For many Chinese fans, 2002 can be said to be a first-year existence - because of Yao Ming.
Since the Arrival of the Eastern Giants in the League, it has brought not only an increase in competitiveness to the team, but also the addition of the legendary Buff that has emerged - whether it is for teammates or the whole team, the story of that period is still loved by the fan community. We know a few - Francis pushed Xiaosi for Yao Ming, Maddy reversed the Spurs in 35.13 seconds, and Yao Mai teamed up to lead the team to win 22 consecutive games... Nothing more.
In Yao Ming's eight-year rocket career, the most profound thing is his teammate Maddy, perhaps the miracle of 35 seconds and 13 minutes, the left hand layup to kill the Lakers and a series of good dramas are amazing, but behind the entropy value should be rationally viewed - Maddy after joining the Rockets has long been without peak level, first of all, after the 2004-05 season came to the Rockets, due to back injuries, the rocket version of Maddy's physical function is actually only 70% or 80% of the Magic Wheat. However, the diversification of technology developed and polished, and the improvement of his passing ability, so that he did not have a significant decline, but transformed from a scoring king to an organizational striker.
At the same time, he is not a regular season star, while suppressing the opposite driver in the playoffs, he can also have an output of nearly 30 points per game, and there are classic dunks, soot shots... Of course, there is a question that has to be raised, the Magic period is young and still improving, the average annual salary of more than 10 million (at that time was an All-Star salary, as a reference, the Lakers peak O'Neal average is more than 20 million) Why was Maddy traded by the Magic?
The magic version of Maddy, the fastest first step in the league at the beginning of the century, the league president hill level balanced human ball combination ability, the partition master and the stuntman are both. From the development of the long two points to the polishing of nearly 40% of the crosshairs and three points, Maddy seems to enrich his arsenal every year, but is eventually traded by magic, what happened in it?
In the 2000–01 season, Maddy left his cousin Carter for the Magic's first season, hill's ankle injury may not have allowed the team to go any further, but it forced Maddy's potential, averaging 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 1.5 steals, 1.5 blocks and winning the most improved player award as the sixth-most MVP star in the 2001 playoffs, starting his own evolution. In the playoffs, Maddy directly opened the unmatched, averaging 33.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 8.2 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.2 blocks per game, at this time Maddy, who was not yet 21 years old, had already attracted the attention of the whole league.
The following 01-02 season, Maddy led the team to the playoffs again, and was selected for the best team in a row, unable to exert full strength due to back spasms in the battle against the old enemy Hornets - at the end of March, Maddy faced a breakthrough Robert Treller injury against the Hornets, when Maddy landed on his back first, executed the free throw and left the field - this was also Maddy's first back injury. In the end, the scarred fists were difficult to defeat the four hands.
Maddy's most classic and strongest season of 2002-03 averaged 32.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.8 blocks per game, winning the top score and being selected again. But it was Maddy's most helpless season, the team's best friend McMiller was traded as a chip, from the beginning of his debut he showed a good projection ability, in the 2001-02 season of the second grade Miller even averaged 15.2 points per game. Whether you open the sky or not, it is not difficult to see that Miller is both the team's future plan and the fixed star to stabilize the star of the home. Magic management didn't do that, though. As a result, in G2, which played the Pistons, even if Maddy scored 46 points, it could not stop the decline of his teammates in 11 of 42, and Maddy continued his first round of travel.
The weakness of the interior line has never been reinforced, friends and rising stars have been traded by management, the Magic held 9 draft picks (including 7 first rounds) in those four years, and the only person selected was Pachulia who averaged 10 points per game in a single season in his career except his friends... It is useless to talk about how rough and clumsy the management's vision and the corresponding operations are. Coupled with his own injuries, so after ruling out his unparalleled opener to win the game, all that remains is the well-known nineteen consecutive defeats. Maddy began to ignore the record, a large number of three-point shots and mid-range one-on-one heads-up, instead of making efficient empty cuts, even if the "broken jar broken" he can still average 28 points, 6 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game, but the team's record league's penultimate number one is unbearable for management.
So in the offseason, the Magic and rockets made a player trade of up to seven, with the Rockets getting Tracy McGrady, Juan Howard, Terren Rou and Reis-Gainess, while the Magic got Steve Francis, Mobley and Kevin Cato. Only after that did the story of "Yao Mai".