In the opening game, the Buccaneers defeated the Milwaukee Bucks with a score of 108-91.

Richard was quite satisfied with this result.

However, in future games, Richard is not prepared to let Mourning play for too long, unless it is at some specific moment.

Cultivating newcomers to the team is still the top priority of Richard's next work, and if a team wants to rise from a poor and white situation, there is definitely no way out without cultivating newcomers.

In the '07 draft next year, Richard wanted Oden immensely.

There is still a Mourning who can be on the center this year, but what about Mourning's retirement next year?

Vallejo is good, but he is not a top player in the center forward position.

Therefore, compared to Durant, in fact, Richard wants center Oden more.

Although no one is better than Durant on the front line, the gap is far less than that between Vallejo and Oden.

Of course, this is talking about Auden, who is completely healthy and completely unaffected by injuries.

Moreover, Richard also wants to see what kind of growth this player who has made the media give such high praise can grow without those bumpy words.

Prior to this, Richard had selected players who would have made a name for themselves under normal circumstances.

Even Roy played well in the league for a few years.

But Oden was even worse, leaving very few marks in the league.

This made Richard even more itchy, if he really cultivated Auden, the sense of accomplishment in his heart would definitely burst.

However, Oden is the top pick, and it will not be so easy for Richard to get his hands on it......

If the Bucks' first-round pick is really lucky enough, they may be able to draw the top pick directly.

And if he can't draw it, Richard will have to think about it.

……

After the game, Richard brought in Rondo and Paul.

Paul had 17 points, 5 rebounds, 11 assists and 2 steals tonight, earning 59 points.

Looking at Paul's expression, he was quite satisfied with his performance tonight, mainly with two steals......

One steal is equal to five points, and two steals are directly ten points.

"Chris, you've got 59 points in your account tonight, no problem, right?" Richard took out his notebook and recorded Paul's points.

Paul nodded.

"Last night Cowens reminded me that this bet of yours could cause you to brush up on the stats and affect the team's win."

"He suggested to me that if I lost the game, the points would be halved if the original rules remained the same."

"I don't know, do you think this plan is fair or not?" Richard said as he looked at the two of them.

The two nodded their heads, which is naturally fair, both of them are players who pursue victory, and they are really afraid that the other party will do whatever it takes for the sake of data and cause the team to lose.

Now that such a new plan has come out, both of them are in favor of it.

Paul had a total of 15 games in his previous month's schedule.

Rondo's schedule for the next month is 16 games, of course, it is impossible to let Rondo play one more game, and the scoring will definitely be calculated in the first fifteen games.

In the two-month schedule, the strength of the opponents is comparable, and there is not much difference.

……

In the next second game, the Pirates' opponent was another weak chicken, the Atlanta Hawks.

The Eagles are real tank teams, anyway, for so many years, they have been rotting and have never stopped.

The point is that they didn't put out any decent players......

Of course, it is also possible that they don't want to mess up, but their strength is too weak to make a decent record.

In this game against the Hawks, the Pirates truly interpreted what it means to abuse vegetables.

At the end of the third quarter, the Hawks had collapsed, and Chris Paul was replaced by Richard after playing the full 35 minutes of the bet.

Tonight's exposure and data explosion made Rondo feel pressured.

24 points, 4 rebounds, 17 assists and 4 steals!

In tonight's game alone, Paul scored 86 points, far more than the 59 points in the opener!

If Paul can keep up this rate, Rondo feels like he doesn't have a chance to win the bet at all.

……

However, the next third game strengthened Rondo's confidence, because Paul's performance in this game was not excellent, and what was even more embarrassing was that the Pirates also lost......

The opponent is the well-known fish belly Raptors in the East, but this year's Raptors seem to be a little different.

Their two interior lines, one Bosh and one Bagnani, are not traditional types of inside lines.

As a result, the two men exploded on the spot tonight, with Bagnani scoring 23 points on 3-of-4 three-pointers, while Bosh added 34 points.

If Mourning was there, Richard estimated that even if the other two broke out inside, they would definitely be able to win.

But the key is that Mo Ning is now "hidden" in the snow.

Richard didn't want teams to see the Pirates as their biggest threat.

If you are not afraid of thieves stealing, you are afraid of thieves......

If any team breaks down and hurts Mourning, then Richard has nowhere to reason.

Paul had 15 points, 5 rebounds, 9 assists and 1 steal in this game, and normally scored 38 points, but only 19 points were scored because of the loss.

This is quite miserable, I got 86 in the last game, and I only got 19 this time, and the gap is not ordinarily big.

Rondo was relieved that he still had hope of surpassing Paul......

……

Now this season, Richard is definitely aiming for the first place in the East and striving to qualify for the All-Star team.

There are already five super giant suits, and I will try to get another one this year.

But before that, Richard had one more thing to do.

That is to give Milicic an early contract extension.

This year marks Milicic's fourth year in the league and the final year of his four-year rookie contract.

Milicic has been gradually cultivated by Richard to become an all-round type of frontcourt core, such a high-quality player, Richard must be clutched in his hands.

This season, the Pirates' salary space is already the same as that of other teams, which is a little more than $53 million.

Renewable contract is renewed, salary space has always been a headache for Richard.

Because Richard has been constantly recruiting new players, and these new players are quite strong players, when their rookie contract expires, Richard will inevitably have to offer them a big contract.

Maybe in the past few years, it is good to say that Richard can still turn around, but as more and more new people need to be signed, the team's salary space is not enough.

Of course, he could pay a hefty luxury tax to sign as many strong newcomers as possible, but now that Richard is also the owner, he always has to think about the team's income and expenses.

Although Richard doesn't care much about the team's profits, since he has chosen this career, what is the matter if he has been losing money......

Richard is now wondering what kind of salary contract he should give Milicic.