The referee smashes the Pacers championship dream, the Pacers make an urgent deal, or completely miss Yang Hansen

Time is coming in mid-to-late June, and the NBA Finals are in progress. In this year's Finals, the Thunder have a clear upper hand in the competition between the Thunder and the Pacers. In terms of strength, the Thunder team is obviously one level higher. However, the Pacers were still very tenacious in their fight, and they once took the lead 2:1 at the time. Moreover, in the third game, the Pacers once had a very good lead, but were ruined by the referee. The referee team led by Foster clearly favored the Thunder, which made the Pacers fail.

Return to the Thunder home court in Game 4, the Pacers were unable to compete with the Thunder, and the Thunder won Tianwang Mountain and currently leads with a big score of 3:2. The balance of victory in the finals has come to the Thunder. Now, there are two games left in the finals, and the Pacers need to win all of them to win the championship. This is so difficult that you can imagine. More importantly, Halliburton, the Pacers star, had a very unclear injury. According to ESPN famous reporter Shams, Pacers star Haliburton suffered a right calf strain during the game and will undergo an MRI test to determine the severity of the strain.

All signs show that the Pacers' dream of winning this year is probably broken ahead of schedule. It is really annoying to be able to dominate the direction of a round of finals. The Pacers seem to have a premonition that they may find it difficult to win the championship this year, and they are also preparing for the future next season. On June 18, the Pacers completed a deal. According to famous reporter Shams, the Pacers traded the signing rights of the No. 23 draw and Mojave King to the Pelicans and exchanged for their first round of 26 years.

Pelicans currently have the No. 7 and No. 23 picks for this year's draft. Mojave King was the No. 47 pick in 2023. After being selected by the Lakers, his signing rights were traded to the Pacers, but he did not play in the Pacers. As for why the Pacers made such a deal, in my opinion, there are two possibilities. The first is that the Pacers prepare for future transactions. After this transaction, the Pacers unlocked more tradable draft picks. Originally, they could only move at most 2, but now they can move 4. The second is that the Pacers boss prepares for a contract renewal of Turner. If the Pacers use their first-round draft picks this year and sign a rookie, they will occupy $5 million in salary space and renew Turner, and the team may have to pay taxes, which is something the Pacers boss doesn't want to see. Delaying this first-round pick for one year, giving priority to renewing Turner this year, while avoiding paying luxury taxes, is the best result for the Pacers boss. The Pacers are fully prepared for the offseason after the end of the season.

It is worth mentioning that the Pacers' deal indicates that Chinese player Yang Yang Hansen may not be able to join the Pacers. Today, European basketball and NBA draft expert Wang Jian updated social media and wrote: "The Pacers traded the first round 23 draw to the Pelicans. The Pelicans currently hold the first round 7 and 23 draws. There may be further trades. Yang Hansen just went to the Pacers for a trial training not long ago. Although the Pacers currently have a 54th pick in the second round, I think the discussion on the possibility of Xiao Yang going to the Pacers can basically stop."

Yang Hansen previously participated in the Pacers' trial training. It is reported that the Pacers may also use the No. 23 draw to choose Yang Hansen. However, if the Pacers traded this draft pick now, the center position will continue to focus on Turner. From any perspective, if the Pacers ended their Finals in this way this year, it would be quite sad for their fans. I hope the walkers can continue the miracle!