First in scoring

Chapter 513 511. We are no longer the North Carolina NBA team
Before the match point, Zhang Yang discussed with Okafor, Felton and Hill that they would hold a party for him for a week after winning the championship.

Starting from the night they won the championship, they really held a party for a week, starting with two nights in Los Angeles and continuing to party for five nights after returning to Charlotte. The three young players, Hill, Jordan, Carlisle, and Bickerstaff took turns to treat the guests, and they had fun every night for seven nights in a row...

Zhang Yang was fine at night, except for the night he hosted the party and stayed a little longer, the rest of the time he would just play one round and then run away. His teammates were used to this. When they were single, they could play however they wanted, but now that they had a partner, they could maintain basic loyalty to each other, which was something worthy of praise no matter where they were.

Okafor won't stay long except to pay the bill.

But Felton and Hill really had a great time. The former was fine, he had always been like this, relying on the self-discipline he had developed while playing with Okafor and Zhang Yang during the season, and when it was time to have fun, he had as much fun as he could; Hill was really happy, his wife even agreed to let him go out and indulge himself.

During the seven years with the Magic, Hill thought his basketball career was over. Who would have thought that he could win a championship as a main player at the age of 7? He did have that thought when he joined the Bobcats in the summer of 36, but he didn't think he had to win a championship. After all, even strong players like Barkley, Payton, and Malone failed to succeed.

But during the day, Zhang Yang was very tired, as his schedule was filled with various team tasks, including fan appreciation meetings, championship parades, activities at City Hall and the State Assembly, investment promotion meetings... As the face of the team, he had to participate in each of them, and he attended 6 events in 10 days.

In a blink of an eye, it was June 6th. After the last party on the night of the 28nd, in the past 22 days, he either stayed at home, accompanied the little bitch who came back from playing a vicious female supporting role to complain about having no work, designed a set of clothes for his mother as a model, and played baseball with his younger brother; or went to the stadium to meet with the management and coaching staff to discuss matters related to the draft.

Yesterday afternoon, Sandu took his team to New York. Today the training ground was empty. Zhang Yang thought about resuming training. He got up in the morning and called Jarrett Young to make an appointment for training. He also helped his old friend earn some overtime pay during the offseason.

There are only a few thousand points left to reach 14 shooting points. Hurry up and save up enough to start the next wave of tasks.

Although he hadn't touched basketball seriously for more than ten days, he didn't feel unfamiliar with it. At the moment of winning the championship, he felt as if he owned the whole world, which made him extremely fascinated.

After a nine-to-five day, Zhang Yang returned home and prepared dinner with the little bitch who had just returned from a design class with her mother.

Emma Roberts hasn't received any good scripts since she turned 15 and started to look like an adult. Occasionally, like the one a few days ago, she played a vase or a vicious female supporting role, or some scripts that looked bad at first glance. But she didn't get discouraged. She continued to study and learn new things. Now, she got inspiration from Zhang's mother. Since she has a figure like a clothes hanger, she might as well learn design. Maybe she can open a fashion brand or a professional design brand in the future.

After dinner, around 7 o'clock, Zhang Yang and Emma Roberts sat in front of the TV to watch the player introductions of the draft.

Emma Roberts asked: "Was it difficult to choose this year's draft? You went to several meetings in the past few days."

Zhang Yang responded: "It is a bit troublesome. This draft is very important for us to continue to maintain our competitiveness."

"Because of Jarrett and Michael?"

Emma Roberts heard from Zhang Yang a few days ago that the Bobcats' backup point guard Jack and a very important small forward in the offensive basketball lineup, Pietrus, have not completed their contract renewals, and both are planning to test the free market.

Zhang Yang nodded: "Rick and Bernie both think that we can't keep them."

"Didn't agree on salary?"

“No, the boss doesn’t have an issue with annual salary. Our salary has already exceeded the cap. Even if they want an annual salary of seven or eight million, the boss will agree after gritting his teeth.

It's a question of the length of the contract. According to our plan, we can only give a short one-year contract. Next season, Brad (Miller), Kendrick (Perkins), and Mike (Miller) are all in their contract years, and their combined salaries are a little over 1 million.

If we don't sign a new long-term contract this summer, next summer we will only have big contracts for myself, Raymond, and Emeka, plus Paul (Millsap) retaining his bird rights and some rookie contracts, our total salary can be reduced to around 5000 million. Even if the salary cap drops due to economic reasons and is not as high as last summer's 6200 million, there is a high probability that we can free up a salary space of tens of millions.

Many veterans from the classes of 01 to 03 may have their contracts expire next summer. We may not have much chance to compete for top players, but the management is very interested in veteran players worth tens of millions or middle-class players.

But there are definitely some teams that can guess our intentions. As long as Jarrett and Michael enter the free market, there will definitely be teams that will offer them long-term contracts.

If we don’t match the contract, we will lose two key backups. If we match the contract, we will miss the 2010 free market, so Rick and Bernie are so worried. "

Emma Roberts thought for a moment and asked, "Can't we negotiate with them to renew the contract for one year first, and then sign a long-term contract after the free market next summer?"

Zhang Yang knew that Xiao Bitch didn’t understand the salary rules, and he explained: “The premise for us to free up salary space to sign players next summer is to give up Jarrett and Michael’s bird rights. After signing other players, there will be no space to re-sign them, and they will still have to find jobs again.

And now, we have just won the championship, they are at the peak of their value, no one can guarantee that we can continue to win the championship next season, and they will be a year older by then. Rick and Bernie have clearly understood that they will not choose to take such a risk.

So unless we give up free agency next summer, we won’t be able to keep them.”

Emma Roberts understood and sighed, "It's still about money... Money is still very important. You can't blame them for this. Why do they have more troubles after winning the championship?"

Zhang Yang: "It's like this. After winning the championship, it's natural to want to continue the path of success. We choose stability and try to keep the previous lineup. If we don't win the championship, it means we have to change. For the sake of future plans, given Bernie and Rick's personalities, they directly used the two as scapegoats for losing the championship and announced that they would not renew their contracts."

Emma Roberts: "Oh, it's just like filming a TV series. If the first one is successful, you want to continue the success. But because of the success of the first one, the actors' salaries have increased, but the producer's budget is not that high, so they can only change people. If the new role is well chosen, it may continue to be successful. If it is not well chosen, there will be no after the second part... In this case, then why not keep them and continue the previous lineup? The newcomers introduced next summer may not be as useful as them, right?"

Zhang Yang: "That's true, but the problem we are facing now is not just the contract renewal of the two of them. It is also difficult to guarantee the future status of Brad and Grant. I don't know how motivated they can be after winning the championship they dream of. Kendrick may not renew his contract next summer... Whether we renew their contracts or not, it is basically impossible to continue the 11-man rotation in the finals. The only thing that makes us feel fortunate is that Jarrett and Michael both play a greater role in the regular season, and Aaron (Afflalo) is improving quickly and can play stably in the playoffs. But we still have time to consider. If we can select two substitutes with excellent combat effectiveness with the three draft picks this year, many problems can be solved."

"Two, who can be selected with the 60th pick?"

"It's hard to say. If that guy doesn't get selected, our back line will be more solid."

Emma Roberts: "Who? How could someone lose if he has the ability?"

Zhang Yang recalled the scouting report sent by Tellem and responded, "Wade's schoolmate, a 23-year-old player with decent speed, excellent strength, and good long-range shooting touch. His parents are both former professional athletes, and his father played in the NBA. He may have inherited this.

But his shortcomings are also obvious. He has poor jumping ability, bad ball control, and poor passing skills. In college, his assist-to-turnover ratio was 1:1.

And because his father abandoned him and his mother, he has an extremely strong personality and is unwilling to accept help and guidance from others. He was already Mr. Basketball in Wisconsin when he graduated from high school, but his technical progress was very little obvious in his four years of college. Only his shooting basics improved, and his breakthroughs looked better, but it was only because he grew older and stronger, and he was older than most college basketball players.

Perhaps because he is a single parent, he is rather indifferent in interpersonal relationships and is unwilling to make friends. Also, because he is strong-willed and competitive, he had conflicts with his teammates many times in college due to their poor performance. Some experts believe that he will become an unstable factor in the locker room.

Therefore, he is outside the top 50 in the prediction lists of major media outlets. "

Emma Roberts: "It seems that you are very optimistic about this older rookie. If he is not selected by a team at the 59th pick, Jordan will definitely meet your requirements to select him."

"The 60th pick is not bad for a year."

"One year?"

"Yes, a player who is not good-looking in the other 29 teams and no team selected him at 59th pick will definitely only be given a one-year contract, which is likely to be non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed. Once he proves that he can play in the NBA, it will be difficult for us to keep him according to the Arenas clause."

"The 60th pick is good for one year... Who will be chosen with the two first-round picks? Will the lottery pick be Lawson?"

The Bobcats have two first-round picks this year, one is their own 30th pick, and the other is the Kings' top 08 protected first-round pick from the 5 lottery. The Kings had a record of 35 wins and 47 losses in the just-concluded season, ranking 11th from the bottom. They did not draw the top three picks, so the Bobcats got the th pick.

"Lawson has had hangovers that affected his games many times. I have clearly refused to select him. The boss agreed not to select the North Carolina player. Anyway, we don't need to use the name of 'North Carolina NBA Team' to attract fans to buy tickets..."

...

The two chatted casually, and the time came to 8 o'clock in the evening. The draft conference began, and the two also focused their attention on the live broadcast of the draft conference.

In the draft lottery in mid-May, the Clippers, who had been inexplicably bad, got the No. 5 pick with an absolute advantage.

The Timberwolves drew the second pick and the Thunder drew the third pick.

The Timberwolves got this year's top three protected first-round pick from the Wizards, and the No. 4 pick is also theirs.

5号签归属尼克斯队、6号签活塞队、7号签勇士队、8号签猛龙队、9号签雄鹿队、10号签步行者队、11号签山猫队、12号签篮网队、13号签火箭队、14号签太阳队。

The Clippers selected Blake Griffin from the University of Oklahoma with the first pick.

The Timberwolves selected Tyreke Evans with the second pick.

The Thunder selected Hakeem Thabeet from the University of Connecticut with the third pick.

With the 4th pick, the Timberwolves selected Spanish golden boy Ricky Rubio.

Zhang Yang thinks there is nothing wrong with the top three picks. The Clippers will definitely pick the top favorite. Their management may not be smart in selecting people, but they will not be clever. They always pick the biggest favorites honestly. This way, there are not too many unpopular picks. Even Sugar Man only looked particularly unpopular in the 98th draft that was full of geniuses. He would probably have been ignored in another weak year for the draft.

The Timberwolves have always had a good eye for the draft, and Evans was a top-five pick, so it was normal that they made the pick.

The Thunder have Rose, Durant, and Jordan, and there are talents in the 1/3/5 positions. Jordan can play both the 4.2 and positions. Thabeet had a great three years in college, averaging blocks per game and was known as the "next Mutombo". Since there are no shooting guards in the lottery area, and there is only one other inside player, Jordan Hill, who is predicted to be in the top ten, it is reasonable to choose Thabeet...

After all, no one would have thought that Thabeet's progress in the NBA would be so slow. If he were in the 90s or the beginning of the century, perhaps some teams would be willing to be patient with him. In any case, in Zhang Yang's opinion, the Thunder, where Rose and Durant have already played well, will most likely not be too patient with Thabeet, just like the Grizzlies, which started to show results after 09.

But after the Timberwolves selected Evans, who had always played point guard in college, they also selected Rubio... Will Evans still be so miserable?
With the 5th pick, the Knicks selected Stephen Curry from Davidson College!

When Zhang Yang heard the elementary school student's name, he seemed to hear the explosive roar of a mad scientist!
(End of this chapter)