"James Harden", David Stern finally called out the popular No. 1 pick from the University of Southern California. The Houston Rockets made a choice that was beyond the expectations of most teams, and it ended up being Darryl More Ray's professional opinion prevailed, and the team chose this player who is only 1.96 meters tall. Although his height is too short for a shooting guard and too tall for a point guard, his familiarity with performance and steady style of play have It is especially important for the Houston Rockets, who lack a team leader.
Then the Memphis Grizzlies very naturally selected Blake Griffin, the third-ranked Sacramento Kings instead selected Hasheem Thabeet, and then the Minnesota Timberwolves selected Tyreke Evans, the Golden State Warriors They chose Stephen Curry, a handsome little guard, and then the Minnesota Timberwolves chose Ricky Rubio, a genius in the international basketball world.
This is strange. Why do the Minnesota Timberwolves have so many high-ranking draft picks for a team that has not entered the playoffs? That's because they made a lot of trades before the draft. of.
The No. 6 pick is their own pick, but the No. 4 pick in front of them was acquired from the Washington Wizards in exchange for Randy Foega, McMillar, and Orekshe. Three players including Pecherov and Edon Thomas.
At the same time, they also have first-round draft picks from many teams such as the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, and Utah Jazz. After being relatively frustrated in the draft in several years, the Minnesota Timberwolves adopted the draft pick this year. I don¡¯t know if the net fishing method will be successful.
Before the draft, the league made many heavyweight trades, among which the San Antonio Spurs and the Cleveland Cavaliers made the biggest moves.
After losing Stephen for two seasons, the San Antonio Spurs finally felt the weakness in this position and the decline in the flexibility of the lineup. In addition, a large group of veterans on the team were eager to clean up, so they uncharacteristically made a big deal. However, although there is no shortage of forward and defensive swingmen in the league, there are not many top-level ones. Finally, a deal was reached with the Milwaukee Bucks, and three players including Bruce Bowen and Fabricio Oberto were exchanged for Li Keqiang. Chad Jefferson, the Bucks had just traded him with Yi Jianlian, which they had high hopes for, last year. Unexpectedly, they traded him out after one season.
Although Richard Jefferson is not the league's top swingman, he still has All-Star ability. Although his status has declined due to injuries in the past two years, Popovich still hopes to give him a try. Let's see. Can he be used to replace part of Stephen's original role? This also means that Popovich finally admitted that losing Stephen had a huge impact on the Spurs, otherwise he would not sign players to make up for him.
Unlike ordinary swingmen who favor offense and light defense, Richard Jefferson is not only talented on offense but also very good on defense. At the same time, he also has relatively high tactical literacy, which is suitable for the Spurs' tactical play style.
The Hawks sent Asilao and Claxton to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Jamal Crawford to enhance their scoring ability on the bench, while the Golden State Warriors lightened the backcourt The bloated lineup is another step forward on the road to reconstruction.
Many transactions at this time have this characteristic, that is, one of the two parties to the transaction is a team that has entered the playoffs but fell behind in the middle. They need strong players to strengthen themselves, while the other party usually It's a rebuilding team, and they need a variety of expiring contracts or draft picks, so that both parties can hit it off.
At this time, the Cleveland Cavaliers also took action. Due to their failure in the Eastern Conference Finals, they realized the weakness of their inside lineup. They defeated them in the paint. The Orlando Magic reached the finals, but was overtaken by Seattle, which had stronger inside skills. The Sonics swept through, so they gave up Ben Wallace, who they had high hopes for, and traded him and Pavlovic from the Phoenix Suns for the aging Shark O'Neal. One side was for reinforcements, the other was for reinforcements. One side is for rebuilding.
The Memphis Grizzlies used Darko Milicic from the New York Knicks in exchange for Quentin Richardson and some cash. On the one hand, they lightened the inside lineup and made room for Marc Gasol. On the other hand, While strengthening the outside line, it also gained real money.
Even while the draft is in progress, the general managers of each team are also communicating with the general managers of other teams and working on various trading plans while considering which players to select. Among them, Pre Steve is a relatively relaxed one. On the one hand, there is no need to think too much about the draft. On the other hand, even if it is a trade, it is a small deal.
With the last pick in the first round, the Seattle SuperSonics selectedExcept for Omikaspi, who accidentally fell into this position, this is a tall small forward player, a white guy from Israel, almost the same height as Kevin Durant, with the same excellent shooting skills, logically He said that his role was somewhat overlapping with that of Kevin Durant, but the team was selecting a substitute, not a starter, and among the remaining players, there was no one Presti particularly wanted, so they took him. Down, and Presti knows that if he is allowed to fall to the second round, it will definitely attract other teams to grab him, so he can definitely make some fuss.
At this time, Presti was worried about the second-round pick to select the player. Suddenly, the player affairs department called and said that Channing Frye had received a contract offer from the Phoenix Suns, although it was only for two years. Of course, this minimum salary is not the base salary, but 125% of Channing Frye's salary in the last year of his rookie contract.
Although there are fifteen days to consider whether to match this contract, Presti has decided not to keep him at this time. There is no need for him. He is completely used to fill the team roster and basically has no playing time. , unless there is a large-scale injury, you can completely use the rookies selected this year, who are younger and have more potential, and save money.
However, through the Channing Frye incident, Presti suddenly had a worry. Players who can win championships are generally more likely to be pursued by teams, and several of his players who need to renew their contracts are He is a restricted free agent. What should he do if other teams put forward contract offers and attract looting?
Although for players like Coupard and Jarrett Jack, the team can match the offer made by any team without considering the issue of salary space, but in case the offer made by a certain team is too outrageous, the team can still The match did not match. Because of such worries, Presti had no intention of hunting for second-round picks anymore. He simply chose one at random according to the previous plan and left.
Shortly after returning to the team, the team received a contract offer from Kuppard. The contract was for four years, with a starting salary of US$8 million, and the total contract value was US$35 million. The team that made the offer was the Houston Rockets. After reading this invitation contract, Presti was absolutely certain that this was a conspiracy by the Rockets. If it weren't for their salary space that prevented them from proposing a higher contract, they would definitely do that. Anyway, For a player like Coupard, it is not too outrageous to get a contract worth tens of millions. Moreover, it is said to be a four-year contract, but it is actually a contract of two plus one plus one. Even if it is a loss, it is only a loss of 20 million. But if you want to renew your contract with Cupard, you can't get such a contract.
This is 2 million more than the contract that the Sonics originally planned to offer Coupard in terms of starting salary alone, and the entire contract would be at least 10 million more. However, since the Houston Rockets have made such an offer, It was impossible to take it back, and with the relationship between the two teams, it was impossible to persuade the other side to take it back. Presti knew that the Houston Rockets were causing trouble to vent their anger on Yao Ming's trade, but they were completely following the rules. There was nothing he could do about it.
If Stephen's contract hadn't entered the third year, Cupard would suddenly become the team's second-highest-paid player, but even so, the team spends more than 20 million per year on the center position. It is also a huge expense, accounting for almost half of the salary space, but the team has to match it. If it matches his contract like this, the team is likely to exceed the luxury tax threshold this season.
??Walling all over the floor asking for all kinds of small tickets.