NBA: Top 3D talents to start

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However, the Timberwolves have two more important problems.

First, Anthony Towns has been selected to the best team in the past three years and has also been selected to the All-Star team, which does not meet the system's mission requirements. If Wang Feng wants to go to the Timberwolves, then Towns must be sent to the Lakers as a bargaining chip only then.

Second, the Timberwolves are a Western team. As we all know, the Western Conference is much more competitive than the Eastern Conference. Not to mention anything else, there are several teams equipped with the Big Three, including the Big Three Warriors, the Big Three Clippers, and the Pelicans. Pelicans Big Three and so on.

On the other hand, in the East, the Nets, Bucks, and 76ers are also strong, but they all have some weaknesses. The Nets have Irving as a time bomb, and the Bucks have only Antetokounmpo. The pairing of Harden and Embiid, at least until Wang Feng travels through another time and space, still does not see any particularly great hope.

"The Timberwolves and the Cavaliers..."

Wang Feng was also a little tangled for a while.

……

Time soon came to June 6, when the NBA free market opened.

The 21-year free market is somewhat dull.

The performance of each team is stable, and there is no news that any particularly big-name stars will change their teams. The contracts expired are only some not very well-known players.

Originally, many media believed that there would be no particularly big news this summer, and the only suspense might be how the Clippers sold the all-star player Russell Westbrook who fell in their hands.

The dignified regular season MVP, the historical triple-double king, has now become a negative asset. If you want to give it away, you will not get any benefits, and even the Clippers have to subsidize the draft picks so that the team is willing to accept it. There is really no one. up.

But this can't be helped, Westbrook's salary is as high as 4100 million US dollars, and next season will be a terrifying 4400 million. Any team that wants to receive it has to weigh it, and it is not so easy to sell.

No one expected that after Gujing Wubo's free market opened, a piece of news that shocked the entire league suddenly swept across the entire network.

According to an unknown source from the Lakers team, the contract renewal process between the Lakers team and Wang Feng is not smooth. It seems that Wang Feng does not want to stay in the Lakers team, but wants to leave the team. Challenging too.

It may be that this unknown person himself felt that Wang Feng's excuse was too clumsy, so he had to use words like this to describe it.

But even so, the fans who heard the news still felt that it was too fake. What kind of joke is this?
Originally thought that this was just fake news. It is not uncommon for some fake news to break out during the offseason in the league, but soon some people began to realize that something was wrong.

Things seem to be really wrong!
After the news broke out, neither the Lakers nor Wang Feng's management team came out to refute the rumors immediately, but kept silent. Moreover, most of the players whose contracts expired in the past few days have already completed their contract extensions with the team one after another. But there is no news about Wang Feng's contract renewal.

What the hell is this?Is Wang Feng really not going to renew his contract with the Lakers?Is it true that there was some conflict between Wang Feng and the Lakers during the contract renewal process?
Wang Feng's fans were a little better, they followed their stars wherever they went, and the Lakers were just because they were more prosperous in Los Angeles, but the die-hard fans of the Lakers were different, they immediately became anxious.

After waiting for so long, the Lakers finally ushered in a phenomenal superstar who has the same dominance as Jordan or even better. Having already won three consecutive championships, they are happily preparing for the team's next second. With the arrival of the three consecutive championships, they are now suddenly told that Wang Feng is leaving the team?Who is not in a hurry to change?
Although with the strength of the current lineup of the Lakers, even if Wang Feng leaves the team, only Butler, Ingram, Kuzma and other players are still a very competitive team in the Western Conference. To win the championship again is a bit of a dream.

What these fans don't know is that in the past few days, the Lakers management has contacted many teams and asked about the offer to trade Wang Feng, including Timberwolves and Cavaliers, two of Wang Feng's favorites. team.

When they learned that there was a chance to get Wang Feng, these teams couldn't believe it, as if a pizza fell from the sky and hit their faces directly.

Without the slightest hesitation, all the teams offered the highest matching offers without hesitation.

However, in the eyes of the general manager of the Lakers, Magic Johnson, these offers are not satisfactory.

No way, they want to trade to leave the team, but the No. 1 with the strongest strength in the league today, this is like trading James in 12, and trading Curry in 16. It is even more exaggerated.

If possible, he would wish to completely evacuate the opponent's entire team before he would trade Wang Feng.

But he didn't have a choice. Wang Feng only had a few teams of interest. If it wasn't the team he wanted to go to, Wang Feng would not agree to sign first and then trade.

Wang Feng, whose contract has expired, has fully fulfilled his obligation to play for the Lakers and is a complete free agent. He can even sign with the team he intends to use as a free agent.

Therefore, in this transaction, Wang Feng is the only one who holds the initiative, and everything is up to him.

In fact, Wang Feng has thought about joining the Cavaliers directly as a free agent.

The current Cavaliers fully meet the system's mission conditions. There is no All-Star and best-team player in the team, and there are young players with full potential such as Garland, Sexton, and Mobley.

After joining the Cavaliers as a free agent, these potential players can be used as bargaining chips or directly as targets for training and development, which will help Wang Feng achieve his mission goals.

But after thinking about it, Wang Feng felt that it was still not very good.

He has been very happy with the Lakers for the past four years. Although the management of the Lakers has continued to fight openly and secretly, they have always given enough respect to Wang Feng, the core of the team, and basically met all of Wang Feng's requirements. I spared no effort to vigorously promote Wang Feng.

Although this is what the Lakers should do, the rise of Wang Feng must be of great benefit to the Lakers. More than half of the advertisements on the court have been won by Huaguo manufacturers at high prices. They came one after another, and Wang Feng's requests were all from the perspective of winning for the team, such as protecting Butler, requesting the selection of Jordan Poole, etc., and the Lakers finally got the benefits.

But many things cannot be directly measured by stakes. Wang Feng is still very grateful to the Lakers for their support, so he made the decision to leave some wealth for the Lakers.

Back then, James decided to sign first and then trade. The Cavaliers got two first-round and two second-round picks from the Heat, and also got a $1450 million trade exception and a first-round swap.

Although these five draft picks did not bring much benefit to the Cavaliers, at least they got something.

When James then returned to the Cavaliers from the Heat, and when he went from the Cavaliers to the Clippers, he joined as a free agent. Neither the Heat nor the Cavaliers got any benefits, but this is understandable.

James brought two championship trophies to the Heat and the first championship in team history to the Cavaliers.

From this point of view, it is completely understandable why Oklahoma City Thunder fans hate Durant so much.

When Durant left the Thunder to join the Warriors, he joined directly as a free agent, leaving nothing for the Thunder, like a ruthless scumbag.

Wang Feng brought three championships to the Lakers. It is reasonable to leave directly. Even powerful players like Butler in the team are his wealth left behind. As long as the current lineup can be maintained, the next few It will still be one of the powerhouses in the West within the year.

In the end, he chose the way of signing first and then changing, leaving more wealth for the Lakers, even if he thanked the Lakers for their support, help and tolerance over the past four years.

……

As time went by, the news that Wang Feng was leaving the team began to intensify, and even various weird versions began to be rumored.

Some people speculated that there must have been an irreconcilable conflict between Wang Feng and the Lakers. Perhaps other Lakers players were dissatisfied with Wang Feng's possession of a large number of possessions and collectively protested.

Some people also speculate that when Wang Feng renewed his contract with the Lakers, the lion opened his mouth and asked for the right to veto transactions and even the right to decide the team lineup, which led to the breakdown of negotiations between the two parties.

Looking at these news, not to mention Wang Feng, even everyone in the management of the Lakers found it very funny.

If the problem is really like what these people said, it will be easy to handle. The Lakers have long promised important powers such as the right to veto trades, and no one among the Lakers players is dissatisfied with Wang Feng.

The team’s second leader Jimmy Butler’s maximum salary contract was forced by Wang Feng to apply to leave the team as a threat to force the Lakers to sign. The third role, Ingram, was almost traded by the Lakers to leave the team in exchange for a top star. It was also at Wang Feng’s request. Those who stayed, including Lopez, Kuzma, Jordan Poole and others, were able to get the chance to play because Wang Feng's suggestion to the head coach was adopted.

All the currently worthwhile players in the Lakers team have been favored by Wang Feng. It's too late to be grateful. Who would be dissatisfied with Wang Feng?
This is the most uncomfortable point. Everyone doesn't believe that Wang Feng is really idle. He feels that winning in the Lakers is too easy, and he chooses to leave the team because he wants to add some challenges to himself. is the real reason.

At the same time as the rumors spread all over the city, the Lakers' trade negotiations have also reached a deadlock.

After some screening and deliberation, Johnson finally decided on Wang Feng's two favorite teams, Timberwolves and Cavaliers, because the bargaining chips that these two teams can give him are the most exciting.

The Cavaliers directly attack without reservation, and are willing to send Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, plus three first-round picks in 2023, 2025, and 2027.

Darius Garland is the fifth overall pick in 19. He serves as a guard. He played very well in the regular season this season, averaging 17.4 points and 6.1 assists per game. He has excellent physical fitness and great potential. He is very promising in the future. All-star guard.

And Colin Sexton is also a guard. He was the eighth pick in 18. This season he averaged 24.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, and this is the second consecutive season that he averaged 20+ points per game in the regular season.

Although Garland and Sexton's positions overlap slightly, both of them are combo guards. They also started the game at the same time for the Cavaliers this season, and the cooperation is quite good.

Moreover, in addition to two cutting-edge players with All-Star potential, the Cavaliers also gave a full three first-round picks, which can be described as full of sincerity.

In contrast, the chips on the Timberwolves' side made Johnson a little upset.

Timberwolves are willing to send 14-year No. [-] pick Andrew Wiggins, Malik Beasley, plus two future first-round picks.

Compared with the two rookie players of the Cavaliers, although Wiggins is the No. 26 pick, he is already 20 years old. Although he can contribute [-]+ points per game in his career, he can see the upper limit at a glance.

As for Beasley, as a player with the 16th pick in 19, he didn't make much of his worth in the Nuggets for four years. Instead, after being traded to the Timberwolves in the 19-20 season, he briefly performed brilliantly, so he was left behind. This season, he averaged 16 points and 5 rebounds per game, and his performance is remarkable.

Johnson knows very well why the Timberwolves are only willing to make such a bargaining chip when facing the league's No.1 Wang Feng.

If it is certain that Wang Feng can be kept, the Timberwolves will definitely not be ambiguous. Whether it is Downs or Edwards, they can take it if they want, there is no problem.

However, although Wang Feng is going to sign first and then change, he is not ready to sign a 5-year long-term contract. He will only sign a 3-year contract extension, and the third year is still a player option.

The number of years is too short. Anyone can see that after two years, it is hard to say whether Wang Feng can retain the player option. In order to get No.1 in the league, he has paid too much chips for two years. It is necessary to carefully weigh the pros and cons. up.

Of course, the Timberwolves' management is also coveting Wang Feng, but they are also quite confident in the depth and potential of the Timberwolves' current lineup. With the combination of Towns and Edwards supplemented by Wiggins and others, the Timberwolves are absolutely capable of returning to the season. Postgame stage.

However, if this lineup is completely dismantled in exchange for Wang Feng, and Wang Feng pats his ass and leaves after two years, leaving only a mess, then the Timberwolves will be poor and useless, with no potential players and all draft picks sent to the Lakers. It's really over.

The Lakers are also very helpless about this. The Timberwolves' move is clearly certain that the Lakers will definitely not be able to keep Wang Feng, so they deliberately lowered the price and wanted to get Wang Feng at the lowest price.

As for the Lakers' so-called Wang Feng considering the Timberwolves, the main reason is actually that the Timberwolves had a winning percentage of less than 30% last season and were one of the worst teams in the league. His only requirement for joining the Timberwolves was the only The rhetoric that an All-Star player Towns cannot continue to stay on the team, in the eyes of the general manager of the Timberwolves, is a clumsy joke fabricated by Johnson in order to get Towns.

He didn't even want to ask Wang Feng or his agent Bill Duffy for verification, because it would be ridiculous to tell such a reason, and he felt that if he really went to Wang Feng because of such a thing, he would be laughed at instead. ignorance.

The importance of communication is fully reflected here.

The Lakers hope that the Timberwolves can give Towns + Edwards a bargaining chip. If the Timberwolves are willing, the Lakers are willing to take Kuzma and Poole, and at the same time reduce the demand for first-round picks as appropriate.

However, in the eyes of the Timberwolves, this kind of request is too big to ask. Coupled with the issue of Wang Feng's contract period, he refused without hesitation, and firmly stated that Towns is not for sale in the Timberwolves. It is impossible for anyone to trade him out of the team. .

Of course, if Wang Feng is willing to sign a five-year long-term contract, the Timberwolves can consider trading with Towns + Wiggins plus three to four first-round picks.

Hearing the Timberwolves' reply, Johnson couldn't help but sneered.

"Hehe, not for sale?"

Forget it, although the Timberwolves have many high-quality bargaining chips, there are also certain hidden dangers, and that is Jimmy Butler.

Before coming to the Lakers, Butler had an unpleasant quarrel with the Timberwolves, the team he played for at the time. Butler even publicly criticized Towns and Wiggins, the two most promising young people of the team, in an interview, saying that Famous sayings.

The conflict between the two sides has reached the point of irreconcilability. It has only been less than three years, and let Butler and Downs Wiggins team up again, can they produce a good chemical reaction?
Without too much entanglement and hesitation, Johnson picked up the phone and dialed again, saying: "Tell Altman, if he is willing to add an extra first-rounder to the trade chip, Wang Feng will belong to the Cavaliers."

……

On July 7, when the outside world was still discussing the news of Wang Feng leaving the team and was very curious about which team Wang Feng would go to, the Lakers finally published the news. Wang Feng reached an agreement to send Wang Feng to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a sign-and-trade.

This transaction involves 5 players. The Lakers sent star Wang Feng and guard Jordan Poole, and the Cavaliers sent Darius Garland, Collin Sexton and this year's third pick. Show Evan Mobley three players, plus four first-round picks in 2022, 2024, 2026 and 2028.

Once this news was announced, the entire league was shocked!

Wang Feng actually left, and the next home he chose was the Cavaliers, one of the bottom teams in the league.

What makes many people who eat melons even more exciting and exciting is that Wang Feng once played for the Cavaliers and assisted James in winning the first NBA championship trophy in team history for the Cavaliers.

After that season, the Cavaliers desperately wanted to renew their contract with Wang Feng, but Wang Feng refused. After the latter switched to the Lakers, he won three championships with the Lakers in four years, but the Cavaliers encountered Irving one after another, and James left the team. , The championship team fell apart in an instant.

Many people still remember the reasons and reasons why Wang Feng left the Cavaliers. He wanted to be the main core of a team to challenge and surpass James, instead of playing a Pippen-like role beside James.

At that time, many people still laughed at Wang Feng for being overconfident and trying to challenge James, who is also ranked in the top five or even top three in the history of the league. Obviously, winning more honors with James is an easier shortcut.

Who would have thought that after four years, Wang Feng would return to the Cavaliers with a three-peat championship dynasty, three finals FMVPs, four regular season MVPs, and four scoring champions, all of which took him only four years.

And this is precisely what people are most surprised about.

What is Wang Feng trying to figure out?Targeted poverty alleviation?
The situation of the Cavaliers is clear to anyone who watches the game.

The Cavaliers have a record of only 20 wins and 21 losses in the regular season in the 24-58 season, ranking third from the bottom in the Eastern Conference, and won the third overall pick. Still a downright bad team.

Kevin Love, the only All-Star player in the team, has long lost his courage. Last season, due to injuries, he only played less than 30 games and averaged only 12 points and 7 rebounds per game, occupying 3000 games. Wan's salary space, but can't make a little contribution to the team.

In order to get Wang Feng, the Cavaliers traded out almost all the young players with potential and draft picks. After Wang Feng came to the Cavaliers, the only one left in the team was Kai Wen. Love and a dry rotation of role players off the bench.

Someone immediately gloated and said, "Wang Feng is a failure this time. If you let him pretend to be aggressive, you still think it is too easy to win with the Lakers and want to increase the difficulty? Now, let's give him a hell difficulty. This season, it would be better for him to think about how not to compete for the No. [-] pick... Oh, I forgot, next year's first-round pick was traded to the Lakers, maybe the Lakers will still receive it during the playoffs. Good news for the lottery."

No matter how strong one's personal strength is, it is impossible to really 1v5 on the basketball court, at least it is impossible from the normal perspective of ordinary people, but obviously Wang Feng cannot be included in the ranks of ordinary people, and he is not completely Unprepared.

Jordan Poole, who was traded to the Cavaliers with him, is one of the insurances he left behind.

Poole performed quite well for the Lakers this season, especially during the regular season when Butler was reimbursed due to injury. He replaced Butler in the first game. The data completely exceeded the expectations of general manager Johnson and head coach Walton.

But even so, they didn't pay much attention to Poole, especially after Butler came back in the playoffs, Poole returned to the bench again.

They never imagined that next season Poole will usher in an explosive period of his career. In another time and space, he can contribute 30 points, 18.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists in an average of 4 minutes per game for the Warriors. Before returning, he was the important second scorer of the Warriors. He helped the Warriors win the 21-22 season championship and won the Best Sixth Man Award.

Poole is low-key and still on a rookie contract, which is exactly what Wang Feng needs very much for a player who can complete the system upgrade task very well, so he specifically asked for Poole to be added in the transaction.

Lakers general manager Johnson didn't think too much about it, and simply agreed.

Sexton, Garland and Mobley can be exchanged from the Cavaliers for three potential players in one go. Poole as a supplement is naturally dispensable. Besides, Sexton and Garland are both guards. There is also Butler inside, even if Poole is left, he will not have much playing time for him.

This is only the first step in Wang Feng's mission process.

After the transaction agreement was reached, Wang Feng contacted the general manager of the Cavaliers as soon as possible.

A day later, the Cavaliers announced three consecutive signings.

Signed free agent Otto Porter on a 2-year, $500 million contract.

Signed free agent Gary Payton II on a 2-year, $350 million contract.

Signed free agent Malik Monk for $2 million in two years.

Three signings made many people confused, what is this?In order to welcome Wang Feng's arrival, is it a reinforcement for the team?But this reinforcement is a bit too watery, just signing three low-paid role rotation players can handle it?
Wang Feng, the six-time NBA champion and four-time regular season MVP, counts his cards like this?
The Cavaliers just laid off the former All-Star center Andre Drummond not long ago, freeing up a lot of salary space. At present, the only salary in the team that exceeds 3130 million is Kevin Love's 4000 million. U.S. dollars, even including Wang Feng obtained from the Lakers, Wang Feng's three-year contract extension is only an average of [-] million U.S. dollars per year.

The Cavaliers are currently close to more than 2000 million in salary space from the salary cap. If they clean up the players in the team, they are fully capable of signing another All-Star player.

In this way, at least the Cavaliers can still have some competitiveness with two stars, and it should be no problem to reach the playoffs in the less competitive East.

But the Cavaliers just signed three low-paid rotation players in a small way. What's the trouble?
Of course they didn't know that the three players signed by the Cavaliers were all signed by Wang Feng.

Although as mentioned earlier, Wang Feng is approaching the limit of the traveler's foresight, but he is still grasping the last tail of the traveler's advantage, allowing the Cavaliers to intercept some low-paying and cost-effective players who performed well in the 21-22 season in advance .

Otto Porter, in another time and space, averaged 21 points and 22 rebounds per game in the Warriors in the 8.2-5.7 season. He is one of the important role players for the Warriors to win the championship.

Gary Payton II, also known as Payton Jr., is also a member of the Warriors championship team. He averaged 7.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game. He is a very aggressive defender.

Malik Monk, who played for the Lakers in the 21-22 season in another time and space, is the only stable three-point shooting point in the poor Lakers, averaging 13.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. 2.3 three-pointers, the three-point shooting rate is as high as 39%.

Although these three players are only role rotation players, and the external evaluation is still lower when the 21-22 season has not yet started, they are undoubtedly very good players, and they are also Wang Feng's new player system for the Cavaliers. One of the important foundations!