As is customary in previous years, the first big job after the finals is the draft, but that was not the case in 2004, a special year. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoBecause the new army Charlotte Bobcats officially joined the league.

The city of Charlotte originally had the Hornets, but in 2002 the Hornets moved to New Orleans. The NBA promised Charlotte City the right to form a new team. On December 18, 2002, Robert. Johnson's investment group took ownership of the team, and he also became the first black owner in league history. Then, after nearly two years of coordinated operation, the time was finally ripe. On June 22, two days after the finals, the Bobcats officially began to expand their draft.

Under the league's special rules for expansion, the existing 29 teams can offer eight protected spots to players under contract on their roster, and the Bobcats can choose one of the other players. It is equivalent to the Bobcats forcing an asynchronous trade with this team, and the team will receive a trade exception.

Now, the team with more free agents is not worried, the free agent would rather choose to stay in the team, who would like to go to the weak team that has just been formed?

And Dawson is going to worry, almost all the players of the Rockets have contracts, only Oku and Hakim, who has just retired. Olajuwon ended his contract this season. In other words, 8 protection places are not enough in any case.

After many discussions, the eight protection players set within the Rockets are: McGrady, Yao Ming, Billups, Jefferson, Bosh, Wang Zhizhi, Reed and Parker. The reason for the choice was that Parker's position was prioritized considering that the Rockets' most scarce position was the No. 1 position. The protection of Wang Zhizhi is mainly due to the commercial consideration of developing the Chinese market.

That's it, Gerald. Wallace, Heaton. Turkogru, Joe. Johnson and Munch. Battle will produce one victim among the four. Because the Rockets are the new champions, the quality of the players is very high. The Bobcats will not miss such a great player.

Another reason is that the contracts of these four players all expire in the summer of 2005 one year later, and considering that many of the Rockets' contracts expire at that time, there is a lot of pressure to renew their contracts, and it is also a helpless move to give one to the Bobcats in advance. It's better than walking away as a free agent then.

On June 21, the day after the Rockets won the championship, the Bobcats made their first big trade of the offseason. They traded the '04 fourth-pick pick plus the '04 second-round pick plus a promise guarantee in the expansion draft to the Clippers. And the Clippers used this trade to keep the young players they didn't want the Bobcats to draft.

On the day of the draft on June 22, the Bobcats did not hesitate to choose Gerald from the Houston Rockets. Wallace. Yuanfei couldn't help but feel sad. Wallace has a cheerful personality and is a good teammate, but unfortunately he seems destined to belong to the Bobcats.

Next, the Bobcats followed their previous trade promise and selected Peja, the Clippers' European center. Drobniak (though he was sold to the Hawks two months later in exchange for a '05 second-round pick and did not play for the Bobcats in his career). The Clippers did a similar job with the Suns, who gave the Bobcats a '05 first-round pick, and the Bobcats fulfilled their promise to pick out the Suns' outcast Jasidy. White (this gentleman's salary is as high as more than 6 million, but he has no strength).

Next, the Bobcats selected a group of cadres from each team, of course, they are all outside the 8 protected places, so they will not be famous stars. Among them, some of the most famous ones in the future include Zaza, a young center from the Magic team. Pachulia and the Cavaliers' three-point shooter Jason. Capono, but the next day Pachuglia was sold to the Bucks by the Bobcats in exchange for a '04 second-round pick. The Bobcats also included Primoz from the Pacers. Blazek, Jamal from the Lakers. Sampson et al.

It is also worth mentioning that due to the addition of the Bobcats, the league has become a 30-team and 15 teams in the east and west. The original four divisions have also been changed to six divisions, which is the same as the current league distribution. The ranking rules have also changed, with the top three divisions being placed in the top three. That is, the top three in the western region are destined to be the top three regions in the southwest, northwest and the pacific, and the top three in the eastern region are destined to be the first in the southeast, Atlantic and central regions. In this way, no matter how good the second place in the division is, it will be at most fourth. Such unjust rules naturally leave hidden dangers for future disputes.

The Bobcats, of course, will not be satisfied with these existing third-rate players, they are full of confidence to make a big splash in the free agent market, but unfortunately it backfired, and most of the free agents did not want to be the leader of this bad team made up of substitutes from various teams. These players look like Gerrard. Wallace is a potential player with talent and quality.

As a result, the Bobcats did not gain much on the free market in the next few months, and reluctantly signed Blevin. Knight and Jason. Hart couldn't play on other teams, and the Bobcats actually used it as a starter. Hart, for example, played in 53 games for the Spurs last season, averaging 12 minutes per game, and was a marginal bench.

The team that was put together like this is, of course, a big bad team. Gerrard. Wallace couldn't help but worry about his future career. However, Yuan Fei comforted him and said that at least he could be the boss of the team this time.

It was with this concern that Wallace embarked on a journey to Charlotte. Many NBA players are like this, they often have to move in trades, and they don't earn much in salary, and they have to bear the high cost of housewarming first.

The legendary story of Elvis Presley began.

***

Because teams that don't make the playoffs rest early, the offseason is often the first to change personnel for the underdogs. The Raptors, Hawks, Hornets, Warriors and other teams have fired head coaches.

But what caught Yuanfei's attention was another, the Suns and the new coach Mike on May 12. D'Antoni signed a two-year contract. At this time, no one outside Yuanfei could have imagined that this signing would change the pattern of the entire Western League.

On May 28, the Hornets and Byron. Scott signed a three-year contract. Scott coached the Nets for four years and reached the Finals twice. In his previous life, Scott also had great success with the Hornets in the future.

What happened next was jaw-dropping, but the Rockets didn't have the energy to focus on it during the Finals.

On June 16, Carl. Malone announced that he was jumping out of the final year of his contract.

On June 18, Kobe Bryant also announced that he would jump out of his contract.

On the same day, the Lakers officially announced the dismissal of head coach Phil. Jackson.

The top giants in NBA history, the Triple Crown Lakers, are finally facing collapse.