In set plays, Felton’s vision wasn’t as good as Brevin Knight’s, and this would probably affect him too.

However, this meant that he would be in charge of leading the fast breaks!

In set plays, he might also get some opportunities to initiate offense.

There would inevitably be growing pains, but the path ahead was wider!

Another reason to be happy was that they got a ’meat shield’ center in return!

Zhang Yang had complained to Okafor at the beginning of the month that ’to contain Howard, Perkins was enough’, and he hadn’t expected that they would actually bring Perkins in!

Since the Celtics’ Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Nets in ’02, they had started hoarding inside players.

At that time, with the Nets looking like they would dominate the East for years, especially with Kidd in the backcourt who was nearly unbeatable, the only way to win against the Nets was to beef up the frontcourt.

So their first move was to trade for Vin Baker... and then the GM was replaced by Danny Ainge.

Ainge then drafted high schoolers Perkins and Al Jefferson, acquired Riff LaVrentz and Chris Mihm through trades, plus Mark Blount, Brian Scalabrine, and Gugliotta... in the last two to three years, the Celtics’ frontcourt was overflowing.

With an excess of big men and a shortage of perimeter players, they brought in Ricky Davis...

Actually, if they were to trade for a high school center, Zhang Yang would have preferred Al Jefferson, but Ainge surely wouldn’t let him go. Last season, as a rookie, Al Jefferson was already better than the third-year Perkins, having shown his potential, just needing a longer time to develop as a high school player. If the Hornets wanted Big Al, they probably would have had to trade away ’Fat Boss’ Tellem.

Having faced the Celtics twice on the court, Zhang Yang had encountered Perkins—average defense, just tall enough to hop around in the paint, jostling for rebounds, averaging 5 points, 5 rebounds, 1.6 blocks, and 3.3 fouls per game. Each block came at the cost of two fouls, with no finesse to speak of.

The 21-year-old Perkins was a far cry from the future first-rate defensive specialist and premiere low-post defender.

However, for Gerald Wallace, Perkins was probably adequate. Though his defense was rough, Perkins was aggressive and brave, and indeed could hold his own against Howard. It felt as if he was born to counter Howard.

They also got a point guard throw-in: Dan Dickau. Zhang Yang had no impression of him as he had not faced anyone named Dickau when playing against the Celtics.

He had to look online to find out that Dickau was drafted the same year as Yao Ming, at No. 28, and had performed poorly in his first two seasons. But after being traded to the tanking Hornets the previous season, he went from water cooler supervisor to starting point guard, averaging 13 points and 5 assists. After the Hornets drafted Paul, they put Dickau on the trading block, and the Celtics, in need of a quality point guard, traded for him.

However, before the new season even started, Dickau suffered a serious injury.

With Brevin Knight’s trade value higher than Perkins, averaging 10.6 points and 9.8 assists and ranking second in the league, Zhang Yang figured that the management didn’t want to experience a loss, which is why they acquired Dickau. If he could still play well after recovering, he could back up Felton; if not, his expiring rookie contract could be let go of without major consequence, just a small loss in the owner’s bank balance.

That night, Zhang Yang and Felton celebrated with some soda, as the tanking squad disbanded, and their rookie group’s team status +1!

The next morning, Zhang Yang joined his team at the Lakers’ practice facility, the Toyota Center, to prepare for the evening’s game.

They hadn’t been training long when assistant coach Bickerstaff arrived with Perkins in tow.

Traded to the Hornets the previous afternoon and eager to escape the Celtics’ crowded frontcourt, Perkins had taken a red-eye flight to Los Angeles to join the team.

With a new teammate arriving, Felton and Gerald Wallace both stepped forward to welcome him, both with a demeanor suggesting, ’You’re the new guy, I’ve got your back.’

This left Perkins a bit confused... which mountain should he bow to? Who was really in charge?

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