On June 26, the draft was held at Madison Square Garden in New York. www.biquge.info Compared with the last edition of the Rockets, which surprised the media, this draft can be described as uneventful, and most of the draft picks are expected by the media (I once saw a 2002 draft prediction, the top four are all correct, and the accuracy rate is extremely high).

The Chicago Bulls selected Yao Ming, a center from China with the first pick;

The Houston Rockets selected Duke University guard Jay with the second pick. Williams;

The Golden State Warriors selected Jay's college teammate with the third-overall pick, forward swingman Mike. Dunleavy;

……

The Houston Rockets, the fifth pick in the second round, selected center Dan from the Netherlands. Gazuric;

……

Then the official broke a major news, the Rockets used the signing rights of Williams and Gazuric plus the first-round pick of the 76ers next year to exchange the signing rights of Yao Ming of the Bulls. The sports world, especially the Chinese media, went crazy.

The Bulls couldn't be happier with the deal. As Yuan Fei said, the Bulls need a good young guard. Williams looks like that is the choice. And Dan. Gazuric was enough to share the pressure on Chandler and Curry as a backup center, and the additional first-round pick was even more satisfying for Reinsdorf.

At this time, Yuan Fei breathed a sigh of relief and finally got Da Yao. But he still regrets in his heart that he didn't have a second-round pick this year. Dawson also didn't trade cash for draft picks from other teams. Watching Carlos. Boozer and Louis. Several good players such as Scola were leaked into good positions, but they couldn't grab them. The Rockets' power forward position is still relatively weak, and Boozer and Scola are the perfect complements. I don't know what rank I can get in the coming year, after all, the butterfly effect caused by the distant flight is becoming more and more obvious, and the ranking of the alliance is completely different from in history. This time, the lottery is an example.

The first two years of joining the Rockets were just a time to recuperate, and the current season is a real battle. This time, we have to build a team that is strong enough to challenge for the championship.

But with the announcement of the salary cap, Yuanfei was dumbfounded. The salary cap for the new season is $40.27 million, which is actually less than last season. Isn't this supposed to be incremented every season? Why don't you play according to the routine!

Fortunately, Da Meng signed a decreasing contract according to the agreement of the previous offseason, otherwise let alone strengthening, the players who renewed the contract in a few years would not be able to renew it. After all, the Rockets have a lot of young players. And the old people have almost retreated.

When it comes to retirement, you have to mention Curry. Although the rocket did not work for Dell. Curry held a retirement ceremony, but Yuanfei instructed Dawson to choose a more witty way and hired him as an assistant coach on the team (the Bobcats hired Curry as an assistant coach in the history of 07), and kept Curry Sr. on the team. Curry gladly accepted, and of course his family was able to stay in Houston, and the family's son-in-law naturally stayed.

The current salary situation of Rockets players is as follows:

Player/Position/Age/Salary ($10,000)

McGrady/Shooting Guard/23/

Olajuwon/Center/40/400

Yao Ming/Center/22/385.8(TBD)

Thomas/Power Forward/25/155.8

Reed/Shooting Guard/23/150

Magloyer/center/24/112.1

Turkoglou/Small Forward/23/133.8

Jefferson/Small Forward/22/164.3

Wallace/Forward/20/114.7

Oku/Center/23/(TBD)

Parker/Point Guard/20/93

Brown/Point Guard/23/(Contract Renewal TBD)

Thorpe - (retired)

Curry – (Retired)

(Note: Due to the abundance of talent at the small forward position, the Rockets did not renew Williams' contract, and he switched to his team as a free agent)

Due to the large number of rookie players with low salaries, the Rockets will still have more than 7 million salary space to sign free agents after completing the signing of new players. In addition, Yao Ming and Oku's joining negotiations went smoothly, the Rockets' weak interior line last season is expected to be greatly strengthened, and the current team obviously needs to add a point guard, after all, the backup point guard Brown is very weak, and the main control Parker is only 20 years old and inexperienced. So Dawson set his sights on Andrew of the Cavaliers. Miller, and asked for Yuanfei's opinion.

"Miller is a good candidate, a good point guard. Last season, he averaged 16.5 points and 10.9 assists per game, which was great. Yuan Fei thought about it for a while, but shook his head and said, "But he is not our favorite target." ”

"What? Isn't it bad to be a point guard who passes first and has some scoring ability? Dawson was surprised.

"His scoring ability is okay, but it's basically focused on short shots and baskets, and if you only count jump shots, his scoring rate is only about 40%. If he starts alongside Maddy, his low long-range shooting ability and need to carry the ball will affect Maddy's playmaking. And he had good stats last season, so the expected value must be high. Even if we can trade him, it will be difficult to renew his contract next year (Miller was traded to the Clippers in the summer of '02, and he signed with the Nuggets with a starting salary of 8 million in '03). The Clippers are busy in vain). Don't forget that we're going to renew Reid next year. In 04, Brother Xiao Ma is also going to renew his contract. Hoarding young people means bearing the pressure of renewing their contracts. ”

"So our point guard, do we still expect Maddie to share the burden for Parker like last season? Or just take it down a notch and consider the Clippers' McNeese? ”

"Actually, I've thought about this issue seriously, after all, we can't mess up this season, and we have to make the playoffs at the very least, so it's necessary to strengthen the point guard, but the price in my heart should not exceed $5 million a year. I have a candidate here. Yuan Fei took out a document that had been prepared a long time ago.

"Chauncey. Billups? Dawson was surprised, "This player has played against us a lot in the West, and I'm familiar with him. You also write that he averaged only 12.5 points and 5.5 assists per game last season, which is much worse than Miller. He is now 25 years old, and there is not much room for growth in the future. There is also a problem, he broke out unexpectedly in the playoffs this year, with an average of 22+5+5 in three games. This may inflate his value and make it difficult for us to bid. ”

"He's got a good three-point shot and better compatibility with our team. Also, what if I said that those three playoff games are his true level? ”

"This ...... Of course I believe you. ”

"Go get in touch with his agent and take him out of the free market!"

***

Billups is giving the Timberwolves a headache at the moment. He stated that the contract renewal must guarantee his starting position.

Billups's idea naturally has its point. He's just turned 25 and he's about to reach his prime, while fellow point guard Brandon is 31 years old and on the decline, suffering a serious injury last season. Even so, Billups played 28 games off the bench last season and shared multiple starts with Brandon. This is not in line with his desire to be the team's core point guard.

Billups was drafted by the Celtics in '97 and by the summer of '02, he played 51 games for Boston, 29 games for Toronto, 58 games for Denver, 159 games for Minnesota, and at one point joined the Magic, but unfortunately failed to play a game in Orlando. After 6 years of moving to 5 teams, he was very tired, but he never found a sense of home and was never recognized by people.

The pressure on Wolves' management is also high, with the team's top star Garnett's contract expiring in '03, and the team's recent results have been mediocre. If Garnett can't give Garnett hope for a decent result in the new season, the Wolves may choose to move. For this reason, the Wolves management agreed that they had to find the best players on the free market to meet Garnett's demands, and they were targeting Andrew Brown, who had just been rejected by Far Fly. Miller. So they couldn't agree to Billups' request to guarantee a start, and some executives even thought that letting Billups go just in time to make room for Miller.

The Wolves are not a problem, so there is another obstacle in front of the Houstonians, who signed Billups in history and formed the Detroit Five to win the championship Pistons in 04.

The Pistons did also get Billups excited. They have a clear advantage over the Rockets - their record. The Pistons finished second in the East at 50-32 last season and also made it to the second round of the playoffs. The team started with Jerry. Stackhouse and Ben. Wallace, an offensive and defensive duo as the core, has considerable strength. And the Pistons' starting point guard Chackie. Atkins also happens to be a relatively weak starting point guard, averaging only 12.1 points and 3.3 assists in nearly 30 minutes per game, which obviously does not satisfy the ambitions of the Detroiters.

Just when Billups was about to agree to the Pistons to sign, a phone call from Texas shook him.

"Chauncey, I'm your teammate with the Raptors, Tracy. Mcgrady. ”

"Tracy? What an accident. Billups was just an ordinary player in the league, and he didn't expect Maddy, who was not a close friend and has now become a first-line star in the league, to call. His mind seemed to suddenly fly back to cold Toronto. It was 1998, and he spent just half a season with the Raptors. He's a newcomer, and so is Maddie. He was reticent, and Maddie often sat alone in the corner of the locker room in silence. He played 29 games for the Raptors and had a mediocre performance. He seemed to hear a lot of fans booing him, shouting at him: "You're a parallel import!" ”

In the years that followed, he moved from team to team, but he was never respected and recognized. And Maddie gradually shined in the Raptors until the summer of 00, when Maddie signed a transfer to the Rockets with the highest salary.

In the opening game of the 00-01 season, the Rockets played the Timberwolves at home. Billups and Maddie met again on the court, but at this time they were no longer human. Maddy, the No. 9 pick, was already a sparkling superstar, while No. 3 Billups was still an ordinary player with no name.

"Despite playing each other many times in recent years, Wolves have always won against the Rockets. But how jealous I am of you. Billups thought to himself, "I'm a flower show, I'm supposed to be a superstar." But now the team doesn't want to give me a starting spot. I'm really jealous of you, Tracy. What are you calling to say? ”

Maddie on the other end of the phone suddenly said something that surprised him: "Chauncey, I want to play with you." ”