I'm a ball devil

Chapter 190 Should Westbrook be selected in the draft?
In the tiebreaker of the Eastern Conference finals, the Celtics narrowly defeated the Pistons at home and successfully entered the stage of the finals.

After forming the Big Three this season, they successfully broke away from the ranks of the underdogs and jumped to the top of the league.

The classic picture of the Lakers vs. Celtics in the finals is reproduced.

The rivalry between these two teams in NBA history could fill many books.

They are the two teams that have won the most championships in the NBA, and both have the pedigree of dynastic teams.

In this final matchup, will the Celtics win the final championship, or will the Purple Shirts win the championship trophy?

Can the newly formed Big Three lead the team to victory, or can the combination of Kobe and Gasol win?
In short, the 2008 finals were full of highlights.

When Kobe was standing in the TD Garden Arena in Boston, preparing to play the first game of the Finals, he couldn’t help but think of Ye Hao who came to hug him after the last game of the Western Conference Finals and said to him, “Kobe, you will definitely win the final game. The championship! You must win, because my desire to win the championship is also pinned on you!"

Thinking of this scene, Kobe couldn't help showing a slight smile on his serious expressionless face,
"Don't worry, kid, I have a strong desire for the championship, and I will definitely win!"

He said softly in his heart.

………………

………………

When the finals started, Ye Hao stayed in Seattle to rest for a few days.

In the past few days, he hadn't trained at all, it was as if he was giving his body a vacation.

You must know that it has been two and a half years since he traveled from the future to the present, and he has been training without any slack.

Especially since entering the NBA, from the regular season to the Western Conference finals, the season is really too long.

Almost every day is a training game training game...

He needs to relax himself, think about nothing, do nothing.

In addition to still eating according to the meals prepared by the nutritionist every day, he stays at home watching dramas, watching anime, and watching leftover movies.
Then sleep when it is time to sleep, sleep until you wake up naturally, it is only the inertia of the biological clock, you will still wake up early, then just stay in bed.

It's been a few days of incomparable comfort.

Next, he will return to China to join the national team and prepare for the Yanbei Olympics.

Another busy day.

And he has to pack his bags, quit his house on the Seattle side, and move to Oklahoma City. Next season, he will be a Thunder player.

Before returning home, he had to chat with the team's general manager Presti about the team's summer draft and trade.

Now he is the real core of the team, and the team's construction must be carried out around him.

So the team will definitely take the initiative to communicate with him on these matters.

Otherwise, the people who are selected and traded will make him unhappy, which is not good for the team.

Although Presti can decide who should be traded and drafted by himself and the team without consulting him at all, but it is better for the smart management to do less about things that offend the team boss.

Otherwise, when the contract expires in a few years, others will have reasons not to renew it.

This made both parties unhappy.

Undoubtedly, Presti is a smart general manager of the team. He told Ye Hao on the night of the Western Conference Finals that when Ye Hao has time, you are welcome to come to him to talk about the construction and building of the future team. The team really wanted to get Ye Hao's opinion.

After Ye Hao rested for a few days, he hung up on Presti and said that they could meet and chat.

After receiving Ye Hao's call, Presti drove over in person, picked up Ye Hao, and went to a reserved resort for a secret talk. The team's owner and some high-level members were already waiting there.

The team coach Carlesimo is not there.

Ye Hao guessed in his heart, does this imply that the top management of the team does not recognize Carlesimo's coaching ability?
It stands to reason that in the past season, the Sonics originally planned to give up, but unexpectedly rushed to the Western Conference Finals. Such a team leadership should allow Carlesimo to stabilize his coaching position.

But on the other hand, the original team looking for Carlesimo to lead this season was prepared to do badly. The team can achieve such results, obviously not because of Carlesimo's coaching ability, but because Ye Hao's ability to lead a team.

So it makes sense for the team to get rid of Carlesimo and find a new head coach whose tactical style and coaching level are more suitable for Ye Hao's style of play.

But these are just speculations, and it is also possible that Carlesimo was on vacation and couldn't make it to participate.

Before everyone started talking about business, they watched the live broadcast of the second game of the finals together.

In the first game, the Big Three of the Celtics showed their power and defeated the away Lakers by a narrow margin, and defended the home court.

This time they hope to make persistent efforts and continue to defend the home court.

It's just that Kobe didn't agree at first. He scored 13 points in the first quarter even after shooting with penalties, leading the Lakers to take the lead in the opening game.

After that, Garnett bullied Gasol again and again in the interior and succeeded, helping the Celtics tie the score in the second quarter.

Back in the second half, Kobe and Pau Gasol scored consecutively, and Bynum also frequently caught Perkins to play, and the Lakers gradually gained the lead.

When the two sides were fighting fiercely, a very interesting picture appeared.

Of course, it was Ye Hao who found it interesting, he even had a smile on his face.

But the fans of the Celtics felt as if the sky was about to fall.

Because Pierce, the team soul of the Celtics, fell, he fell to the ground after a layup, and hugged his thigh, looking in pain.

Celtics head coach Rivers quickly called a timeout, and then the team doctor came in to ask Pierce, and pushed him off the field in a wheelchair, seemingly seriously injured.

The live broadcast camera turned to the audience, their faces were full of worry.

If one of the Big Three is missing, then their championship dream this season will really be difficult.

Can the two giants alone defeat the strong Lakers?
Obviously it's hard.

Only Ye Hao knew exactly what happened.

He had seen Pierce recalling this incident to media reporters in the news reports of his previous life.

When he saw the report, he wanted to laugh.

Unexpectedly, now he actually saw this happen with his own eyes.
Although not at the scene, but on live TV.

Hahaha……

That's still funny.

This guy Pierce faked his injury, and he wants to go back to the locker room to get a tuba.

The reason why he had to leave in a wheelchair was because he couldn't help it on the court and sprayed shit on his shorts. There were marks on the shorts, and he needed a wheelchair to cover them up.

Sure enough, after a while, Pierce returned to the court alive and kicking from the locker room.

But even if he came back, he couldn't stop the decline of the Celtics in this game.

Kobe Bryant scored 39 points in this field, leading the Lakers to win a difficult game at the home court of the Celtics and gain home court advantage.

After watching the game, everyone started discussing the finals and gradually brought the topic to the Sonics.

The general manager of the team explained to Ye Hao the general plan of how the management intends to build the team around him in the future.

Including short-term plans, and medium and long-term plans.

The short-term plan is of course to conduct transactions, and to strengthen some positions that need to be strengthened urgently.

There is also this year's draft, which team will have a promising rookie candidate, which needs to be carefully examined.

Ye Hao listened carefully and put forward his own opinions while listening.

As for these unformed trading plans, I don't need to mention them for the time being, because these require a lot of negotiations, and it doesn't mean that they can trade with whoever they want.

First of all, there must be enough bargaining chips to impress the trading partner, and the other party also has the willingness to trade.

Otherwise it is useless.

And the negotiation process is a process of pulling each other. I want to come back with less bargaining chips, and the other party wants to get more.

All of these need to be discussed and negotiated back and forth, and it is not enough to just talk about it casually.

As for the draft, the direction is much clearer, focusing on determining the desired potential rookie candidate, predicting his draft ranking to see if it matches the draft pick held by the team, and then determining the corresponding draft plan.

If the favorite is predicted to be drafted ahead of the team's own draft pick, a trade may be required to obtain a higher draft pick.

If the favorite rookie is predicted to have more draft picks after the team's draft picks, then in order to maximize the team's interests, it is also possible to trade to obtain the estimated late picks and other benefits.

If the prediction matches the draft pick you have, of course it is the best, and you can just choose it at that time.

What is needed is vision, an accurate judgment of the player's future potential, and a prediction of the draft strategies of other teams that also want to snatch the player in the draft.

Presti is undoubtedly a general manager with great draft vision. In the 2007 NBA draft, it was he who made a big move to pick Ye Hao before the Lakers, and it was he who picked Durant.

His two draft operations are now laying a solid foundation for the rebuilding Sonics.

Ye Hao and Durant will continue to grow. Even if he can't trade good players, with Ye Hao and Durant alone, the team is expected to enter the playoffs.

In the future, even if he doesn't do much, these two draft picks will give him enough capital to show off.

Presti mentioned a potential rookie candidate he is optimistic about, that is Russell Westbrook from UCLA University.

There is no doubt that Presti's vision is vicious. In Ye Hao's previous life, Westbrook became the man in the sewer who averaged a triple-double for two consecutive seasons.

It's really awesome.

Presti also pulled out a brief draft report on Westbrook.

The report reads that Westbrook is an extremely talented combo guard with excellent wingspan, good athletic ability, and strong explosive power, which largely makes up for his lack of height.

He is good at hitting the basket and fast break, and he is also good at mid-range pull-ups, with a fast shot speed.

Also, he's a very unselfish player who always finds open teammates.

Also has the potential to be a defensive specialist with impressive timing for steals.

But the most commendable thing is that this guy has a competitive mentality, is a complete training madness, and works very hard.

Athletic ability, defense, breakthrough, selflessness, competitive mentality are all his strengths.

But he also has obvious shortcomings.

That is his outside shooting ability and free throw ability are insufficient. His free throw percentage is only a poor 55%, which is obviously not up to standard for an outside player.

In the draft report, Westbrook's draft template is considered to be Rajon Rondo.

Presti believes that Westbrook is more suitable to partner with Ye Hao in the backcourt.

It's just that the difficulty now is that the first-round picks they hold are not high.

They are all outside the top ten, and according to the draft predictions, although Westbrook's draft ranking is not in the top three or even in the top five, he is not a big favorite before the draft, not as good as Rose, Beasley and OJ-Mayo, but he is also It is unlikely to fall below the top ten.

This year, the Sonics have quite a lot of picks, although one of their own first-round picks has been used as the main body of the transaction, and Ye Hao was traded from the Bobcats.

But they later traded two first-round picks from the Cavaliers and the Magic, plus a late pick they already had in their hands (not the one traded to the Bobcats), then They have three first-round picks this year.

In addition, they also hold 4 second-round picks in their hands, all of which are dispensable additions that come with the transaction.

So they really have a lot of draft picks, but none of the top picks.

Let me mention here by the way that the Bobcats originally agreed to trade Ye Hao because they took a fancy to the first-round pick of the Supersonics. According to their predictions, the Supersonics will definitely have the bottom record in the league this season.

If that happens, the first-round pick the Bobcats got from the Sonics would be worth a fortune.

That might be the top five, maybe even the No. [-] pick.

2008 is also recognized as the year of the draft, and there are many potential players who are promising to participate in the draft.

Like Rose, Beasley, and OJ-Mayo in the rankings of major draft predictions, no matter how they are ranked, Rose, Beasley, and OJ-Mayo will be among the top three.

That's why the Bobcats are willing to trade with the Sonics.

However, unexpectedly, this deal not only made them lose Ye Hao, who may be the strongest rookie in NBA history, but it was also Ye Hao who led the Sonics to the playoffs, and what they hoped for was The top five picks turned into the somewhat tasteless No.14 pick.

This is more or less the sad meaning of lifting a rock and shooting yourself in the foot.

At this moment, Jordan is probably so depressed that he wants to cry.

There should be an emoji of Jordan crying bitterly here.

Getting back to the topic, Presti believes that the team now has 7 draft picks, large and small, and they can take a few out for bundling and packaging, make upward trades, and get the top draft picks, so as to ensure that they can be drafted smoothly. to Westbrook.

This is a draft plan that he has considered very carefully.

He said it just to see what Ye Hao thinks of Westbrook and whether he is suitable to be his partner.

Ye Hao leaned back on the chair, flipped through the materials Presti had prepared for him, and watched the video clips of Westbrook's college games being shown on the TV.

After thinking for a while, he expressed his thoughts.

(End of this chapter)