Anthony the Reborn

Chapter 148 The Taste of Trading

Anthony's outstanding performance, whether it is the Nuggets' senior management or his teammates, takes it for granted. In their eyes, Anthony will definitely become the next superstar to shine in the league, and even have the opportunity to reach the level that Michael once achieved.

Anthony's performance was outstanding, and the team was victorious. As his substitutes, Wallace and Diaw can be said to have been battling each other.

Originally, with such a strong performance of Anthony, there was not much time for the two substitutes to compete. When they played, they worked hard and the coach also saw it.

Wallace is better, able to swing to the position of power forward, in the average playing time of about 15 minutes per game, he can contribute 8.3 points and 5 rebounds and assists per game, because most of the points come from breakthroughs, so his shooting percentage It is also as high as 52%, and the performance can be said to be quite good.

However, Dior is limited by his current size. He occupies most of the small forward's bench time at this time. He has about 10 minutes. He can contribute 6.5 points, 4 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. Entered the top five in the rookie rankings in December, which can be described as a dazzling new star.

The fierce competition on the court is originally a thing that is beneficial to the team, but during the team's usual training, the Nuggets players felt that Wallace was not satisfied with his playing time, and some teammates even listened to him. When it comes to his outright complaints, it seems to have planted the seeds of a hidden danger internally.

However, because the team has been on a winning streak, no one pays much attention to this. The team's strength ranking has also risen from nearly fifteen a month ago to fifth place, second only to the Lakers, Timberwolves, and Pacers. Behind the team and the Spurs, it can be said that the scenery is extremely beautiful.

The strong performance of the Nuggets is gratifying, but another team at this time, the Clippers, can be said to be in complete dire straits.

In the November game, they won 11 games out of 15 games, and they were evenly split. They were barely able to hover on the edge of the playoffs, but after entering December, their performance plummeted, and they only won 8 games. 12 games, it can be said to have plummeted, from a team competing for the playoffs directly to the bottom team in the West, with a record even worse than the Sonics. They signed Brand with a lot of money in the summer. Falling into endless sinking again.

The Clippers' poor record has directly led to complaints from the team's main force, Brand. The team owner's practice of letting go of immediate combatants such as Miller and Odom in the summer has already made him dissatisfied. It is easy to be comforted by the old coach Dunleavy, but the constant losses and the inaction of the team owner Sterling and the management made his complaints difficult to suppress, and even publicly ran and blasted his teammates for not working hard during interviews with reporters. , The team management did nothing.

Brand's performance made the management of other teams eager to move. Although the Clippers were sinking, Brand's steady performance made people salivate. In the 25 games he participated in, With a high shooting rate of 50.6%, he averaged 21.5 points, 11.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. He performed well on both ends of the offense and defense. In the ranking of league players, the position of power forward is also the core of the Spurs. Last season's finals most valuable player, "Stone Buddha" Duncan, can be said to be a very good cornerstone for team building.

Brand is struggling in the Clippers, and it seems that in order to confirm what he said before, "White Chocolate" Williams' performance in the Grizzlies is also sluggish.

The team's coach Hubie Brown, the coach who criticized Williams' style of play more than once last season, even directly demoted him from the main force to the substitute this season, and what is even more detrimental to Williams is After he became a substitute, the team's record has been rising steadily, which is even better than when he was a substitute at the beginning of the season. This has greatly affected the self-confidence of this super point guard who once played brilliantly in the Kings hit.

As the team's management, they managed to get up with Brown last season, of course, to help him. The management has already started planning to find a new club for him.

And thanks to what Brand said at the beginning, many general managers of the teams inquired around and got reliable information. Brand's idea has not changed.

This explosive news set off a strong sense of trade in the league. Although Williams' performance in the Kings has declined, there are endless teams pursuing him. His agent's phone call can be said to be To be blown up.

The constant rumors, the unfavorable encounters with the team, wave after wave, Williams began to respond to reporters' questions and was able to answer officially, his love for the city of Memphis.

But the increasingly violent results of the month seemed to make this white gentleman exhausted his patience. During a press conference of a game, he publicly stated that if there is a suitable opportunity, he would consider finding a new starting point for his career.

This explosive information made the general managers of the league eager to rush forward, and among the suitors of these teams, the Nuggets unexpectedly ranked first this time. Get Andre Miller is very interested, the secret information is that Anthony's high school coach, Steve Smith played a vital role in it.

The Nuggets' training hall, rest day, they just beat the Suns, and they all spontaneously came to the arena for extra training at this time.

Anthony is sweating profusely at the trainer, and with him are other main players of the Nuggets.

But the contentment with Anthony must be, the mood of the others is not very good.

Anthony finished his last shot, wiped off his sweat, and let the sidelines walk. At this time, the other four starters were sitting on the bench, and none of them looked very good. No one spoke, even if they usually talked Nene, who couldn't stop talking, was a little sluggish at the moment.

Anthony saw the faces of the rest of the team, walked in front of them, and said with some incomprehension: "Get rid of it, guys, what's wrong with you, why are you all so frustrated, we are on a winning streak, we have achieved Seven consecutive victories, guys, we want to strive for eight consecutive victories, nine consecutive victories, or even ten consecutive victories, but why are you fairies so unhappy?"

Nene heard Anthony's voice and said weakly, "Melo, ten consecutive victories won't save us."

Anthony asked with some incomprehension: "What's wrong?"

All in all, before today, none of the team members seemed to have shown this state.

At this moment, Miller raised his head and said, "Melo, did you read the newspaper yesterday?"

Anthony moved a bench over, sat across from the others, and asked inexplicably, "Newspaper, what newspaper? I've been so tired recently that I didn't pay attention to that stuff."

Camby also smiled wryly at this time and said: "Hey, you are the most relaxed one, buddy we are not so relaxed."

"What's going on here?" Anthony really didn't understand.

Camby continued: "Didn't you read yesterday's newspaper? Jason said frankly at the press conference yesterday that if given the right opportunity, he would consider leaving Memphis, and our team is the strongest competitor."

"Jason Williams? The most favorable competitor?" Anthony muttered. He also remembered the time Vandeweghe talked to him a month ago. He also called his high school coach Smith. , There was no news about that incident afterwards, and Williams publicly declared his loyalty to Memphis more than once, which made him forget about it all at once. He didn't expect things to change so dramatically at this time.

Anthony looked up at Miller, then at Camby, and said a little speechlessly: "Trade Williams, now Williams is just a substitute, so it's not necessarily necessary to trade us starters, right?"

"The salary doesn't match." Camby said lightly.

"Fuck, I forgot about this." Anthony said a little speechlessly, "But Andre is also worried about the trade, what are you worried about?"

Anthony said and looked at Bell: "And Raja, your salary this season is low, what are you worried about?"

Camby and Bell haven't started their activities yet, Nene said depressedly at this time: "You really haven't read the news, Jason is not as good as before, his current transaction value is not high, but you know why he is so popular Well, it’s because Elton is not having a good time in the Clippers now, I guess the team that traded for Williams, as long as it’s not fat, it won’t be long before Elton will be in charge.”

"If you want to trade for Elton, the few of us..." Nene stopped when he said this.

At this time, the faces of several other players also showed a burst of frustration.

Anthony looked helplessly at the four people on the opposite side, and didn't know what to say for a while. He also expected that this transaction would be carried out. At that time, his relationship with the four people in front of him was not so good, but so many games played Come down, they have formed a tacit understanding with each other.

This person is an emotional animal. Even though he knew that trading Brand would be of great help to the team, he still felt a little reluctant to part with the teammates in front of him.

And the team is now on a winning streak. If these teammates are in this state, I am afraid that after the seven-game winning streak, it will not be an eight-game winning streak, or even a seven-game losing streak.

Thinking of this, Anthony raised his gaze. With the memory of two lifetimes, and as the soul of the team, he felt that it was time for him to say something.

(End of this chapter)