NBA: I am the god of basketball

Chapter 172

On June 6th, the Orlando Magic team held a championship parade. The entire Orlando was empty, and everyone gathered on the parade route to celebrate the team's second championship.

Standing on the parade bus, Wang Chao, Howard and other team players kept waving to the fans on the sidelines, causing bursts of cheers like waves.

Among them, Wang Chao's name is undoubtedly the most popular.

There are two people in the Magic team with subtle expressions. One is Howard, who considers himself the core and boss of the team, and the other is the general manager of the team, Smith.

The former once again felt that Wang Chao's popularity in the city of Orlando has completely surpassed him. Whether it is the tactical status of the team or the status in the hearts of the fans, he has been completely overtaken by Wang Chao. Now Wang Chao is Orlando The hero of the city.

As for the latter, after learning about Wang Chao's growing popularity, he felt a strong sense of threat.

The existence of players like Wang Chao is sometimes not a good thing for the team's management.

Especially last year, Wang Chao actually used the threat of submitting a trade application to forcibly sway the team's management's signing plan.

At that time, Smith was pressured by the team owner and had no choice but to compromise. After all, Wang Chao and the Magic were in the honeymoon period and had just won the championship for the team. They think so) earning a lot of money, no matter what they say, it is impossible to let this big fish go.

Smith's original plan was to use Wang Chao's signing suggestion to prove that he did not have a professional draft vision in subsequent games, so as to regain his rights.

But the fact is that under Wang Chao's operation, the Magic team not only achieved the second record in history of 70 wins and 12 losses in the regular season, but also successfully defended and won the second championship. The team's undercover performance also proved that the management's original plan was wrong.

This is very dangerous for him as the general manager of the team. Now the outside world is full of people who laugh at the incompetence of the Magic's management. Wang Chao, relying on that group of useless management, the Magic will never be able to escape the fate of a bad team.

The team's results are important, but what's the point of winning the championship if it's not because of the various operations that the general manager has strategized?Doesn't this mean that it doesn't matter whoever is the general manager?
At this moment, Smith was already thinking about how to drive Wang Chao out of the team.

He doesn't want to have an overlord like Jordan, Kobe, and James in the team who can command the management at will, even if this overlord can win the championship for the team!

And he acted quickly.

On June 6, the NBA Draft 24 kicked off at Madison Square Garden in New York.

This year's draft was quite different from Wang Chao's impression.

Although the No. [-] pick still belonged to the Washington Wizards, they also used this No. [-] pick to select John Wall.

Among the 2010 rookies, Wall is an absolute star player. His physical fitness is at the top level even in the NBA. His extreme speed, strong body and proficient guard skills make him highly anticipated by the league. .

Although the draft picks from the second pick to the fifth pick have changed, they are still those teams that are at the bottom of the league. The players they pick are not much different from the original history. Turner should have been selected by the Philadelphia 76ers, but here he was selected by the Timberwolves, who won the second pick.

Small forward Wesley Johnson, who was originally to be selected by the Timberwolves with the fourth overall pick, was selected by the 76ers with the third overall pick.

From the perspective of the future, these players are just mediocre role players, and they have been unknown throughout their careers, but they are promising future stars in the draft. They are all players with extremely strong physical fitness. With good skills, you can become a star player.

It's a pity that they all fell in the process of polishing technology in the end.

What is more worth mentioning is that DeMarcus Cousins, who was originally selected by the Kings with the fifth overall pick, was snatched away by the new fifth overall pick winner, the Golden State Warriors, at this time and space.

Wang Chao was a little dumbfounded when he saw this result, is this TM open?
Cousins ​​will indeed join the Warriors in the future, but at that time he tore his Achilles tendon and was no longer an All-Star center.

But before the injury, Cousins ​​was still very strong. At his peak, he averaged 27+11+5 assists per game in the regular season. Although he failed to prove himself in terms of record, it is enough to prove that he can play such a luxurious top superstar. Its mighty.

Unexpectedly, the butterfly's wings slapped fiercely, and it actually slapped him to the Warriors.

Just imagine the configuration of Curry + Thompson + Green + Cousins ​​a few years later... Durant is crying!

……

Like Cousins, the draft picks of Paul George and Gordon Hayward have also changed slightly, but they are still selected by the Pacers and Jazz.

This is not surprising. NBA teams mainly refer to the potential and development prospects of players when drafting. Except for star players like Wall, whose talent far exceeds that of others, the choice of other players is more Consider the needs of the team's existing lineup. ,

Both the Pacers and the Jazz want a good offensive and defensive small forward, and apart from these two teams, the teams in the draft are more inclined to choose big players inside, so even The draft picks were a few late, and the two teams still picked their favorite players.

The Warriors are a special case. They lack inside players. In the original historical process, after the Kings selected Cousins ​​with the fifth pick, the Warriors selected Ai Pai with the sixth pick. Udo is also an inside player. A brutal inside player with outstanding speed and jumping ability among inside players. He is a player who is good at protecting the frame and blocking shots. He can also fit the Warriors' running and bombing tactics.

For this player, Wang Chao's impression is that the Warriors seem to use him as a leftover from trading Bogut, and trade him to the Bucks together with Monta Ellis.

The Warriors can use the opportunity to select Cousins, which can be described as a blood profit.

The Kings, who failed to get Cousins, took the next best thing and chose Greg Monroe.

Detroit Pistons: "???"

Since the subsequent draft situation is not important, it is not worth mentioning.

What makes Wang Chao more concerned is that the Magic's draft this time is not like the previous two years, where they can only watch others play.

Even though this season's 70 wins in the regular season and winning the playoffs led to the draft pick being the last No. 30 pick in the first round, there is still a sense of participation anyway.

Then, the Magic selected a small forward named Lazar Hayward with the NO.30 pick in the first round. Although they are named Hayward as Gordon Hayward, they are very different.

This Hayward is a standard weirdo. He only played two seasons in the NBA, averaging 2.9 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game. He was waived after two seasons and has been without the ball since then.

This unknown player in the NBA has no reputation at all, but he once publicly claimed that he can see ghosts, is a psychic, and can see dead souls since he was a child...

Wang Chao wasn't sure if this guy was talking nonsense for eyeballs. If he really believed so in his heart, then this was a more bizarre existence than Diping talking about Owen.

It's no big deal for the Magic to choose Lazar Hayward. The pick for this pick is a lottery, and it's a lottery with a very low probability. The chance of getting a good player is almost zero.

But in fact, Wang Chao can still be selected. After all, as a traveler, he knows the high-quality players hidden in the second round of the draft every year.

For example, in the 2010 draft, there were Hassan Whiteside, Lance Stephenson in the second round, and there was also an undrafted rookie named Jeremy Lin.

But during the draft, the Magic management did not communicate with Wang Chao at all.

Although the team management does not need to communicate with the players themselves when choosing a rookie, Wang Chao's situation is special. All the signings of the Magic last season were carried out under his suggestion, and the players he suggested signing They have performed well during the season. It stands to reason that if the Magic want to strengthen and become stronger in the summer, they should ask and refer to Wang Chao's opinion, but the result is that Wang Chao has not received any information at all.

Obviously, the management of the Magic team no longer wants Wang Chao to dictate the team's signings. Don't look at the success of the Magic team's signings under Wang Chao's guidance last summer, with 70 wins in the regular season and a championship. None of the fans said that the team's management is good, and the credit is basically attributed to Wang Chao. Although the fact is true, the credit is originally attributed to Wang Chao alone, but many times the world does not work like this Yes, in most cases, capable people in the adult world are not objects of worship, but objects of suspicion and fear.

The Magic team management's move is to silently take back their rights that originally belonged to them.

Wang Chao is noncommittal about this. On the one hand, there are really no good seedlings worth mentioning in 2010. The performance of Huaishen's career was not very good at the beginning of his career. It was only after he came back from the CBA that he was plated with gold that his strength improved by leaps and bounds. Wang Chao is absolutely fine. Wait until Whiteside returns to the NBA in 14 and pick up ready-made ones.

As for Lance Stephenson, he was just a pretty good player in the second round. This is a defensive role player with a standard 3D player positioning, and he hasn't played anything impressive in his entire career. Bright performance, Stephenson's most famous incident was defending James when he was with the Pacers in the future. During the free throw period, for some reason, he blew into James' ear, and James rolled his eyes in anger.

The Magic's perimeter defense has a combination of Afflalo and Ariza. It is far superior to Stephenson in terms of defense and three-point shooting.

There is also Jeremy Lin, even if the Jeremy Lin here is the same as in the original history, the Linsanity event that shocked the world in 12 years, the strength is not enough to become a high-end fighter with the jigsaw puzzle to win the championship.

Therefore, Wang Chao chose to turn a blind eye to the small actions made by the management of the Magic team. The general manager of the team wanted to reclaim his rights and suppress Wang Chao's influence on the team. Not a big deal.

After all, Wang Chao didn't plan to stay with the Magic for the rest of his life from the very beginning. He chose the Magic because of Howard's super dominance at the basket during his peak years.

As a top superstar, Howard can be regarded as the only player who does not occupy the ball, does the work of a blue-collar player, and can make the team better and stronger.

In the three seasons since he came to the Magic, Wang Chao did get everything he planned, scoring champion, regular season MVP, and finals FMVP.

For the current Wang Chao, he only needs to continue to lead the Magic to win the championship next year, achieve a three-peat dynasty, complete the system upgrade task, and then he can leave this team.

In the past three years, the relationship between Wang Chao and Howard has deteriorated from the initial brotherhood.

Wang Chao could see that his growing influence in the Magic had already made Howard feel threatened. Howard couldn't be blamed for this. After all, he never felt that he was the second in charge of the team. After winning one game at a time, more and more people now think that Howard is Wang Chao's "Pippen". If you think about it differently, if it is Wang Chao himself, he will feel uncomfortable.

Although Wang Chao knows that Howard does not have the ability to become a top insider superstar, this is his judgment based on the foresight of the traveler. During this period, whether it is Howard himself, the Magic team or even fans all over the world, they all think that Howard will It will become synonymous with the league's new super center after O'Neal, and the transaction value of changing James alone also appeared at this time.

How could such a superstar be willing to be Pippen?
Wang Chao has already made a decision. After winning the championship next year, he will jump out of the contract and choose a suitable team to start over. This will be a good thing for both him and Howard.

Although in the past few years with the Magic, Wang Chao feels a little bit of using Howard's peak period to accumulate honors, but this is definitely mutual benefit rather than unilateral squeeze.

Assuming that Wang Chao can lead the team to win three consecutive championships next year, then even if Howard does not even win a FMVP, his historical status will rise. After all, there are centers with three consecutive championships. Looking at the history of the league, there are only O'Neal and Russell in ancient times two people.

Howard, who has three crowns and three DPOYs, will not have the embarrassing situation that he was not selected when the league selected the 75 greatest stars in history in the future.

(End of this chapter)