After the official announcement of the deal between the Pirates and Green Kai, there was not much movement from all parties.

Richard drafted two interior players in this year's draft, and then brought in another O'Neal, plus Vallejo has only one year left on his rookie contract, and it is not unimaginable that Vallejo will be traded.

However, with the trade of Vallejo, the starting lineup of the Pirates last season has been two out of five!

The first thing a championship team usually has to do is to keep the lineup unchanged, and Richard is good at this, directly selling the two championship starters.

……

Although it is not surprising that Vallejo was sold by Richard, it is still a little uncomfortable for the teams to be sold for such a cheap price.

If they knew that Valejo was so easy to get their hands on, they should have gone out sooner.

Just a first-round bottom-round pick, plus a fringe player, in exchange for a championship center, is a bargain.

……

Jordan also took advantage of the offseason vacation, he and his daughter-in-law have long since divorced, and now they are alone, and their lives are not too comfortable.

Jordan didn't bother about the team's trade at all, and completely handed it over to Richard, who was solely responsible for it.

After the completion of the deal with Green Kai, Richard was originally thinking about whether to sell Millsap, but the chips given by all parties did not satisfy Richard, so the matter was temporarily abandoned.

The following season will allow Millsap to put on a good show and try to sell for a good price before All-Star Weekend.

The business at hand was almost done, and Richard was now ready to start dealing with O'Neill.

Before the deal with the Heat, Richard had anticipated this situation, and O'Neal was unlikely to play for him honestly.

However, even if he expected this situation, Richard didn't pay too much attention to it, mainly because O'Neal's emotions were easy to solve, and Richard might only need a phone call to make O'Neill join the pirates willingly.

……

Richard didn't have O'Neal's phone in his hand, so he called Bryant again and found O'Neal's private number.

Kobe Bryant hasn't reacted until now, what does Richard like about this slacker......

Richard didn't explain much, and after getting O'Neill's phone, he dialed it directly.

"Good morning, Shaq, I'm Richard." Richard spoke very mildly and greeted O'Neill.

"Richard? God, you pirates don't start training so early, do you? ”

"It's too early for you to train here, I won't go to the training camp!"

"I'm not one of those new melons, I deserve my vacation." O'Neill's tone was rather dissatisfied, and he complained at Richard.

"Shaq, I'm not calling you to inform you of the training camp, on the contrary, I can give you the privilege of not participating in the team training camp if you can keep your weight from skyrocketing during the offseason." Richard said with a smile.

For a player like O'Neal, the offseason training camp doesn't actually do him any good.

Veterans of this age should take advantage of the offseason to relax and unwind.

"So what are you looking for from me? Lee, we're not familiar enough to talk on the phone off the floor. O'Neill asked, frowning.

"Shaq, don't play with me, everyone is an adult, be mature."

"I'm calling you this time to tell you a few things."

"To be precise, to tell you about the benefits of joining the Pirates!" Richard said with a smile.

O'Neill was silent on the other end of the phone, apparently wondering what Richard was going to say next.

"The first benefit is that you can get your third or even fourth championship ring of your career, I guess you can't deny that, right?"

O'Neill remained silent because he couldn't contradict Richard.

The Buccaneers had Vallejo and Mourning on the inside last season, and Oden and O'Neal this season......

Obviously not at the same level at all, O'Neal doesn't think he will be worse than Morning, Mourning can help the Pirates win the championship, and he is better than Mourning no matter what.

So a third or fourth championship ring, it's entirely possible, and O'Neal can't find a reason to refute it.

Seeing that O'Neill was silent, Richard continued to say with a smile.

"The championship is only secondary, and I think you will definitely be interested in this next benefit."

"I've got a way to get your free throws to about 60 out of 5, just like Ben did back then!"

Richard's words exploded in O'Neill's mind like thunder.

Like Big Ben?!

Before O'Neal led the Lakers vs. the Trail Blazers, he lost on free throws!

O'Neal's free throws were too bad and were used infinitely by Richard to cut the shark......

Originally, the Lakers could also come up with a countermeasure and use the shark to cut Big Ben, O'Neal's free throws were slightly better than Big Ben, so the Lakers could still have some advantages if they cut each other down.

But with Big Ben's free-throw shooting rate increasing sharply, it is definitely impossible to cut each other down.

"Can you really suddenly increase your hit rate like Big Ben?"

"I mean you don't have to practice hard and you don't have to use an awkward toilet position!" O'Neill asked incredulously.

At the beginning, he asked Kobe Bryant to ask Richard about the reason for the improvement of Big Ben's free throws.

Naturally, he didn't inquire about it, he was already hopeless about it, but now Richard mentioned it again, which suddenly gave birth to fantasies in his heart.

How terrible would it be if he could really shoot 60% of his free throws?!

"You don't have to practice hard, you don't have to use the toilet position, you don't need to do anything!" Richard said with a mysterious smile.

……

"Okay, Lee, if you can really do it, then next season the Buccaneers win the championship, and I will blow up all the inside lines!" O'Neill yelled excitedly.

How can I not be excited, after a lifetime of free throws, I finally see the hope of improving.

……

Richard laughed, O'Neill's temperament was really foolish, and he had prepared other benefits for himself.

For example, ask O'Neal's son's age, write a blank check to O'Neal, and later point his son to become a superstar......

Now only two benefits have been said, and it is simply smooth for O'Neill to play for the Pirates willingly.

After O'Neal was informed of the team's report in early October, Richard breathed a sigh of relief.

The preparations for the new season are basically over on my side.

The lineup went pretty smoothly and there were no surprises.

O'Neal, who may have an unexpected situation, was also solved by his own words, which can be regarded as a good start to the next season.

Richard took out the team lineup list, and the more he looked at it, the more satisfied he became.

Center position: O'Neill and Oden.

O'Neill undoubtedly plays the starting center position, but he won't play too much, and he will be able to go up in 30 minutes, which will probably leave Oden about 20 minutes of bench time.

And Richard is not prepared to let O'Neal's attendance rate be too high, and take about 30 games off a season to give Oden more opportunities to practice.

In this way, Oden's playing time is not less.

Power forward positions: Milicic, Marc Gasol.

Jr. normally started at center, but as he developed a powerful three-point shooter, his style has gradually moved closer to power forward.

Richard was ready to wait for the junior to join the team and let him go straight to the power forward route.

Under normal circumstances, the Lakers drafted Xiaojia in the second round, but they did not sign with Xiaojia, but retained the signing rights.

It's not that he can't make it to the NBA because he has a contract in another league, he played at Lausanne College in Vancouver before he ran for the election, not in a professional league.

Under normal circumstances, if the Lakers want to sign Xiaojia, there is no obstacle and they can sign at any time.

Naturally, Richard did not hesitate to sign Xiao Jia and signed a cheap four-year, $5 million contract, with a team option in the final year.

……

Small forward positions: Granger, Millsap

Quarterbacks: Roy, Tony Allen and Ingram.

Sun Yue was positioned as a swingman by Richard, and Richard was ready to give him playing time depending on the situation.

As for the point guard position, Paul and Rondo are already enough.

As a result, the Pirates already have twelve players in the roster for the new season!

These twelve players, except for the weaker Sun Yue and Ingram, the others are all well-known figures in NBA history.

This is the team that Richard is preparing to defend the title in the new season, such a lineup, if nothing else, will be invincible, regardless of whether it is the Pistons in the East or the Spurs in the West, it is definitely not a one-in-one enemy of this team.