NBA: James wants to team up with me

Because of these various reasons, Wang Chong is not planning to make any moves in the 2013 draft. In fact, even after the subsequent free market opens, the Bulls will not make any big moves. The only thing to do is to complete the relationship with Curry. With the Bulls' current lineup, there is no problem in winning another four consecutive championships as long as they are healthy, and there is no need to consider reinforcements at all.

With the basic trio of Wang Chong + Curry + Gasol, high-quality players such as Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green will continue to grow and become stronger. I really can’t think of anything missing.

The general progress of the draft was not much different from what Wang Chong remembered. The Cavaliers once again won the No. 1 pick. Whether it was a secret operation by the league to support the Cavaliers without James, or the Cavaliers were really possessed by the European Emperor, the result was different. There is no difference.

He won the No. 1 pick three times in four years, but the only one who truly deserves the title is Kyrie Irving. Not to mention Anthony Bennett, the best No. 1 pick in NBA history, even next year's No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggin. Si's reputation as the No. 1 pick in the NBA is somewhat undeserved.

Among the rookies in the same class as him, Joel Embiid, the third pick in the first round, and Nikola Jokic, the second round pick, are countless times better than him, especially the latter, even if Wei Wei Kings and Embitt together are not as practical as Jokic.

As the No. 20 pick in the NBA, Wiggins has the physical fitness and talent that makes many people jealous, but he just can't play. It seems that he can average 2021+ points per game every year, but in reality he is always so lukewarm. He was even selected to the All-Star for the first time in his career in the 22-26 season. At that time, he was already years old and had been in the league for eight seasons.

Only one of the three No. 1 picks was Irving, and the opponent was a psychotic child. The Cavaliers had no possibility of turning around before James came back.

As for Antetokounmpo, Giannis Antetokounmpo was selected by the Bucks with the 13th pick in the first round. The Bucks, who were two spots higher than the original pick, chose Antetokounmpo. Obviously, they were not satisfied with this static situation. The talent is close to that of Wang Chong, and Durant is very excited about the prospects of Greek players. Although Antetokounmpo's skills are very rough, they are definitely worth cultivating.

The only thing that slightly surprised Wang Chong was that Rudy Gobert was selected by the San Antonio Spurs at the end of the first round.

The Spurs, who originally gave away the draft pick in 13, actually intercepted Gobert, the future best defensive player. This is undoubtedly a strengthening of the Spurs' current lineup, allowing the Spurs to gather the top defensive combination of Duncan, Leonard and Gobert. , even if Duncan retires later, if the Spurs can build a team around Leonard and Gobert as the core of the team's internal and external defense, they will still become one of the hegemons in the Western Conference.

Of course, the premise is that Leonard will not choose to leave the Spurs as he originally did.

As for the Bulls' draft picks, they relied entirely on the subjective initiative of the team's general manager. They selected two guards, Archie Goodwin and Eric Green, in the first and second rounds respectively.

It is not surprising that the Bulls will choose two guards. After this season, Billups will also officially retire. In fact, he has already withdrawn from the team's main rotation due to injuries this season. The Bulls' main rotation at the point guard position Divided between Curry and Thomas.

But at the shooting guard position, the Bulls' configuration is slightly worse. There is only one Danny Green. Jimmy Butler at the small forward position can be a guest shooting guard when needed, but the Bulls management obviously hopes to have more options. , even a rookie at the end of the first round may still have some success.

Unfortunately, they obviously made the wrong bet.

Whether it is Archie Goodwin or Eric Green, they are players that Wang Chong has no impression of at all. For him, players whose names cannot be remembered are definitely of no value.

In fact, this is indeed the case. Neither of these two players was able to play in the league for more than 4 years, which means that they failed to obtain an offer contract after the rookie contract ended and had to be forced to leave the NBA.

But it doesn't matter. Originally, there were no suitable prospects in this draft, so they were just used to fill the bench.

After the draft is over, on July 7, the free market begins.

By the end of June, the alliance was already in turmoil and undercurrents were surging.

No way, there are a lot of big fish in the free market this year. The contracts of Paul and Howard of the Lakers and Curry of the Warriors have all expired. Even apart from these three people, there are still others such as Josh Smith and Monta Eli. Si, Andrew Bynum, Andrew Bogut and other free agents.

With the opening of the free market on July 7, teams in the league have been eager to contact their favorite players, provide quotes and various commitments, and strive to achieve their goals.

The defending champion Chicago Bulls seem a little out of place in this almost crazy group of teams.

Wang Chong went to Los Angeles for vacation early with Jessica and the little princess, regardless of court affairs.

The Bulls management has no idea of ​​​​operating a transaction. Even the general manager's statement to the outside world and the media is that "the team believes that the current lineup is perfect enough and there is no need to make any transactions to destroy the existing good chemical reaction."

Of course, the Bulls didn't do nothing. They reached a contract extension agreement with Stephen Curry for 5 million in five years, retaining the point guard who made great contributions to the Bulls' championship.

5 million in five years, an absolute maximum salary extension. Among the players in the same period in 9500, only Griffin of the Thunder and Harden of the Clippers received the same maximum salary.

However, unlike Curry, Griffin and Harden both renewed their contracts with the team early. Only Curry is in a special situation. The hidden dangers of injuries have actually kept his evaluation low. If it weren't for Wang Chong, it wouldn't be because he was in the Bulls. Because of the team, Curry of the Warriors could only sign a four-year, 4 million child labor contract.

This child labor contract can be said to be one of the key factors for the future rise of the Warriors. The team's star player only has an annual salary of 2016 million, giving the Warriors a large amount of salary space that can be used to sign contracts to strengthen the team. In the summer of , the Warriors The team can even directly sign free agent Kevin Garnett.

In the Bulls, Wang Chong had no intention of treating Curry badly. By his side, Curry, as the second-in-command, was destined not to reach his future heights. It would be too much if he continued to suffer losses in terms of money.

Besides, the money was not provided by Wang Chong, but by the owner of the Bulls, so there is no need to feel bad.

It's just that even though the Bulls had already announced early that they would definitely re-sign Curry with the maximum salary, when the signing was actually completed, a lot of media still talked about it, thinking that the Bulls had given a garbage contract.

"How can Curry be worth 5 million in five years? This is definitely a premium contract, and it may even be a garbage contract. Don't forget Curry's injury history in the past few seasons. As a veteran with a lot of experience, It is extremely risky to keep a player with potential injuries on a long-term contract.”

"The Bulls management is obviously too arrogant. They can actually use the funds from Curry's contract extension to try to pursue Chris Paul. If they can get Paul, Wang Chong and Paul team up to win three consecutive championships. It is entirely possible to create a second dynasty.”

"It is said that the reason why the Bulls renewed Curry's contract with the maximum salary was because of pressure from Wang Chong. Due to the pressure from Wang Chong, even if the management was unwilling to give Curry the maximum salary, there was nothing they could do. After all, how much more would be paid to Curry every year? A salary of one million is better than offending Wang Chong, but if Wang Chong is so unscrupulous and forms a clique, something will happen sooner or later, and by then the Bulls will collapse!"

Regardless of how the outside world criticizes the Bulls for re-signing Curry with a maximum salary, it cannot change the fact that the defending champion has successfully retained its championship achievements and continues to maintain its original lineup.

Many teams that wanted to take advantage of the situation and try to poach Curry from the Bulls at a high salary had no choice but to give up.

Since it is impossible to dismantle the Bulls from within, the next step is to strengthen the team and defeat the Bulls with strength.

As the former championship, the Los Angeles Lakers became the target of brutal dismemberment. Due to conflicts between Kobe and Howard and Paul, the two superstars have no plans to renew their contracts with the Lakers after their contracts expire.

The first person to leave was Chris Paul. A gentleman does not put up a dangerous wall, and a shrewd player like Paul has already found a suitable place to go.

Paul did not leave Los Angeles. He chose to join the nearby Los Angeles Clippers and teamed up with James Harden to form the strongest backcourt in the league. He will continue to compete in Los Angeles in the new season.

Seeing Paul leave so neatly, Howard no longer needs to miss him. The happiest thing about him in the Lakers was playing pick-and-roll with Paul, and all kinds of alley-oop dunks igniting the atmosphere. Now that Paul is gone, it's even more... No reason to stay.

However, when Howard planned to just slap his butt like Paul and leave without leaving any assets for the Lakers, the Lakers management found Howard and made him a very exciting proposal.

On July 2013, 7, one week after the free market opened, the Lakers officially issued a statement finally confirming Howard's whereabouts.

To the surprise of many people, Howard chose to sign with the Lakers for 4 years and $9000 million.

However, after renewing his contract with the Lakers, Howard did not stay in Los Angeles. Instead, he was immediately traded by the Lakers to the Miami Heat as a bargaining chip. The Lakers got Chris Bosh, one of the Big Three, from the Heat, plus Udonis. Haslem, Joel Anthony and a first-round pick next year.

Once this news was announced, it immediately caused a sensation in the league.

No one thought that the Lakers and Heat would actually make such a deal.

Many teams that want to wait for Howard to test the free market and then buy the league's number one center for free can't help but beat their chests.

Replacing Bosh for Howard is definitely a worthwhile gain. You must know that the current Howard is not the original Howard who suffered a serious back injury and his explosive power dropped sharply. Although he has been very unsatisfactory with the Lakers this season and has not won any honors. , but he is still the Warcraft who claims to be able to replace James alone.

Even if the Heat also get Haslem and a first-round pick in addition to Bosh, this deal is still a profitable deal for the Heat.

But in fact, for the Lakers, this deal is not a loss. After all, they originally had to lose Howard for nothing and gained nothing.

In fact, they had already made such preparations, but Heat general manager Pat Riley took the initiative to come to him and made this proposal.

For both teams, a win-win situation was achieved.

The Heat sent away Chris Bosh, the scapegoat, and welcomed the league's No. 1 center Howard. Their strength has been qualitatively improved. At least when they face the Bulls next season, the inside line will no longer be easily beaten by the Bulls.

As for the Lakers, just one operation allowed them to get All-Star level insider Chris Bosh and a first-round pick, which should have been empty-handed, which can be considered to stop the bleeding a little.

The key to this deal lies in Howard's intention. If he himself does not agree with this, then as a free agent, no one or any team can influence Howard's thoughts.

But joining the Heat, teaming up with James, and Wade's conditions still made Howard's heart flutter.

Now Warcraft is not short of money or personal honors. What he wants is the same as James, which is an NBA championship.

Especially after the Lakers won a championship, all the credit went to Kobe, which made Howard want to win another championship without Kobe to prove himself.

But how can the championship be so easy to win? With few stars hanging together, who can get past the Bulls?

There is no doubt that joining forces with James Wade is the simplest and most intuitive choice in the current league.

In fact, joining Paul and Kobe in the Lakers was no worse than joining the Heat. However, the personalities of Kobe and Howard were really incompatible. Just winning a championship was already a huge quarrel.

So when the Lakers approached him and made the proposal, Howard agreed after only a slight hesitation.

Due to the salary space problem of the Big Three, the Heat have no way to join the competition even if Howard becomes a free agent. However, with this sign-and-trade method, they can smooth the salary gap and get Howard.

Even if the Lakers get Bosh, they are destined to withdraw from the championship. With the combination of Kobe + Bosh, let alone the finals, it will be difficult for the Thunder and other teams to win against the Spurs in the Western Conference. Ball opportunity.

But the Heat acquired Howard, which made up for the weakness of the inside line, and really have the ability to challenge the Bulls.

Even Wang Chong never expected that the plot would develop to such an outcome.

But one thing is that after being surprised, Wang Chong was not too panicked.

Does the Big Three 2.0 of James + Wade + Howard look strong?

There is no doubt that Howard is stronger than Bosh, but this does not mean that Bosh is really useless in the Heat.

After all, the Heat have James and Wade on the outside who are two masters of ball-handling breakthroughs. Bosh, who is good at mid-range shots, can have the effect of stretching space to cover the two of them in the team.

But what if it's Howard? Howard's lack of shooting ability may greatly improve the Heat's defense, but the team's offensive firepower will undoubtedly be affected.

With each increase and one decrease, it is not certain whether the Heat's strength has improved or weakened. (End of chapter)