The longest river

Chapter 109 I'll Take Care of Jordan
Just like last year, the Pacers held an opening dinner the night before training camp officially began.

Sitting in the same place again, Yang Shuai's perspective and mindset were completely different.

Not only because he is no longer a novice, but also because his skills have improved significantly since the last dinner party.

Of course, the most important thing is that the person sitting at the head of the table has changed from Brown to Bird.

In high spirits, he looked around at some of the team's personnel changes for the new season.

The biggest change for the Pacers this season is that with Robertson's retirement, they have lost their starting point guard.

The key issue is that they didn't sign a suitable replacement in the free market, only a backup point guard named Jerome Allen.

It's not that the Pacers' management was inactive, but rather that their biggest focus this past summer was re-signing Miller, whose contract was expiring.

Theoretically speaking, Miller would not leave Indiana.

Besides Miller being an extremely loyal player, Pacers owner Simon also greatly admires Miller.

Take the draft as an example. The Pacers' 11th pick was Steve Alford, a native of Indiana. It was Simon who gave Walsh the most support, which is why the Pacers ultimately selected Miller.

Moreover, Yang Shuai saw Simon appear in the locker room and communicate with Miller more than once last season.

Even so, Miller's contract renewal was still inevitably affected by Jordan's contract.

Ultimately, Miller and the Pacers reached a two-year contract until 2028, with the first year's salary reaching $1125 million, which is not only among the top salaries in the league now, but also the highest salary in Pacers history.

The Pacers aren't exactly a powerhouse team, and their market size isn't that big. The fact that they offered Miller such a large contract is a reward for his "loyalty."

There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but with the salary cap only around $2400 million for the new season, it severely limits the Pacers' options for strengthening the team.

In addition, Dale Davis and Antonio Davis's contracts also expired this summer, and they received good renewal contracts. Their combined annual salary for the new season will be more than 1100 million.

With the addition of Schmitz and McGee, the Pacers' options for strengthening the team are effectively shut down.

Therefore, the Pacers' point guard position in the new season will once again be dominated by Workman and Best.

The good news is that Best has also made great progress, which Yang Shuai could clearly feel during the Summer League.

He even thought Best would win the competition with Workman and become the team's starting point guard.

In reality, neither Walkman nor Best would be a good starting point guard for a championship-contending team.

And there's more good news: Scott ultimately decided to spend the last season of his career in Indiana.

This summer, the Lakers extended an invitation to this team veteran, hoping he could return to the Lakers to help Kobe develop.

But in the end, perhaps because he was somewhat unwilling to accept the loss last season, or perhaps because he felt that Indiana might be able to achieve something, he ultimately chose to stay.

This differs from what Yang Shuai knew.

Because if Scott and Kobe hadn't been teammates, it's hard to say whether he would still fawn over Kobe.

Then, regarding the wing position, the team's biggest signing this summer was wing player Vincent Ascu, whose new season contract is worth $200 million.

However, it wasn't a signing, but a trade; the Pacers sent Dunn Ferrell and Zahn Tabak to the SuperSonics in exchange for him.

For the past four seasons, Ascü has been a rotation player for the SuperSonics. He is a solid defender and has good playmaking ability, which has strengthened the Pacers' wing depth.

Finally, regarding the inside game, Tabak's performance as the team's backup center last season was actually not bad, and he was also the main player in the Ascu trade.

The Pacers traded him primarily to make room for Jermaine O'Neal.

Jermaine O'Neal's start to the season is much more comfortable than Yang Shuai's last season.

Sure enough, once the coaching staff was changed, the entire atmosphere became very different.

Of course, some things remain unchanged.

He looked around, and when their eyes met, he could still sense some wary or even hostile gazes.

Although he is no longer isolated, there are still many people who are at odds with him.

The most obvious one of them is McGee.

Everyone knows that it was Bird's strong recommendation that led him to join the Pacers, and now Bird has come to the Pacers as head coach.

McGee, who is in direct competition with him and is likely to be replaced, is feeling extremely threatened.

Halfway through the dinner, as is tradition, everyone shared their outlook for the new season.

Just like last year, Scott was the first to give a speech.

Scott's speech differed slightly from last year's, but the overall direction remained the same: positive and optimistic.

He believes the team has the ability to compete with the Bulls in the new season.

Others followed suit, after all, if you don't count the two games Jordan deliberately lost for Father's Day, they were the only team to have ever beaten the Bulls in the playoffs.

Then, when it came to Miller, the atmosphere became serious.

Miller isn't particularly optimistic about the new season, not because of the Bulls, but because he believes the competition in the Eastern Conference will be fiercer than ever. While the Magic's strength has plummeted since O'Neal left for the Lakers, the Knicks, Heat, and Hawks, besides the Bulls, have significantly increased their competitiveness for the new season.

The Knicks made two big moves in the summer. The first was signing Allan Houston from the Pistons, which greatly improved the team's perimeter strength.
The second move was to send Anthony Mason Jr. to the Hornets in exchange for Larry Johnson.

In other words, the Knicks could field a starting lineup close to All-Star caliber, including Starks, Houston, Larry Johnson, Oakley, and Ewing, in the new season.

The reason they were able to do this can be traced back to the contract extension with Ewing in the summer of 1995, a two-year, $2172 million contract that was an unconventional one.

The contract's first year salary was as high as $1872 million, but the second year, which is the new season, was only $300 million.

This was originally intended for Jordan, but he didn't come in the end, and they used that space to take over Houston and Johnson.

On the Heat's side, Riley continued his 2K operations, signing two near-All-Star reinforcements, Dan Mallley and PJ Brown.

The Hawks are similar. In addition to acquiring Laettner in a near-loss-free trade last season, they also acquired Mutombo in free agency, suddenly elevating their interior strength to the top tier.

Besides the Pistons and Hornets, the Bullets are also formidable teams. The Eastern Conference this season will definitely be the most competitive in recent years.

To be fair, Miller is also quite adept at demoralizing his team.

But just like last year, what he said is actually correct. To win, optimism alone is far from enough; you need to have a good understanding of and respect for your opponents.

The serious atmosphere was followed by the annual rookie prank segment to liven up the atmosphere.

This time, Jermaine O'Neal is in a worse situation than Yang Shuai, because he is the only rookie on the team this year.

He was asked by McKee to do the same thing as Best did last year: sing a song by a female singer in public.

Jermaine O'Neal was shy and introverted, and had no idea how to start a conversation, which made him sweat profusely.

Seeing O'Neal's predicament, Yang Shuai finally spoke up.

“Spare our ears. I forced him to speak back in Boracay. Believe me, you definitely don’t want to hear it.”

Since the person in the predicament was McGee, Yang Shuai decided to help O'Neal out of the predicament.

Yang Shuai's words drew laughter from the audience. Although Jermaine O'Neal didn't sing, the desired effect was achieved.

"Then let him dance." McGee wasn't going to let O'Neal off so easily.

He didn't know what Yang Shuai had done in Long Beach, but he couldn't possibly force O'Neal to sing and dance; that would seem too fake.

If it were Garnett, he would probably jump up and show off his moves when he heard the request to dance. You know, he once told Yang Shuai that his footwork was all learned from dance steps.

But O'Neal was sweating even more, and he even started scratching his head.

Yang Shuai thinks that Jermaine O'Neal is definitely a fake Black person.

But since we've already helped, there's no reason to give up halfway.

"I think we should have him go buy us some donuts now."

Yang Shuai's words immediately piqued the interest of several team members.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Dale Davis chimed in.

McGee didn't object.

It's not that they suddenly became nice; it's just that it's late at night, and buying donuts isn't an easy thing.

Jermaine O'Neal was also somewhat at a loss, because he had also been training at O'Clair High School in the summer and was not familiar with the layout of the area around the arena.

Asking him to buy donuts late at night is probably more difficult than singing or dancing.

But at that moment, Yang Shuai waved to Jermaine O'Neal.

Jermaine O'Neal walked up to Yang Shuai with a puzzled look in his eyes, and then bent down at Yang Shuai's prompting.

After listening to Yang Shuai's whisper, O'Neal's tense expression instantly brightened, and he even smiled, nodded, and was about to leave.

Yang Shuai called him back and gave him some cash.

When they saw Jermaine O'Neal jogging out of the banquet, Davis and McGee were caught off guard.

After a brief pause, the dinner preview will continue.

Now it was Yang Shuai's turn.

When Yang Shuai stood up, everyone else present, including Bird, turned to look at him.

Regardless of whether those gazes were loving or hateful towards him.

Given the labels attached to Yang Shuai, coupled with what he accomplished in last season's playoffs, Yang Shuai currently enjoys the highest level of attention on the Pacers, even surpassing Miller.

Then Yang Shuai stood up and said something that shocked everyone, even Bird's eyes widened.

"If we meet the Bulls again in the playoffs, I'll take care of Michael."

(End of this chapter)