NBA: James wants to team up with me

As the draft went on, the expression on John Paxson's face became more and more complicated. Seeing that there was not much time left, he could only sigh and pick up the phone and dial a number.

"I agree to your request. As agreed, help us select Stephen and then make the transaction."

There was a burst of light laughter on the other side of the phone. “A pleasure to work with.”

In the stands, David Stern had already begun to read out the Timberwolves' selection with the fifth overall pick. As originally, they chose the talented Spanish player Ricky Rubio, nicknamed the Golden Boy.

There are successful cases of Gasol and Gasol in the league. The Timberwolves are very optimistic about Rubio's development prospects. But unfortunately, Rubio's level is indeed good, but it is only the level of an ordinary starting player. His career average is only about 11 points and 8 assists per game. , let alone compared with Curry, DeRozan and others behind him, even Brandon Jennings' performance in the league is more outstanding than him.

The next pick, the sixth pick in the first round, was drafted by the Boston Celtics.

Originally, the Celtics' 09 first-round pick was supposed to be sent to the Timberwolves as a bargaining chip for the 07 trade for Garnett. However, because the Bulls intercepted Garnett, the deal did not happen, including The Timberwolves' 06 first-round pick that was supposed to be sent to the Celtics in 09 did not happen, which gave the Timberwolves the opportunity to draft Rubio.

Stern picked up the envelope from the Celtics, opened it and took a look. He was a little surprised, but he still said with a smile on his face.

"With the sixth pick in the first round, the Boston Celtics choose Stephen Curry!"

When he heard the news, Curry, who was sitting in the small green room, was completely stunned.

Why would the Celtics choose themselves?
Before the draft began, his agent told him that the Golden State Warriors were most likely to select him.

As a rookie who performed well in the NCAA tournament, Curry was labeled as a "defensive black hole", "poor shot selection" and "poor confrontation ability" after participating in the trial training, and was considered to be difficult to adapt to the NBA. The competition is intense, but because of its various highlight performances in the NCAA, the attention is not low.

Curry's draft pick prediction given by ESPN is also between 11-20, barely within the lottery range.

But he never expected that the Celtics, who had never shown any special interest in Curry before, would actually take action and use the precious No. 6 pick to select him.

Are the Celtics lacking a point guard? Obviously no.

This past season, although the most dazzling star in the Green Army was Durant who averaged 25 points per game and even overshadowed the team leader Pierce, the team's main point guard Rajon Rondo also performed well. During the regular season, he averaged 11.9 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists per game. He has grown into a very good point guard. Moreover, Rondo is not old and has room for growth. Naturally, they do not need a second point guard. guard.

Surprised, Curry subconsciously walked up to the stage to shake hands with Stern and take a photo. Only after he walked out of the stands did he learn a shocking news.

Just when he came on stage, the Celtics had already traded him away from the team at the speed of light.

The Chicago Bulls sent Paul Millsap, James Jones and next year's first-round pick in exchange for Curry, who had just been drafted by the Celtics, forward Brian Scalabrine and the 09 second-round draft pick.

Once the deal was announced, it immediately caused quite a stir in the league.

Millsap doesn't have a big position in the Bulls, and Curry isn't a super rookie worth mentioning, but when this matter concerns the Bulls, who have won two consecutive championships, the situation is completely different.

What people are surprised about is not that the Bulls got Curry, but that the Bulls paid such a high price to get Curry.

Millsap + James Jones plus a first-round three-for-one, is Curry worthy?
Although the Celtics also produced Brian Scalabrine, this guy was just an addition in the transaction and not worth mentioning. He was a player who sat on the bench in the Celtics. Season averages 3.5 points and 1.3 rebounds per game.

As for the other bargaining chip, the Green Army's second-round pick...doesn't anyone really regard the second-round pick, or the second-round pick that is relatively low in the draft, as a valuable bargaining chip? No way?
Millsap was sent away as a bargaining chip in a sign-and-trade deal. The Bulls renewed Millsap's contract with a four-year contract worth $4 million, with an average annual salary of $4200 million.

The Celtics, who don't have Garnett or Ray Allen, have plenty of salary space, and they don't have any pressure to acquire this multi-million contract through direct trade.

The Celtics' current lineup is still very interesting to Millsap. After all, Durant mainly plays the small forward position, and the Celtics only have one center inside, Al Jefferson.

Although Millsap is slightly shorter in height in the interior, he has solid skills and strong strength. He performs well on both offense and defense. More importantly, he is very young like Durant, Rondo and Jefferson.

Celtics general manager Danny Ainge obviously wants to let these four young players grow together and build a championship-level team in two to three years.

Of course, what's more important is that the Celtics really don't have any good candidates for their first-round pick.

If there are still inside players like Griffin or Thabeet available in this pick, he will never trade with the Bulls.

But the problem is that the players behind are basically all outside players. With Durant, Pierce and Rondo, the Celtics are most in need of outside players.

And the value of a mere No. 6 pick in the trade market is not that outstanding. It is really good to get a good inside player Millsap, plus fixed-point three-point shooter Jones and a first-rounder.

The Celtics fans were laughing, but the Bulls fans couldn't help shouting in their hearts that they were sold out.

At this time, they didn't know that Wang Chong came up with this idea, but that didn't hinder their understanding of the football emperor's rational analysis.

It's a very simple truth, but any normal person should be able to imagine it. Why did the Bulls choose Curry?
Curry serves as a point guard and is best at three-pointers.

So the question is, what is the best offensive method of Billups, the current main point guard of the Bulls?
Coincidentally, it was also a three-pointer.

Billups' three-point shooting percentage has remained above 40% for several seasons in his career, and three-pointers accounted for nearly 50% of his total shots. Including this season that just ended, Billups also had 41%. With a three-point shooting percentage, he is the player with the best three-point shooting ability among point guards in the league. While possessing excellent three-pointers, Billups has rich game experience, broad vision, and passing skills. Although he cannot compare with top guards such as Nash, Kidd, and Paul, he is still at the level of a first-line point guard and can definitely support him. The organization and support work of a team.

In addition, Billups' performance on the defensive end is also quite good. He has been selected to the All-Defensive Team for two consecutive years. He is physically strong and not afraid of confrontation. Apart from being slightly slower, he has almost no other shortcomings.

Why would the Bulls, who have such a perfect point guard, pay such a high price to acquire a rookie point guard who is good for nothing except three-point shooting?

Millsap is the best sixth man of the Bulls. Bulls fans had always thought that the team would choose to renew Millsap's contract. Even if it costs tens of millions of annual salary to keep him, it will definitely not be a loss. They never expected that the Bulls would do this. Decisive choice to send him away, what? Can't make it to next season? Doesn’t it matter if we can win three consecutive championships?

In the Bulls' box, general manager John Paxson had a gloomy look on his face, showing no joy at all in successfully completing the deal. He could already imagine how various media and local Chicago fans would criticize the deal after the draft.

Wang Chong was already smiling.

To be honest, he is really worried about any surprises. After all, today's draft is completely different from what he is familiar with. Maybe a team with a high draft pick will suddenly become interested in Curry.

Wang Chong knows very well that there are only two opportunities to get Curry. One is during the draft, and the other is when Curry suffered from injuries in the 11-12 season.

In these two time periods, it is obvious that the price to be paid during the draft is much less than that in the 11-12 season.

After all, when Curry first entered the league, he could steadily contribute 17.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 5.9 assists, shooting 46% from the field, and 43% from the three-point range. His confrontation ability is a bit worse, but it is far from what the scouts said. Unable to adapt to the high-intensity NBA games, his efficiency has even surpassed that of most guards in the league.

Therefore, even if two years later, Curry's condition declined due to an ankle injury and he chose to undergo surgery, which resulted in a season reimbursement, the Warriors still offered him a four-year, 4 million contract.

In the future, when Curry performs at the MVP level and leads the team to win consecutive championships, his four-year, 4 million contract is known as the most cost-effective child labor contract. It is the main reason why the Warriors can continuously introduce powerful players and maintain the intensity of the championship. One of the factors.

However, in the 11-12 season, facing a player with potential injury risks and poor confrontation ability, the Warriors were willing to offer him a four-year, multi-million contract, which shows that it is also very important to Curry's future development. Good news.

Therefore, compared with trying to lure or trade Curry through a big contract in the 11-12 season, it will obviously be easier to make a move during the draft.

Although the Bulls-Celtics trade caused quite a stir, it did not hinder the progress of the draft.

As time went by, players were selected one by one. After all 30 players in the first round were selected, the second round of the draft began.

Compared with the much-anticipated first round, the attention of the second round of the draft is obviously not that high. After all, compared with the star-studded first round, there are too few players who can stand out from the second round.

In recent years, Wang Chong has relied on the advantage of the time traveler's foresight to select several outstanding players in the second round, including the current team's main center Gasol, and Mir who was just sent away as an important bargaining chip. Sapp, both are outstanding second-round players.

And this year he still plans to do the same.

There are many good players among the players in the second round of 09. Wang Chong’s favorite is Danny Green, the best 3D player. This is a player he must win. When Billups gets older in the future, Curry After officially taking the position, Danny Green can be responsible for defending the opponent's outside offensive leaders at the shooting guard position, sharing the pressure for Curry.

In addition to Green, other players such as Beverley and Wang Chong are not so interested. Although Beverley's future defense is talked about, that will be several years later. After being drafted in the first round, he did not enter the league. Instead, he went to play overseas for two years. After his strength increased to a certain extent, he returned to the NBA and showed his extraordinary defensive ability.

On the other hand, another guard, Marcus Thornton, is more interested in Wang Chong. After successfully acquiring Danny Green, if the Bulls still have chips to acquire Thornton, Wang Chong will not hesitate.

Marcus Thornton, who is 1 meters tall and serves as a shooting guard, is an excellent immediate player with outstanding offensive ability.

Thornton, who was selected in the second round in 09, averaged 14.5 points per game in his first season in New Orleans and his shooting percentage was stable at 45%.

In the second season, due to tactical positioning, Thornton's statistics dropped. However, after being traded to the Kings in the middle of the season, he immediately showed strong offensive firepower. He played 10 games for the Kings in the second half of the 11-27 season. In the game, he averaged 21.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, and he naturally became the main scorer of the Kings in the 11-12 season. His playing time increased to 34.9 minutes and he scored 18.7 points.

However, like other players who start high and go low, Marcus Thornton played very good data in the first three seasons of his career and received high praise. However, as his rookie contract ended, Thornton signed a four-year contract with the Kings. After receiving a big contract of 4 million yuan, Thornton quickly began to perform badly, and his performance was worse year by year.

What Wang Chong was interested in was Soton's immediate combat ability in the first three years.

Of course he knew that Thornton's data had a lot of water. After all, during the two years when he served as the main force for the Kings, the Kings were only a weak team at the bottom of the Western Conference, and it was relatively easy to collect data.

But Wang Chong has no intention of letting Thornton be the Bulls' main attacker. When he comes to the Bulls, he will definitely sit on the bench and become the team's bench gangster.

After Millsap left the team, the Bulls' bench firepower dropped sharply. Curry will definitely start when he comes to the team. Danny Green, as a 3D player, does not have the ability to attack independently, so Wang Chong also hopes that Marcus Thornton can be acquired to enhance the scoring ability of the bench.

Marcus Thornton's original draft pick was the 13th pick in the second round, and Danny Green was the 16th pick in the second round. The second-round picks at this position no longer have much value, and the Bulls only It was easy to get these two players by giving away some leftover materials.

As a result, the Bulls received Curry, Danny Green and Marcus Thornton in the 09 draft, which was a bumper harvest.

But Wang Chong is very happy and satisfied, but the outside world does not think so.

The Bulls' inexplicable trade in the draft made many people completely confused and even thought that the Bulls' strength declined after the draft. (End of chapter)