unfinished glory

Chapter 215 New Season

The 2009~2010 season came as scheduled, and the Grizzlies, like previous years, were ready as early as the summer.

First of all, in the draft, the Grizzlies selected an insider Dante Cunningham with the No.30 pick in the first round.

Immediately afterwards, another trade was made, sending Milicic to the Trail Blazers in exchange for the opponent's defensive center Joel Pulzbila and a second-round pick.

After Li Chongxiao came, Mike Miller's status plummeted, his statistics were almost cut in half, and he has been unhappy in the team.At this time, he also filed an application for leaving the team. His contract has only one year left. In order to obtain the maximum benefit, the team had to make a deal.

The team tends to use Mike Miller for the Bulls' Tyrus Thomas, but the Bulls are only willing to give out a second-round pick, while the Grizzlies want a first-round pick, and the two sides have been unable to agree.

At this time, the Cavaliers stepped in and were willing to send Pavlovic, an unprotected first-round pick in 2012 and a second-round pick in 2014.

Because James still hasn't expressed his position on renewing his contract, the Cavaliers are anxious to strengthen the lineup for him like crazy.Mike Miller is exactly what he needs, a shooter who can stretch the floor.

The Grizzlies are not willing to trade players to the Cavaliers, because the opponent may be an opponent in the finals.Even though Mike Miller only scored 8 points last season, it was because his space was compressed by Li Chongxiao. For another team, it would be easy to score more than ten points.Let James get this kind of space shooter, it's like adding wings to a tiger.

What's more, Pavlovich is not a player that the Grizzlies urgently need. They are more inclined to trade with the Bulls in exchange for a high-quality inside substitute.

After the Bulls learned that the Cavaliers had intervened, their attitude relaxed and they were willing to give away their 2013 first-round pick.

The Cavaliers suddenly put all their eggs in one basket. Retaining James is the top priority of the Cavaliers, and any future can be traded.They gritted their teeth and traded a 2014 second-round pick for an equally unprotected first-round pick, which impressed the Grizzlies.

This is not over yet. After finishing the deal with the Grizzlies, the Cavaliers sent Ben Wallace and Szczerbiak who had just made an appointment, and exchanged with O'Neal of the Rockets.

After the lineup was strengthened, the ambition of the Cavaliers was clearly revealed. The head coach of the Celtics, Rivers, blatantly reprimanded the Grizzlies for their "enemies" as very stupid.

The Rockets are very happy. The conflict between O'Neal and Tracy McGrady has become irreconcilable. His big contract of 2000 million also made Alexander quite critical. He was going to pardon him at one time, but he just couldn't bear such a good bargaining chip. Back to something.

Now that the Cavaliers are willing to accept it, and they can get one more Szczerbiak, why not do it.

After the two sides traded, the Rockets immediately pardoned Ben Wallace and lowered the team's total salary.The Rockets are once again McGrady's team.

After learning that Big Ben was pardoned, the Grizzlies were overjoyed and contacted Big Ben immediately.But Daben was more inclined to the old club Pistons that made him famous, so he rejected many teams.

Just when the Grizzlies thought there was no hope, another news came out that the Pistons had no intention of returning the No. 3 jersey to Ben.

Now the No. 3 jersey of the Pistons is worn on Rodney Stuckey, who is known as "Prince Key" in the world.The 2007 rookie is the key training object of the Pistons. The team's long-term indulgence has created his defiant style.

When Iverson was traded, not only did he not give up his No. 3 jersey, but he also felt that it was only natural for Iverson to substitute him.

The situation with Big Ben is the same now, a less "famous" defensive player is simply impossible to shake Stucky's position as the core of the Pistons.

Big Ben is also a proud person. As the core player of the 2005 championship, the Pistons' actions undoubtedly broke his heart.So he fell into the arms of his former mentor Carlisle, accepted the No. 3 jersey from the Grizzlies without hesitation, and signed a two-year contract.

In order to sign Big Ben and Cunningham, the team did not choose to renew the contracts with Foyer and Bagner, vacating these two spots.

……

All transactions and reinforcements were completed before the training camp at the end of September, and Carlisle's training plan was not delayed at all.

In the preseason, Carlisle slowly transformed the team.

In the attack, Li Chongxiao's core style of play not only did not weaken, but became more clear.The team is no longer limited to letting Li Chongxiao fight a lot alone, but creates more opportunities for him to help him get open or one-on-one.

The team's second offensive option has become the two Gasols inside. The coaching staff has added a lot of routines to their offense, reduced their singles, and tried to give them more offensive space.

Conley became the third offensive starting point, and the team gave him more possessions.

The shooting ability of the substitute players is also very good, which can ensure the continuity of firepower.

This lineup made its debut in the preseason, averaging 124.6 points per game.Different from the fast break storm of the Suns back then, relying on the number of rounds to get more offensive opportunities, thus pushing up the score.The Grizzlies achieved such results by relying on a high success rate.

In terms of defense, the main lineup has not changed much from last year, but the tacit understanding between the teammates is better, and the defense is more like a whole.

The arrival of Big Ben has increased the team's defensive strength during the bench time.When partnering with Gasol, he stood in front and resisted the first impact for Gasol.When partnering with Gasol Jr., he stood behind again, helping to defend and block shots at any time.

At the small forward position, Battier's defense has always been on the level.Especially after Carlisle clarified his positioning, he became more and more functional, focusing only on fixed-point three-pointers and defense.

Conley's defense among point guards is also at an upper-middle level. Although he is not as good as defensive masters like Kidd and Paul, he is also a high-level defensive elite.

Needless to say, Li Chongxiao was a member of the first defense last season, and he was second only to Howard in the ranking of the best defensive players.

But although the Grizzlies are stronger than last year, the difficulty for them to win the championship has increased a lot.

In the final four of the East and West finals last season, each signing was stronger than the previous one.

The Grizzlies added a big cost at most, and the draft picks they got have no intention of being current. In a sense, they may have lost money.

And the Celtics got another Wallace, the joining of "Roaring Tianzun", which gave the Celtics the confidence to deal with Yao Ming.

Not to mention the Cavaliers, summoning O'Neal is already an earth-shaking change, and the Grizzlies sent a "god assist", giving Mike Miller, a shooter that the Cavaliers desperately needed.

The defending champion Lakers have brought in a third giant, solidifying their ranking as the favorite for the championship.The joining of Artest, the former best defensive player, made them full of confidence when facing Li Chongxiao and James.

The actions of the four strong teams have made other teams in the league desperate.Not surprisingly, they will become tools for the opponent to score.

The fifth giant, the Magic, was so scared that they quickly made a deal with the Nets in exchange for Carter to keep up with the rhythm of the strong team.

(End of this chapter)