NBA: I just want to play soy sauce, you let me win the championship

Chapter 206 Chauncey Billups
The Lakers have long wanted to strengthen their small forward, but limited salary space makes this plan difficult to implement.

What kind of small forward do the Lakers want?

First of all, it is necessary to have a certain outside shooting ability. This is the first option that all teams with O'Neal will consider.

The second is to have a certain defensive ability and not become a colander for the team.

This is easy to understand, because the Lakers' defensive support comes from O'Neal's inside position and Kobe's outside defense.

But this creates a problem. These two people are also the core of the Lakers' offense.

In the regular season, there is nothing wrong with this combination, and the Lakers' defense is also impregnable.

But in the playoffs, especially the series against the Kings, problems erupted.

Yes, O'Neal and Kobe are very defensive and their offense is stronger, but humans always have physical limits.

Especially for O'Neal, who has both inside and outside skills and is a heavy athlete himself, his physical strength has become the biggest problem.

But at O'Neal's weight, you can't make him overtrain. If the training volume is heavy, Shaq may be directly injured.

Therefore, at the small forward position, adding a player who has certain defensive ability and can properly help defend is what the Lakers have always wanted.

That is what we often call "3D" players later.

At this time, 3D players are not valuable, because everyone's understanding of 3D players 3 is only to open up space for the inside, and the number of shots is not large.

Bruce Bowen's price is 75, and his base salary is slightly higher.

Meta Walderpis was still on a rookie contract at this time, and his first big contract was above the middle-class level.

The most expensive one is Doug Christie of the Kings, which cost 520 million last year and 625 million this year, upwards from the middle class. Considering that Christie has been in the league for almost 10 years, this price is also very cheap.

Therefore, the Lakers, who were wavering between renewing George with a mid-level contract and choosing a better 3D player, started thinking about a trade.

George's physical fitness is not a problem, but his shooting has always been a big problem. The period with the highest shooting percentage in his career was with the Lakers, because he could get a lot of open shooting opportunities.

But that's it, he only averages about 2 three-pointers per game, and his shooting percentage has always been between 30% and 37%.

More importantly, George is a bit of a fool. If you ask him to defend against his opponent head-on, he will not be weak at all. But if the opponent has some brains, his defense will often make a joke.

Spending more than 400 million to 500 million to renew George's contract is not a good choice for the Lakers.

Moreover, there are no particularly useful small forwards on the market at this time. Without Lu Yuanzhi, a little butterfly flapping its wings, the Lakers would still sign George.

But by coincidence, Lu Yuanzhi defeated Karl Malone in the playoffs last season, and Malone has officially announced that he will retire this season due to injury! .

A few days after Malone announced his retirement, Stockton decided to give up the last year of his contract after negotiating with the Jazz and chose to retire.

This time, the Jazz suddenly freed up a huge salary space, and at the same time entered reconstruction ahead of schedule!
The Jazz bet their money on the 03 draft. Not only did the team choose to fail this season, they also sold players to the outside world, hoping to collect more first-round picks.

At this time, Jerry West, the man with the Grizzlies' logo, took action!

The Grizzlies have always been the bottom team in the Western Conference. The team's ranking has been hovering steadily between the second to last and third. Last year, they also had 23 wins and 59 losses, and they have firmly secured their position as the deputy squad leader from the bottom of the Western Conference.

Since joining the NBA in 95, the Grizzlies' draft picks have always been high.

In 1995, the Grizzlies selected Bryant Levis with the No. 6 pick.

In 1996, the Grizzlies selected Sharif Abdul-Rahim with the No. 3 pick.

In 1997, the Grizzlies selected Antonio Daniels with the No. 4 pick.

In 1998, the Grizzlies selected Mike Bibby with the No. 2 pick. In 1999, the Grizzlies picked Steve Francis with the No. 2 pick. Of course, Francis cried and refused to go to Vancouver, and was eventually traded to Houston.

In 2000, the Grizzlies still picked Stromire Swift with the No. 2 pick.

In 2001, the Grizzlies selected "President" Shane Battier with the No. 6 pick.

In 2002, the Grizzlies selected Drew Gooden with the No. 4 pick.

You see, the Grizzlies have never fallen out of the top 6 in draft picks, and if they are lucky, they can even get the second pick.

Therefore, when the Jazz, who were preparing to fail in the 02-03 season and make a big move in the 03 draft, heard that the Grizzlies were willing to take their 03 first-round pick and the 03 first-round pick traded from the Kings. When making transactions, they want to take out all their wealth.

Come on, Mr. Grizzly Bear, what do you need?
Just take whatever you want, as long as you give me your first-round pick, I'll trade it for anything!
The NBA's draft prediction and player evaluation system is very mature. Starting from the first year of high school, the top 25 high school students will be five-star high school students, and about 25-100 high school students will be four-star high school students.

In the first year of high school, because everyone's physical development is not yet complete, static and dynamic talents have changed greatly, so it is not easy to confirm who the real superstar player is at this time.

But by the senior year of high school, the players' physical development is basically mature, so most five-star high school students are the targets of the NCAA's D1-level teams, and four-star high school students are also in demand.

When it comes to college, through invitational tournaments, graded league regular seasons and the final March Madness NCAA Tournament, scouts can also have a very clear idea of ​​the overall quality of the players.

Players who may participate in the 2003 class include LeBron James, the star player highly praised by Sports Illustrated, Melo Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, Chris Kaman, Kirk - Hinrich blah blah blah.

Some are five-star high school students, and some are college students who have played in the NCAA for one or two years. The common feature is that they are extremely talented.

Therefore, although this year's high school and college basketball games have not yet begun, NBA teams have long known that the overall quality of this class of players is extremely high, and can even catch up with the 96 golden generation.

The Jazz, who want to rebuild quickly, naturally hope to find gold in this draft.

Who on the team can’t be sent away?

Malone and Stockton retired.

Ostertag is just a blue-collar center.

Marshall joined on a temporary basis to do odd jobs.

Kirilenko is the No. 24 pick who can't shoot.

Moreover, Malone and Stockton can also release 2700 million in salary space.

In the end, the Jazz received the Grizzlies' 03 first-round pick, the Kings' 03 first-round pick and the Lakers' first-round pick, helping the Grizzlies acquire players including Bryant Reeves for 1300 Several junk contracts with annual salaries of [-] yuan have freed up the Grizzlies' salary space.

The Grizzlies acquired Kirilenko, George, Mark Jackson and other players, and used the free salary space to sign the Jazz's free agent Marshall.

The Lakers, who were pulled by the LOGO man, got Sean Battier, a rookie with excellent offensive and defensive skills and online golf intelligence.

All three parties are very satisfied with the transaction.

The Jazz got the three 03 first-round picks they coveted.

The Grizzlies strengthened their shooting and attacking capabilities at the power forward position, and replaced Battier at the small forward position with Kirilenko, who has better athletic ability and static talent.

The Lakers have strengthened the small forward position and cleared some salary space.

At the same time, after seeing that the strong Kidd played well against Mike Bibby in last year's Finals, the Lakers used their free salary space to sign a free agent for $6 million in six years, the equally strong point guard Chauncey Billu. Puss only needs to pay 3370 million in the first year, which is completely within the acceptance range of the Lakers.

Billups averaged 3.8 three-pointers per game with the Timberwolves last year and made 39.4% of his three-pointers. Other reviews were not good.

The Lakers thought they only found a good three-point shooter, but they might make more!
　Let’s get started, I hope you like it
　　
　
(End of this chapter)