unfinished glory

Chapter 149 Lively Summer ([-])

The smoke of the Finals has cleared, but it does not mean that the NBA is peaceful.

One battle ended, and another quietly began.

The draft and trade are the two most important ways in every NBA team's team building plan.

A good draft can determine the rise and fall of the team in the next few years or even ten years. For example, the Spurs selected Duncan in 1997 and the Cavaliers selected James in 2003.

A bad deal can turn a team from prosperity to decline. For example, the Magic gave up O'Neal in 1996, and the Pistons let go of Ben last season.

This year is called the draft year, and many outstanding players choose to join the NBA this year.

Greg Oden is regarded as the best candidate for the No. [-] pick. His draft momentum has surpassed that of James. People praised him as the next O'Neal or Bill Russell.

This also led to the fact that the Blazers' No. [-] pick was coveted by every team before the draft.

The names associated with Oden include Garnett, Nowitzki, Pierce and other long-established All-Stars, including Duncan.

The Spurs' tentative inquiry was once widely circulated.A lot of gossip said that the Spurs were willing to exchange Duncan for the Blazers' No. [-] pick to set off Oden's potential, which made many people believe it.

In fact, the Spurs do have the idea of ​​​​trading, but the protagonist is not Duncan, but Li Chongxiao.What Popovich did in the finals caused the rift between Li Chongxiao and the Spurs to widen.

Although Duncan's FMVP intentionally gave up the relationship between the two, the Spurs still cannot guarantee that next summer, if Li Chongxiao chooses to become a free agent, the team will be able to keep him.

Therefore, in order to maximize the benefits, the Spurs are actively seeking a deal to send Li Chongxiao.

Li Chongxiao has reservations about which team to go to, and does not oppose the transaction, but he will not promise to stay with the team next summer.

This attitude made many teams retreat. Instead of overdrawing the present or the future, it is better to wait another year, and maybe they can pick Li Chongxiao home for nothing.

In order to marry a beautiful wife, spending all the family property and paying a high amount of bride price, there is a high probability that she will not be able to keep her in the future.

The Blazers are naturally very interested in Li Chongxiao, but they are also afraid that chickens will fly in the face, and they will naturally not agree to Li Chongxiao's contract renewal commitment.

Similarly, there are teams such as the Timberwolves and Raptors. They also have bargaining chips that the Spurs like, but they are not willing to trade their leading stars for an uncertain future.

For other teams like the Bucks, the Spurs are not interested. Popovich naturally looks down on a player like Reed who likes singles.

If he allowed the team to exist like this, then his relationship with Li Chongxiao wouldn't be so deadlocked.

……

On June 2007, 6, the draft.

Oden undoubtedly became the No. [-] pick.

After winning Oden, the Blazers directly sent away the inside core Zach Randolph, who averaged 23.6 points and 10 rebounds per game last season, just to make room for the No. [-] pick.

The Sonics got the second pick. They selected Kevin Durant from the University of Texas. This player has a height of [-] meters. The original template was Garnett.But he is good at scoring and is used to the small forward position, and he is expected to be the next McGrady or Li Chongxiao.

Ray Allen and the 35th pick of the Supersonics were sent to the Celtics together with Glen Davis. Durant had just entered the league and had to take on the heavy responsibility of the core of the team.

The third pick belongs to the Eagles, and they selected Al Horford, which is a fairly standard choice.

Then the Grizzlies drafted Mike Conley, a point guard.

The Celtics drafted Jeff Green, who was sent to the Sonics in the Ray Allen trade.

The sixth pick is the Bucks. The team management has seen the benefits brought to the team by the Rockets, Spurs and even the Nets. They are a little bit excited and are ready to choose Yi Jianlian.

However, the head of the Bucks, Redd, has just been "humiliated" in the trade discussion. The Spurs would rather have Li Chongxiao, who can only be used for one year, than a star player who leads the team to the playoffs alone.

When he thought of Li Chongxiao from Huaxia, he became angry and naturally strongly opposed the team's choice of Yi Jianlian.The Bucks are just to make a little money, not to choose the future core.It's not easy for the small ball market to have a star player, so naturally they dare not go against Reid's wishes.

The Bucks also generously told Bogut that they did not choose the Chinese because they wanted to take care of your face.

Their final choice was Julian Wright.

And Yi Jianlian was not selected by the Kings until the 10th overall pick.

Leaving aside the huge market of China, Yi Jianlian's strength and potential shown in training are also favored by many teams.After he failed in the CBA finals in March, he has been preparing for the draft and came to the United States early.

After Yao Ming was eliminated, he even invited Yi Jianlian to Houston to help him formulate a series of training and trial plans.

In June, I was supposed to go to San Antonio to watch Li Chongxiao's finals, but it was delayed due to training.

This series of efforts finally saw results, and he became the second Chinese player to be selected by the lottery.

In addition to Yi Jianlian, another Chinese player, Sun Yue, was selected by the Lakers at No. 40.

For Huaxia fans, this is good news worth celebrating.In next year's Olympics, the national team will even have the ability to organize an All-NBA lineup.

……

The draft is over and the trade is in full swing.

The first thing that broke out was the possible deal between the Spurs and the Rockets. Some sources revealed that the two teams had frequent contacts to discuss the exchange of All-Star players.

Li Chongxiao and McGrady were the first to get involved, and this deal was the easiest to reach.

On the one hand, when McGrady satirized Li Chongxiao to win the FMVP by holding his thighs, he said that if Duncan was by his side, he could do it too.Switching to the Spurs just happened to let him get his wish.

And when Li Chongxiao came to his good friend Yao Ming, he also had a positive attitude towards renewing his contract.

But the biggest difference in this deal lies in the salaries of the two. Li Chong's contract has two years left of 1400 million yuan, while McGrady's salary is 3 million yuan for three years. There is a huge gap between them.

The Spurs are finally able to balance, but the remaining salary space will be stretched.

It took a lot of effort to persuade the boss Holt to agree to the luxury tax space of 500 million US dollars, which made Popovich a little regretful. If he knew it was so hard, why he didn't meet Li Chongxiao's maximum salary requirement at that time.

After tossing for so long, Li Chongxiao's request is no longer just salary or even team status, but the freedom that the Spurs cannot give.

Just when the negotiations between the two teams were about to succeed, the Rockets suddenly suspended the deal, because the Rockets' owner Alexander was a fan of Tracy McGrady, and he started to talk about his feelings after making money in investment over the years.

On the one hand, he is really reluctant to let McGrady go to another team. On the other hand, he accepted the suggestion of the team's assistant general manager Morey, not to let the team become a Chinese team, which will affect his investment. circle of support.

So he ordered Dawson, the general manager of the Rockets, to stop the deal, and he replaced the general manager of the team shortly thereafter, letting Morey take over.

(End of this chapter)