I just want to play healthy basketball

Chapter 201 A Prosperous Free Trading Market (Big Chapter)

The NBA has always opened the door to the free trade market on July 7.

However, at the beginning of free market transactions, there is still a period of freezing.

The main thing is to leave time for everyone to negotiate, to be able to shop around and strive for a good price.

In fact, before the free market officially opened, many teams and players had already started secret negotiations, but they could not openly contact, meet, and announce the final decision until the market opened.

Usually by mid-July, when the freeze period ends, a large number of signing agreements will be reached.

However, basically the signing agreements reached in July are all little-known small roles and small contracts.

For example, this time O'Neal Garnett swapped owners, and then the Timberwolves brokers made a difference and sold O'Neal to Boston. This was all completed in August and September when the free market was the most popular and tense.

There is no doubt that these two incredible transactions have contributed to the prosperity of this year's free market.

It can be seen from these two handovers that the two giants of the Lakers and Celtics have made moves one after another, and have done a lot of work to compete for the championship next season.

It is foreseeable that, in addition to the defending champion Bucks, there will be a super strong team in the East and West this season that can compete with the Bucks.

So what's the reason for other teams that want to go further to be indifferent and do nothing?
However, the biggest pressure came to the Bucks.

The Bucks management thought that the Lakers would do a lot this offseason. Who would have thought that the Lakers would trade O'Neal for Garnett alone!
Single trade, no picks added!
This is too showy!
You know, although Garnett is one of the best superstars in the league, he has never been a player who dominates the league.

And O'Neal is the undisputed strongest player!
To evaluate this deal from the level of strength, if the Lakers take the initiative to send O'Neal away and trade for Garnett from the Timberwolves, then they will suffer.

More importantly, the salaries of the two are not equal.

In 1996, O'Neal signed a seven-year, $7 million contract with the Lakers.

Immediately afterwards in 1997, Garnett and the Timberwolves signed a six-year, $6 million super contract that was also a record.

In other words, Garnett's contract with a larger salary but a shorter year is more expensive.

The Lakers used O'Neal to trade for Garnett, not to mention "high salary and low ability", and it also took up salary space.

But even so, the Lakers did not hesitate to do so.

That's because it all depends on peers.

It has to be said that He Li actually facilitated this transaction invisibly.

After all, if the Lakers want to re-create the Lakers dynasty with the triple crown in five years, they have to get rid of He Li and the Bucks with He Li in the past two years.

As long as He Li is still on a rookie contract, as long as He Li is not seriously injured, the Bucks will be more competitive than any team.

The Lakers know very well that if they want to beat the Bucks, they must have a top forward player, not a center player like O'Neal who dominates the penalty area.

The Lakers management is not a dead set, on the contrary, the Lakers management headed by the logo man is one of the best industry elites in the league.

The logo man had planned to leave the Lakers after the establishment of the Lakers dynasty, because the Lakers were a little impetuous and swollen for two years, and they became less and less aware of his importance.

So, he's ready to take his managerial talents to the next team.

However, after the Lakers lost 0 to 4 to the Bucks this summer, the Lakers owner Bass almost didn't kneel down to the logo man.

After the old Buss tried hard to keep the logo man, the logo man returned to the helm and took the Lakers to take off.

Just some time ago, through this unfathomable operation, O'Neal's single-for-Garnett transaction was facilitated.

From the logo man's point of view, does O'Neal lose money by trading for Garnett alone?
It's not a disadvantage at all, Garnett has defense, top defense!Garnett can not only defend alone, but also assist in defense, supporting the team's defensive system.

But in addition, Garnett can still attack, can block, and can rebound.

Garnett can do anything a big man can do, and he can do things that most big men can't.

More importantly, Garnett's size and footsteps allow him to try to defend against He Li alone.

This is very important, fully increasing the value of Garnett and making up the gap between Garnett's "premium contract" and O'Neal.

Besides, the logo man has always been very optimistic about Kobe, but he also feels headaches about Kobe's growing desire to make shots.

The Lakers were easily swept by the sudden rise of the Bucks at the critical moment of establishing a dynasty for three consecutive championships, which exposed many problems among the OK combination.

With the true strength of the OK combination, it is no problem to play against the Lakers until the sixth game. No matter how bad it is, they can win back a victory from the Bucks, and they will not be swept cleanly by the Bucks.

But the result is that the OK combination dislikes each other, and ignores the feelings of other role players. The two leading players of the team are separated from each other. How can the team run at high speed and move forward quickly?
At this time, it is indeed time for the Lakers to have to change their appearance.

As for Garnett coming to the Lakers, who is the boss of the Lakers?

Needless to say, Kobe had already won the championship before Garnett came!

It is also because Garnett does not have possession of the ball, and Garnett is also willing to come to the Lakers to fight for the championship, so this deal will be concluded in early August instead of entrusting it until September.

As for whether to care about O'Neill's feelings, that's naturally not a concern.

Another reason why the Lakers traded O'Neal instead of Kobe was that O'Neal extended a three-year $00 million super contract in 3 ahead of schedule.

Through this early contract extension, the Lakers directly extended O'Neal's contract to 2006.

It can be said that almost O'Neal's peak period was booked in advance.

But the problem is that in the past two years, O'Neal has not thought about making progress, and has become more and more lazy. He has started playing big names, not training, and even using injuries as an excuse to take rotations.

But in the summer, O'Neal went to make movies, record songs, and even went to nightclubs vigorously.

The personality problem of black people is a big problem. Many black players have signed big contracts and stopped playing seriously after they are not short of money.

Peak O'Neal does have the ability to dominate the league, but this dominance becomes smaller and smaller because of O'Neal's character and as time goes by.

Especially after He Li turned out this season, whether O'Neal still has absolute dominance is a question mark!

Next season, it's hard to say whether O'Neal will dominate the league or He Li will be No. 1 in the league.

Therefore, in order to consider the present and focus on the future, the Lakers need to get rid of O'Neal.

Moreover, it is not simply a trade from the Timberwolves to Garnett.

Under the influence of the logo man, the Timberwolves management has also become smarter and smarter.

O'Neal's water was too deep, and the Timberwolves knew they couldn't grasp it.

In the past two years, O'Neal played big names, ate his own food, did not sign sports brand things, and made his own brand of sneakers and props.

The most important thing is that even the agent who had been with him for ten years was kicked out, and his uncle was his agent.

The most coquettish thing is that his agent just helped O'Neal win a three-year contract extension with the Lakers in 00, and after signing the contract, he let go of the grind.

To put it simply, playing in the NBA is not about fighting, but about understanding the world.

O'Neill, a fat man, has huge interests coveted by the entire league, but suddenly goes to the solo gang. Wouldn't he be besieged by groups?

Therefore, after the Timberwolves traded to O'Neal, they didn't keep it for themselves.

Indeed, for a super giant like O'Neal, staying in the Timberwolves can sell tickets.

But if it is purely for selling tickets, there is no need to trade Garnett at all. Garnett himself is a "big box office"!
The Timberwolves management also knows that just trading O'Neal can't help the Timberwolves win the championship, so they can only focus on the future and use O'Neal to trade from other teams to get the future they want.

Talking about the small boss of the Timberwolves, the vice president Kevin McHale himself was born in the Celtics.

Under the operation of Kevin McHale, O'Neal was decisively sent to the Celtics.

And the Celtics are also trying to rebuild their glory, feeling that the previous Celtic twin stars could not bring them the glory they wanted.

Then it's better to take the opportunity to change and change to a new lineup of O'Neal and Pierce, one inside and one outside.

In the eyes of the Celtics, O'Neal is still the most dominant player in the league.

For the Celtics to win the championship, they have always needed such a super giant who can set the Poseidon inside.

Besides, Pierce is indeed much better than Antoine Walker.

In addition, Pierce is also one of the few stars in the league who can defend He Li alone.Of course, it can't be prevented, so let's talk about it.

At the moment when offensive and defensive striker stars are becoming more and more expensive, it is undoubtedly a wise move for the Celtics to keep Pierce.

Another good thing about the Celtics trading O'Neal is that the Celtics have signed a lot of first-round picks in the past few years, but they have no time to cultivate them.

Now that the Celtics have returned to the playoffs, the draft picks in the next few years are not important, so it is also timely to pack Antoine Walker and send it to the Timberwolves, which can be regarded as getting rid of the burden.

The Timberwolves seem to be at a disadvantage, but they are not at a disadvantage.

The Timberwolves have many potential rookies, such as Joe Johnson.

In addition, the Timberwolves were punished by the league for draft picks because of the yin-yang contract, but starting from next season, the punishment has ended.

In other words, starting next season, the Timberwolves can finally choose to play badly.

Although it is not yet known whether the next year will be a small draft year or a big draft year.

But just the talented high school student LeBron James from Ohio State performed quite well!

Regarding the draft, the Timberwolves are serious, otherwise they would not boldly select Garnett.

This time, the Timberwolves said that they should be bolder and carry out the bad show to the end!It's not too much to fight for the No. [-] lottery, right?
……

With the completion of the big deals of the Lakers and Celtics, the free trade market has become more prosperous.

First, the Mavericks snatched Popeye Jones from the Wizards.

Popeye Jones has become a free agent this offseason. As a special existence who defended He Li alone last season, he was chased by several teams this season.

Even the Lakers offered an olive branch to Popeye Jones, but in the end the Mavericks gave more money, and Popeye Jones fell into the arms of the Mavericks.

Unlike other teams actively trading strikers to strengthen, the Bucks did the opposite and traded Tim Thomas, a hot potato.

Originally Tim Thomas was undoubtedly a premium contract!

But after having a championship, plus the market for strikers this offseason.

Tim Thomas's tens of millions of annual salary contract is not unacceptable.

Taking advantage of the offseason, the Bucks sent Tim Thomas to Seattle to exchange for some role players from the good brother Supersonics, a first-round pick in 03, plus some cash.

Overall, it's a win-win deal.

The Sonics are a playoff team, and the trade value of next year's draft picks is not high.

And getting a Tim Thomas for nothing, although not as good as the Lakers' Garnett and the King's Peja, is better than most small forwards in the West.

This also makes the Sonics more competitive in the playoffs next season.

As for the Bucks, it is mainly to relieve the salary pressure of Michael Reed who just signed with an average annual salary of 700 million.

Fortunately, he signed a 7-year 5000 million long-term contract. In recent years, Reed has only taken 600 million.

After trading Tim Thomas, the Bucks still have room for reinforcement of 500 million salary.

The off-season continues, and so does He Li's training camp.

However, at this time, He Li received a call from an association.

The men's basketball team went to the World Cup and only got No.6, which was a disastrous defeat.

After deeply realizing the importance of He Li, a certain association heard that He Li held a training camp in Milwaukee, so they discussed with He Li, can the men's basketball team come to Milwaukee for training?

Originally, the men's basketball team would fly to Canada in mid-August to play a warm-up match with the Canadian men's basketball team and prepare for the World Championships.

However, there is still a week to go, and it is useless to just recuperate in the country. It is better to work on the lineup with He Li as soon as possible, and strive for a good result in the World Championships.

He Li was noncommittal about this, so he acquiesced.

In fact, the men's basketball team can come to his training camp.

It just so happens that He Li needs the team to test his state of play next.

He Li took the men's basketball team and played a training game with a team composed of random NBA players, which would be more or less effective.

In addition, the lineup was adjusted in the training camp in advance, which also avoided the sudden encounter with the Canadian team, which would be abused in a warm-up match.

He Li has been winning games all the time, but he doesn't want to have a group of CBA teammates, so he keeps losing!

He Li chose to join the national team in order to win glory for the country.

After negotiating with someone, He Li continued to carry out the training plan in an orderly manner.

Unexpectedly, at this time, a fat man got the news from nowhere and came to visit suddenly.

"The Bucks need veteran reinforcements next season, right? He Li, do you think I'm suitable?" Barkley ran up to He Li and said.

Witnessing the top [-] superstars being so humble, what else can He Li say?

Of course he agreed!
Just in time, He Li needs a fatter and stronger player to give him a better confrontation.

(End of this chapter)