Coach: Coaching the Grizzlies at the beginning, playing the bantam

Chapter 172 Reinforcement is not smooth?Lu Yong: Get out of the way, I'm going to start shooting
On the 11th, the deal that made Los Angeles fans crazy still happened.

The Lakers acquired former MVP star Pau Gasol from the Grizzlies, sent Odom, Walton, a first-round pick + three second-round picks, and completed the most important signing of the offseason.

In addition, the Lakers also signed Artest from the free market with a 4-year contract of 3600 million U.S. dollars. In order to retain the head star Kobe, it can be said that he spent a lot of money.

Although compared with Lu Yong's previous life, the Lakers paid a lot more chips to get Pau Gasol, and even Odom was traded, but the Lakers' lineup for next season is still very strong. The two MVP-level stars teamed up. Become the new favorite to win the Western Conference.

The Grizzlies didn't even make it to the top eight in the Western Conference last season. Pau Gasol, who had tasted the sweetness of the championship, couldn't bear it. He immediately applied to the management for a trade, and finally joined forces with Kobe as he wished and became a member of the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Grizzlies are determined to rebuild after sending away their star players. During the offseason, the head coach Fratello was fired immediately, and then Mike Miller, "Little Flying Squirrel" Stoudemire, Swift and other champions were traded successively. Leaving the team and entering a rebuilding period.

The price paid by the Lakers to acquire Pau Gasol is within a controllable range. After all, Jiasao is no longer a softie, but a man who has proved himself by winning the regular season MVP.

After the introduction of Artest, the Lakers still have a middle-class special case of up to 400 million US dollars. This summer, there is still a lot of room for manipulation. They can rely on the combination of Kobe and Gasol to attract powerful free agents to join and further improve the lineup. strength.

On the surface, it is the Lakers who have made money from this deal, but the Grizzlies, who are determined to rebuild, will not suffer.

Odom and Walton are still very young, and they have both proved themselves on a bigger stage, and they can barely guarantee ticket revenue.With the addition of four draft picks, the Grizzlies are expected to become the winners of the draft in the next few years, hoard the draft picks, and follow the path of the Thunder.

After hearing the news, Sam Presti became more and more impatient. Seeing that the strength of the league's teams will become stronger and stronger next season, the Supersonics' strength will decline. This is not good for the Seattleites who want to defend their title a good thing.

This reinforced Lakers paper lineup is already recognized as strong, laying the foundation for next season's championship.

The lonely throw of the two teams of the Lakers and Cavaliers caused a lot of waves in the entire league.

Lu Yong, who was still on vacation in Miami Beach, couldn't sit still, and took a plane back to Seattle the next day, worrying about signings.

The Supersonics faced great challenges in the new season. It is more difficult to defend the championship than when Lu Yong took over the team in his first year. Once Teletovic and Szczerbiak left, the Supersonics immediately lost two powerful players. up front.

Up to now, the Supersonics don't even have a decent power forward, PJ Tucker can defend but not attack, Carlos Boozer has not given an answer for a long time, and the situation is getting worse for the Supersonics.

Although Durant also played at the fourth position in the small ball era, it is still an era when none of the four major forwards has retired. Let Durant play power forward is tantamount to ruining his future. It is difficult to guarantee offensive efficiency. You have to focus more on the free market.

When the time came to the end of July, the Sonics still failed to sign a free agent suitable for the team system. Several times they negotiated with other teams and were asked for exorbitant prices.

Since the rookie who has been favored by the Sonics has been valued, it is now difficult for the Sonics to make deals with other teams.

The players that Lu Yong liked were directly hidden by the management of other teams like treasures.

No one who can serve as the general manager in the NBA is an idiot. Unless the Sonics can offer a very tempting bargaining chip, otherwise this group of teams will clearly insist on killing them, and they are unwilling to trade for the second round. A marginal guy who doesn't even have playing time.

In the past half month, the only good news the Sonics received was that Boozer agreed to join the team in the new season.

The two parties signed a one-year 1 million contract, which is about 1500 million US dollars more than staying in the Jazz.

In order to strengthen the fourth position, the Sonics had to use a salary higher than the market price to poach Boozer, who was reimbursed just last season.

Even if Seattle fans expressed doubts about this operation, Presti could only bite the bullet and poach people.

Compared with the fact that the team doesn't even have a decent power forward in the new season, what kind of risk is it to offer a one-year garbage contract?
Presti also contacted the veteran Melvin Eli, an inside player with a height of 2 meters and a weight of 08 kilograms. He averaged 118 points, 9.8 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game in his peak season. The ability is not bad.

The deepest impression Eli has left on Chinese fans is that he once represented the U.S. team in the Universiade held in China. Dayao scored 10 points and 8 rebounds.

Presti hopes that the addition of Eli can make up for the vacancy at the fourth position and find a substitute for Boozer who has potential injuries.

As a result, Eli's mind was not on winning the championship at all. Compared with the basic salary provided by the Supersonics, Eli finally switched to the arms of European teams.

His salary for playing there is about 200 million US dollars, which is far higher than the contract provided by the Sonics.

Melvin Eli's choice represents the aspirations of the league's role players. Personal honor and championships are not their pursuit. Compared with honor, these marginal people who may be eliminated at any time care more about money.

Only money is the motivation for them to support their families. If they don't have the ability to stay in the NBA for a long time, even if they win the championship with the team, it is meaningless.

Rejecting the Supersonics is also the striker swingman Solomon Jones. He played for the Hawks last season and only scored 3 points and 2 rebounds. His foothold in the league depends on his strong body and enthusiasm.

The young Solomon Jones hopes that he can join a team with stable playing time, and he does not want to be a marginal man in the Sonics, let alone a basic salary.In the end, Jones joined the Indiana Pacers with a two-year contract of 300 million. He must have a higher tactical status playing there than in the Sonics.

Of course, the Sonics still have the title of defending champion on their heads, and there are players in the free market who recommend themselves, hoping to get a basic salary contract to play for the Sonics.

For example, Joel Anthony, who played for the Miami Heat last season, was decisively rejected by Lu Yong.

As a blue-collar center, this guy can be described as useless to the extreme. In his peak season, he could only score 3.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks. In the first three seasons of his career, his shooting percentage never exceeded 50%.

Lu Yong was very impressed with this guy. Later, he played next to the Heat's Big Three. Taking advantage of the team's innate advantage of lacking a center, he didn't even understand how to eat cakes.Lu Yong really has no interest in a starting center who can't even average 4 points per game when "Jane and Wei" take turns feeding them cakes.

Joel Anthony is probably the most useless starting center in league history. Among all players who have played more than 20 minutes, no one is worse than him.Even the old-fashioned "Birdman" Anderson can fly on his head to play. Joel Anthony had to kneel down to knock O'Neal and Howard if he didn't retire in place.

Another self-recommended player is Louis Amundsen, who was undrafted in the 06 NBA Draft. He played for the Suns last season and averaged 4.2 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1 block per game.

It's a pity that Amundson's playing style is destined to be unsuitable for the Sonics, with a career high of 4.7 points, and his offense depends entirely on eating cakes and second offenses.

The Sonics are a team that relies on offense to win. It is not very useful to have a pure defensive blue-collar. Besides, Amundsen is 2 meters tall and is a bit short for a center forward. A marginal person who is tasteless and a pity to abandon.

Throughout Amundson's entire career, it is not difficult to see that his presence not only entangles scouts, but also makes it difficult for every team that wants to get him to make up their minds.He has changed 10 teams in his ten-year career, and was traded four times in a row in the most season. This guy's style of play is too embarrassing, and he was politely rejected by Lu Yong.

It's not because of the strength of the players, but because of Amundsen's position that even Lu Yong, an open-eyed coach, can't understand it.

Summer reinforcements were not going well, and Lu Yong began to study the list of free agents again, carefully trying to figure out who the Supersonics need.

In early August, Lu found general manager Sam Presti and met with him in his office.

Presti apologized as soon as he saw Lu Yong. "I'm sorry, Lu, I didn't expect that this summer's recruitment work would be so difficult, so you couldn't enjoy your vacation."

"Needless to say, Sam, our goals for the new season are the same. The Sonics have risen too fast in the past two years. It will be a matter of time before they are targeted by other teams in the league. Now finding a way to solve the problem is the key." Lu Yong smiled and waved his hand.

Seeing that Lu Yong didn't intend to ask the teacher for his crimes, Presti was relieved a lot.

After all, team owner Bennett just asked him to cooperate with Lu Yong to build the lineup not long ago, but he failed in the reinforcement work.

If Lu Yong hadn't picked Beverly and Chase Budinger in the draft, and signaled him to sign undrafted Matthews and free agent Gerald Green, the current effective reinforcement of the Sonics would be Boozer. , his face as the best general manager of the year is gone.

Lu Yong's calm attitude made Presti extremely admired. He felt that with this ability, Lu Yong had already become a famous coach, better than those head coaches who would only complain when they encountered problems. too much.

Presti asked, "Lou, what should we do now? Do you have a suitable candidate?"

"There are three candidates, hurry up and talk about it, don't be caught first." Lu Yong handed over a form: "The contracts of the two of them are not big, don't worry, if there is no accident, joining the team should be a certainty matter."

Presti took the form handed over by Lu Yong, and saw that in addition to the names of the three players, there were also their technical characteristics and their matching degree with the team's tactical system, which was clear at a glance.

The first is the 36-year-old veteran insider Juwan Howard, who is 2 meters tall and weighs 06 kilograms. He serves as a power forward. "Uncle Huo" was selected as an All-Star once in his career, and was selected as the best of the month once. In his peak season, he averaged 109 points, 22.1 rebounds and 8.1 assists per game.

It is worth mentioning that Juwan Howard is still the first player in NBA history to receive a 1996 million yuan contract. As early as 7, he signed a 1.05-year [-] million dollar contract with the Wizards, and now he has entered the twilight of his career .

Last season, he played for the Nuggets and Bobcats respectively, played 42 games, averaged 11 minutes per game, scored 4.1 points and 1.8 rebounds, and shot 51% from the field.

After entering the free market, Juwan Howard has been ignored for the time being, because his foot speed slows down as he gets older, which leads to a one-size-fits-all defense. Now he can only catch the ball after the pick-and-roll, and his tactical effect has declined.

Lu Yong tried to sign Juwan Howard because he fell in love with his stable mid-range shooting. With his rich experience in the playoffs, there is no need to worry about stage fright. He is looking for a substitute for Carlos Boozer.

Presti saw the name "Second Uncle Huo" at first glance. Although he felt that Zhu Wan was a bit old and his price-performance ratio was not as good as that of a young man, he still patted his chest and said, "I will contact Zhu Wan's agent in a while." People, I believe that at his age, he must be very interested in joining the defending champion."

Presti continued to look at the profile of the second person, Jerome James, a player who was very familiar to him.

Jerome is 2 meters tall and weighs 13 kilograms. He is a meat shield with strength comparable to O'Neill.

Presti is familiar with him because Jerome James played for the Seattle SuperSonics from 01 to 05. He averaged 12.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game in the playoffs. He was poached away with a high salary, until this summer he had no ball to play due to his overweight.

Many domestic fans are familiar with him because of Yao Ming. Jerome James can be regarded as an opponent of Yao Ming's early career. During Yao Ming's rookie season, Jerome made Yao Ming suffer.

The player Yao Ming scored 0 points that night was facing Jerome James, who was defended without scoring a point, setting a more embarrassing record.

"This summer, the league structure is becoming more and more confusing. In the East, there are Cavaliers who complement the powerful Sharks and the Magic with Howard. In the West, there are the Lakers with "Little Shark" Bynum. The team wants to defend the championship. It is best to prepare a meat shield, Jerome It is very suitable, his weight and experience can play a role at critical moments." Lu Yong explained.

Jerome James is not an excellent center. His biggest problem is that he can't control his mouth or move his legs. But with the reinforcement of the Cavaliers and Lakers, the Sonics have to prepare in advance even if they spend money Good meat shield, no one cares about a basic salary contract.

Presti didn't talk nonsense, and immediately stated that he would definitely sign Jerome James. Presti felt guilty in his heart, and now he almost satisfied Lu Yong's request unconditionally.

When seeing the third person, Presti's expression became a little strange.

Channing Frye, who is 2 meters tall and weighs 11 kilograms, is a space-type insider who was just educated by the Sonics in last year's playoffs.

Last year, the Supersonics and the Trail Blazers met in the Western Conference finals. Because the team's starting center Joel Pulzbila performed too well, the head coach McMillan once put Frye on the starting lineup, played with Aldridge, and sent a set. A lineup that wins on offense.

Although the Trail Blazers became the only team to beat the Sonics in the playoffs, Frye's performance in that round of the series was very mediocre, with less than 30% of his three-pointers.The key is that Frye, who has the bonus of starting in the Western Conference Finals, is not cheap, and he wants to poach someone with at least a contract of more than 500 million.

According to reports from the Portland media, the Suns offered him a contract of 4 million for four years. Obviously, this is a serious premium contract. Not worth the money at all.

Presti knew at a glance that Frye was a replacement for Teletovic, and Lu Yong wanted a space-type insider with three-point shooting ability.

After a moment of hesitation, Presti questioned. "Lu, Channing Frye and Juwan Howard are both space-type insiders. If they are both signed, will their positions overlap? Now the team has 13 players with contracts, and only two players are left. The number of spots, and the contract that the Suns offered for Frye is too big, and the team's salary space after signing Boozer is difficult to swallow him."

Lu Yong waved his hand and said with a smile: "I also understand the team's salary situation. Frye is just my candidate. I don't have much hope for him to join. You can try to contact him, if he is willing to cut his salary If he insists on joining the Suns, don’t hesitate to sign the other two players directly.”

Channing Frye's three-pointer is good, but now he has only entered the league for a short time and his offensive stability is poor, so he is not a player that Lu Yong must get.It's just that people don't give up if they don't fight for it in front of them, even if they are rejected, it's just a thought.

"Okay, I'll talk to him first, and wait for my news." Presti replied.

　After taking an injection, the fever went away, and my head still hurts a little. During the recent high flu season, readers, gentlemen, pay more attention to your health.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)