LeBron James, your house got robbed.

On March 15, the trade deadline, all teams completed their trades just before the deadline.

After the Warriors and Cavaliers trade fell through, they immediately activated Plan B and instead entered into a three-way trade with the Bucks and Knicks.

The Warriors traded Monta Ellis, Kwame Brown, and Ekpe Udoh to the Bucks in exchange for Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson.

Immediately afterwards, the Warriors traded Stephen Jackson to New York in exchange for Chauncey Billups, who was out for the season, and a first-round pick from the Knicks in 13.

To prepare for a strong showing in the following seasons.

On the other hand, the New York team, boasting two superstars, Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire, has had a very poor season, currently ranking only 8th in the Eastern Conference. Such a record is obviously not satisfactory to the fans.

During the offseason, Chen Shuo suddenly appeared and directly signed Tyson Chandler, thwarting the Knicks' plans.

The Knicks management therefore did not waive Billups' contract to free up salary cap space.

Under Billups' orchestration, the Knicks displayed impressive fighting power, closely following the top group in the Eastern Conference at the beginning of the season.

Unfortunately, Billups suffered a season-ending injury, and with Jeremy Lin being snatched away by Chen Shuo early, the Knicks' point guard position was left with only Shumpert.

The Heat, who recently lost Battier, have now snatched away JR Smith, who was supposed to sign with the Knicks.

With a combination of factors, the Knicks' roster became even more stretched, which is why they were so eager to join this trade, hoping to use Jackson to make up for the lack of depth in their roster.

That trade for Anthony completely drained the Knicks' resources accumulated over the years.

Fortunately, Chen Shuo dismantled the Celtics, further weakening the competition in the East, which prevented the Knicks from falling out of the top eight.

The other team to make a trade was the Lakers. After acquiring Ramon Sessions, they had too many point guards, so they traded veteran Fisher and the 14th first-round pick they got in the trade for Odom to acquire dynamic power forward Jordan Hill.

However, in Chen Shuo's view, the problem of roster depth could not be solved, and even the later F4 era failed to solve this problem.

The Lakers are probably used to this logic: putting a bunch of superstars together is enough to win games and even the championship.

Since the F4 was first formed in 04, the substitute lineup has been completely unwatchable.

In the Finals, Malone was injured and had to leave the game, and Payton was not used to the triangle system. In fact, it was like the two of them, OK and Shaq, were going head-to-head with the entire Pistons team.

At that point, the conflict between OK was irreconcilable, so losing the game was to be expected.

Overall, the trading market has been eerily quiet this year.

The further tightening of the collective bargaining agreement and the fast pace of the shortened season have led many teams to focus their attention on the offseason.

The Cavaliers made no roster changes.

However, they subtly increased the number of offensive and defensive transitions, speeding up the pace of the game compared to when Paul was on the court.

The Cavaliers rank first in the league in both steals and ability to force turnovers, but their scoring from turnovers and transition offense and defense are only in the middle of the league.

In Chen Shuo's view, this was a huge waste of resources, especially when the Cavaliers needed output for their offense.

Chen Shuo wanted to convert these advantages into points.

When he wanted the coaching staff to speed up the pace and increase offensive and defensive transitions, Paul was the first to raise questions.

"Chen, I understand your thoughts."

Then Paul suddenly slowed down his speech, adopting a consultative tone:

"But our player roster isn't a good fit; we don't have those beasts who can attack the basket."

Since their last meeting, Paul and Chen Shuo's relationship has improved considerably, as they now share a more aligned goal, so Paul doesn't want to directly reject Chen Shuo's opinion.

Chen Shuo took everything in.

During that meeting in Xicheng District, the first thing Chen Shuo did was to win over Chris Paul, the team's core player.

Chen Shuo only needed one sentence to win over Paul.

"Chris, I've set goals for you this season."

"I want you to be the MVP."

The only things that can make Paul relinquish possession of the ball are top honors like MVP or FMVP.

Rather than having Paul work behind the scenes, it's better to directly expose this goal.

Competing for honors is not something shameful for players; on the contrary, it is something that should be encouraged.

Before Paul could recover, Chen Shuo launched another attack:

"In the 08 MVP season, do you know where you went wrong?"

Paul cautiously remained silent.

Chen Shuo held up three fingers:

"Records, head-to-head matches, and topics of discussion."

Then Chen Shuo explained the selection logic of the MVP.

The analysis thoroughly examined the 08 MVP race. Paul's advanced stats were superior to Kobe's, but he was inferior in terms of buzz, win-loss record, and their final head-to-head matchup.

Before the final week of the 08 season, the Hornets had the best record in the Western Conference, and Paul was ranked first in the MVP race, ahead of Kobe.

However, in their head-to-head matchup on April 11, the Hornets were completely outmatched by the Lakers and ultimately lost.

In the following week, the Lakers finished the season with four wins, while the Hornets managed only one win in three games, losing their top spot in the Western Conference.

There are no specific criteria for selecting the MVP, so performance at the end of the season is crucial for the MVP selection.

Seeing that Paul was interested, Chen Shuo continued with more drastic measures:

"In terms of the topic, you came to Cleveland from New Orleans and directly built a championship-caliber team."

"The team loses a lot of games when you're not there, which only highlights your importance."

"Compared to LeBron James's marketing of his redemption season, your story is clearly more popular with the media."

Chen Shuo also pointed out Paul's weaknesses:

"In terms of advanced stats, especially assists, the higher the position, the greater the bonus. As a point guard, it's difficult to compete with LeBron James, who is a small forward or even a power forward, in advanced stats."

"Besides, LeBron has always been very good at padding his stats."

As a top student, Paul can naturally understand the algorithms of advanced data, which is a natural disadvantage for point guards.

It's a given that point guards should dish out assists, while assists from small forwards or power forwards are a bonus. If a center can rack up decent assist numbers, they can basically dominate the advanced stats algorithms.

Paul understood Chen Shuo's personality and knew that the other party wouldn't make baseless accusations.

Therefore, they made no secret of their desire for the MVP award.

"Can I get the MVP award?"

Chen Shuo spread his hands and said confidently:

"Regarding our record and head-to-head matchups, our last game of the season is at home against the Miami Heat."

Paul's eyes burned with intensity as he fell into deep thought. When he spoke again, he asked:

"Let's discuss Thompson's role."

Under the lure of the MVP award, Paul finally began to break free from his ball-dominant tyrant persona and started trying to become a true leader.

Learn how to help your teammates achieve a comfortable rhythm and state, rather than making commanding demands and reprimands.

Although Paul only loosened up a little, that was enough, since the Cavaliers didn't have many players who could handle the ball.

In most cases, Chen Shuo still needs Paul to have the ball in his hands to maintain the team's rhythm and minimize turnovers.

Moreover, with the MVP as his carrot, Paul is also willing to compromise on basketball philosophy.

The fact that they didn't directly refuse to accelerate is clear evidence of this.

After suffering a major injury, Paul is simply unable to launch fast breaks on his own, like he did during his Hornets days, when he could fly past three or four players to complete a fast break.

This doesn't mean Paul lacks the ability to orchestrate fast breaks; it's mainly a matter of Paul's decision-making.

On the one hand, Paul's increasingly solid basketball philosophy makes him unwilling to make unnecessary mistakes when speeding up the game.

On the other hand, the Cavaliers don't have a fast-break monster with excellent running and jumping abilities; if you really want to name one, Ariza is the only one who can be considered.

When Chen Shuo brought it up, he naturally took these factors into account.

"We do not pursue the ultimate offensive and defensive transitions, nor do we excessively pursue highly efficient bullying attacks on the basket."

Kerr, Nurse, and Paul all looked over there. What Chen Shuo was talking about were the basics of fast breaks. Without pursuing these, how could they initiate offensive and defensive transitions?

In response, Chen Shuo spoke with utmost seriousness:

"We launch early attacks, taking advantage of the opponent's unsettled defensive positioning and misalignment during the transition between offense and defense, and quickly pass the ball to create opportunities to complete the attack."