Two days later, all eight teams in the top half of the East and West had finished their first-round fixtures.

Of the eight groups of games that opened in the first round of this year's playoffs, none of them reached the tiebreaker......

The Spurs eliminated the Thunder with a score of 4:0 directly and neatly this time, and Duncan told the pot with an absolute crushing advantage, your uncle is still your uncle......

And the Trail Blazers, who are third in the West, also took out last year's defending champion Mavericks in five games.

Last season's Western Finals was a showdown between the Trail Blazers and the Mavericks, and as a result, the Mavericks advanced, the Trail Blazers were eliminated, and this year's Trail Blazers can be regarded as revenge.

There is no suspense on the eastern side, and they are all easily promoted.

……

The playoffs were in full swing, and Richard was not idle, and began to contact various teams to discuss transactions.

This time, Richard is naturally going to trade Monroe, although the horse monkey is also within Richard's trade plan, but at least Richard is not ready to sell the horse monkey in the future.

At the moment, the horse monkey has not reached the highest point of value, and if it is sold, the price will definitely not be high.

And Monroe's value at the moment is not bad......

In the season just ended, Monroe served as the Clippers' positive Indian center, and his performance was quite remarkable, and at the request of Richard, Monroe practiced three points from the day he joined the Clippers.

At present, Monroe actually has three points of firepower, but the accuracy is not good, and it is generally at the level of the early thirties, which is a three-point level that is better than nothing.

Richard knew that maybe this was Monroe's extreme three-point strength, and even if he practiced again in the future, he might not be able to improve much.

Richard knew about this, but the other teams didn't, after all, Monroe was just a rookie who had just finished his second season, and it seemed that there were still a lot of possibilities.

With an average of 12.8 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game, Monroe's performance in all aspects of the just-concluded season is remarkable, and there are no shortcomings, but there is nothing particularly dazzling.

Richard first contacted the New Orleans Hornets, and to be precise, they have now changed their name to the New Orleans Pelicans.

Ballmer followed Richard's advice and bought the Hornets, which were later renamed the Pelicans.

The reason why the name was changed to Pelicans was not Ballmer's idea, but was voted on.

For example, the previous Charlotte Buccaneers, if the team name was determined by fan voting, it was estimated that it would still be called Charlotte Bobcats in the end.

……

Although Richard didn't know Ballmer, it was naturally impossible for him to call Ballmer when it came to trading a player.

Richard reached out directly to Pelicans head coach Monty Williams about his idea of trading Monroe with them.

Monty Williams is still quite a good talker, and this is a manager with little seniority who doesn't talk to him.

When Richard first entered the league, Monty Williams was actually active and didn't enter the league for long......

He entered the league in the '94 draft, the same rookie as Big Dog Robinson.

As a player, he was a complete pawn, wandering a few teams in the league and never playing a consistent starter.

Until his retirement in 03, the best season of his career was only 9+3 stats.

And in the nine years from '94 to '03, how many things did Richard do that caused a sensation in the league?

It's almost innumerable, so Monty Williams doesn't have too much impression of Richard, and Richard calling him at this moment makes him feel a little excited in his heart.

Without saying a word, he told the team management about Richard's appeal, and then it was time for a long meeting to discuss.

The Pelicans have the second-to-last record in the league this season, and they were lucky to pick the top pick in the lottery......

Richard was naturally not stupid enough to take Monroe for the Pelicans' top pick, thinking about it, it is absolutely impossible, and it is estimated that only a fool will agree.

What he really wants is another first-round pick the Pelicans have on hand, a No. 17 pick that he previously traded from the Magic.

In these 12 drafts, Richard doesn't know how to evaluate them, there are many outstanding players, but they are mainly concentrated in the high picks, and the outstanding rookies in the lower picks are much less than in 11 years.

At least outside the top 10 picks, I can't find a player who can match Leonard.

Thinking of this, Richard was amused by himself, and his own thought made it seem like a player like Leonard appeared in the 15th pick very rarely......

The odds of a player with the 15th pick becoming a talent are actually quite low, and since the establishment of the NBA, before Leonard, there has actually been only one Nash who was selected with the 15th pick.

The other fifteenth picks, although they also have good strength, but the grade must be much worse.

In other words, since the establishment of the NBA, there are currently two 15th picks who can get their hands on it, one is Nash, and the other is Leonard.

This is still normal, and now Leonard was selected by Richard with the 13th pick, which means that there is only one Nash.

Of course, there is another big player with the fifteenth pick in the future, and he happens to have played the East final with Leonard.

That's right, it's Antetokounmpo......

As fate would have it, apart from Nash in NBA history, the two strongest fifteenth picks met in the Eastern Conference finals.

……

Richard wanted the Pelicans' 17th pick in order to take Fournier, who was normally selected by the Nuggets with the 20th pick.

This Fournier belongs to the tall type of point guard, a 201-centimeter quarterback, and a certain ability to control the ball, so he can play a cameo role in the No. 1 position.

Although the defensive end is not powerful, the offensive end is still quite good, and a 17th pick will definitely be a sure-fire deal.

Now Richard is waiting for the Pelicans to give him an answer......

Of course, Richard is not just asking for a 17th pick, Monroe is a top-10 pick, and he is also a player who is completely worthy of his draft pick, how can Richard only need a 17th pick.

In addition to this 17th pick, Richard also wants the Pelicans' second-round second pick.

However, according to Richard's guess, it may be that the Pelicans will let themselves raise the price.

It's not a big deal, but Richard should be able to broker the deal by adding in the Clippers' own second-round picks.

At present, the Clippers only have one second-round pick, and the 16th pick in the second round is still worth a loss......

……

"Monty, this deal is directly rejected by Richard, pay attention to the tactful wording." Monty Williams waited for such an answer after waiting for a long time.

"Mr. Temple, Monroe is good, if Richard is willing to come up with another second-round pick, I don't think we will lose this deal, right?" He asked, a little puzzled.

In his opinion, the team's general manager Dale Demps just rejected Richard without even talking, which is really a bit inexplicable.

"It's true that it's not a loss, but we can't make a trade with Richard, at least I don't think anyone in the West would want to trade with Richard, unless it's the Warriors or the Trail Blazers, two of Richard's brothers." Demps said with a frown.

After listening to Monty Williams, he seemed to understand what the Pelican president meant.

If it had been left in the past, when Richard was working for people, the trade would have been traded, but now that Richard owns the Clippers, he will always be in charge of the Clippers for countless years in the future.

The last draft, through a season, has proved that Richard has the rhythm to lead the Clippers to the dynasty again.

In this case, the Western team seems to have formed a tacit understanding that they will not trade Richard draft picks anyway.

If Richard were to rise like this, the Western Conference would be dark......

When Richard ran the Pirates before, he won four consecutive championships in the East, and if Richard hadn't left the Pirates, maybe the Pirates would have been able to maintain this consecutive championship.

Now that he's in the West, the teams in the West won't want to invest in the West anyway, and let Richard build a team like the Pirates in the West, no one will have a hard time.

……

"Well, Mr. Temple, I'll talk to Richard about it......" Monty Williams said with a pained egg.

He actually really wants Monroe, and the team is definitely going to choose Anthony Davis, the top pick.

And Davis is playing the power forward position, which is a perfect match for Monroe as a center, so that their Pelicans' interior line will have a chance to become the league's strongest interior combination.

Monty Williams had seen Richard build all kinds of twin towers and then fight against them, so he wanted to try the twin towers lineup as well.

But now Demps rejected the deal without saying a word, which made Monty quite disappointed.

However, even if he is disappointed, he will definitely not be able to disobey the will of the team's executives, which is definitely not something that a junior head coach should do, and he does not even have the slightest say in the construction of the team's roster and transactions......

"I'm sorry, Mr. Richard."

"We're not interested in interior players because we're going to pick Anthony Davis."

"I'm really sorry, but if we have the opportunity in the future, we will prioritize a trade with the Clippers."

Monty apologized to Richard rather politely......

Richard didn't expect the Pelicans to refuse so simply, and they didn't even give room for bargaining.

This is interesting, Richard originally thought that the Pelicans would bargain with him, and finally took out Monroe plus a second-round pick in exchange for their two draft picks......

For a moment, Richard frowned, feeling that he might not be so comfortable this offseason.

The Pelicans rejected their offer, and they didn't even bargain, which must be odd!