The NBA trade deadline has arrived, and the league has not seen any more blockbuster trades. The Rockets would love to trade John Lucas III and Bob Sulla, but no one wants to.

The regular season continued, and the Rockets defeated the Heat, Hawks, and Magic to make it 15 consecutive wins in the regular season. Back at home, they lost to the Celtics 84-86.

Battier spent a lot of energy playing Magic to block Turkoglou, and was beaten by the physically fit Paul Pearce the next day. Pierce scored 35 points in the game, and Battier scored only four points, shooting 1-of-7. Hayes also failed to take advantage of the battle against Al Jefferson. Jefferson is very strong, well-rounded, and one of the league's most underrated power forwards.

Entering March, the Rockets lost to the Nuggets on the road and back-to-back home defeats to the Spurs, suffering two straight defeats. The Rockets' schedule is getting tighter and tighter, and with 19 games to play in March, they're finally tired.

The Rockets still lead the league with a 51-8 record, but owner Alexander is not happy with the team's recent performance.

On this day, Alexander silently watched the team train.

At the Toyota Center, the offices, training hall and competition hall are set up so well that the boss can watch the players through the windows while standing on the office balcony.

Every time the rocket failed to attack, Alexander had to frown slightly. He doesn't like the team's current style, although the record is good, but it is defense-oriented, and the offense has little coordination, just a simple block, and then the star player pulls the single. After watching the All-Star Game, Alexander felt that the team's offense was extremely ugly, and he was eager to solve the problem.

Alexander thinks the team's offense is ugly and the problem is with Jeff Van Gundy. Other teams also have slower big men, such as the Cavaliers and Mavericks, but the offense is much better, and Alexander hopes that the Rockets can also play Sun-style offense. If there were basketball experts around, they would definitely persuade Alexander to maintain the status quo. It's useless to play nicely, it's the key to winning. But Alexander may not listen, he doesn't know basketball at all.

Alexander started investing in stocks in New York. The Rockets earn $30 million a year in basketball, one of the highest-paid teams in the league, but Alexander feels it's too little, which is insignificant compared to what he earns on the stock market. He's always wanted to find ways to make more money.

So, Alexander's energy is focused on New York, and his home is also in New York, not Houston. He came to Houston to watch the game, which is equivalent to a business trip, and he usually does business in New York, and he only goes to Houston when he has free time. He didn't know how to make the team's record better, he just wanted to make money and make the game look better. That's why he didn't want to put Prince and Billups on the table later when the Pistons didn't have a big name as Maddie and didn't play well.

Difference in profession makes one feel worlds apart. Alexander has never admired Van Gundy's style of basketball, and he prefers a run-and-gun style for the team's future, hoping that the Rockets' games will be more on TV because of it.

Last spring, Alexander warned Van Gundy. "Your coaching style is hurting my business interests."

If it weren't for the absence of a good successor, he would have wanted Van Gundy to step down last year. Now the team has the best record in the league, and Alexander doesn't think it's the credit of Van Gundy, it's just that the players are too strong, and if they had changed coaches, they might have played better.

Van Gundy is likely to be voted the best coach of the season, but Alexander is not interested in renewing his contract with Van Gundy, because Van Gundy's tactics affect him to make money, which is probably something that only he can think of.

There was a knock on the office door.

Miss Secretary brought into the office a fat white man who was nearly two meters tall, and this person was Daryl Morey, who was going to replace Dawson as manager after the season.

"Nice to meet you, boss." Morey said.

"Hello, Daryl." Alexander shook hands with Morey, sat on the sofa, and said slowly: "What I said last time, how was it?" ”

"Former Kings coach Adelman, I'm going to get to know him, and if we fire Van Gundy, he's willing to come back and coach the Rockets." Morey smiled. It seemed easy for him to fire a coach who led the team to the best record in the league and a championship shot. He is willing to do what his boss wants.

Despite being 1.95 meters tall, Morey has never played in professional basketball. He is far more interested in numbers than in any other sport. After graduating with an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Morey founded a sports information consulting firm in Chicago that specializes in operational data analysis for professional teams. In 2002, the Celtics hired him as vice president of business operations, and last year, Morey came to the Rockets. Experts believe that Morey does not understand basketball and is only good at "smart calculations", and do not recommend that he take Dawson's place. But Alexander appreciated his abilities.

Morey tells Alexander about Adelman's biography.

Morey believes that if it weren't for Jordan's Bulls and O'Neal's Lakers, Adelman would likely lead the Trail Blazers and Kings to a championship. In Adelman's 14 years at the helm, he has never missed a playoff game. On top of that, he has a beautiful Princeton style of play and is able to make each bench play to his or her own strengths, creating a group of bench gangsters. That's exactly what Van Gundy lacks.

In terms of being a person, Van Gundy also did a poor job. Van Gundy was reluctant to have a good relationship with the old Daisen, and he was even more dismissive of the newcomer Morey, and rarely communicated. In this regard, Adelman is much more tactful than him, and he has been praised for his handling of this relationship with the Kings and the Trail Blazers, and Adelman is also very low-key in this meeting with Morey.

"Adelman is good, but what about Van Gundy? If he performs, we don't renew his contract, right? Alexander asked. He didn't really think it was "not good" when he said that. I just want to find a way to solve this matter.

Morey was still very relaxed, and smiled: "We can spend a little money and ask someone to write an article and create some public opinion." For example, Van Gundy himself didn't want to do it, he felt stressed and tired. We offered him a contract extension, but he himself refused, and we can even make up news that the core players of the team are dissatisfied with his tactics, so they are replaced, and fans will naturally think it is true after reading too much of this news. Just make them think that Adelman is the best coach for the Rockets, fans won't care about Van Gundy, and who wouldn't want to watch a beautiful game? ”

"So what if Hayes is leaving? He had a good relationship with Van Gundy. Renewing Hayes' contract is a big problem, he refused to renew his contract early, he must have wanted to play statistics, and he wanted to have a salary cap after the season. If we renew his contract with a maximum salary, we will have to pay a lot of luxury tax, and even if we win the championship, the team's income may be reduced. Alexander said.

Morey also calculated this account very clearly, saying: "Judging from the data and influence, Hayes may deserve the top salary, but we have Yao Ming and Maddy, two top salary players, if you want to keep him with a high salary, you can only give up a few strong players in the summer, such as Fisher, and maybe cut Hyde, Lucas III and Sula to free up the salary." It's a problem because we don't have a defender we can use. And since then, it's hard for us to make new trades and sign rookies in the summer. The ordinary contract can't impress Hayes, and we can renew him for a maximum of 45 million to 47 million for 5 years, which can't be higher. Even then, our total salary will reach around 70 million. ”

"70 million, can this avoid luxury tax?" Alexander asked knowingly, with a frown.

"The salary cap will be around 65 million, and as long as Hayes stays, the luxury tax is impossible to avoid, unless one of Yao Ming and Maddie is sent away before the trade deadline in exchange for a player whose contract expires this summer." Morey said. It is simply impossible for a rocket to do this. Yao Ming can't go, and Maddie is now ranked first in the regular season MVP list. Trading MVP? That must be crazy.

"How is it possible to exchange Yao Ming and Maddie to sign Hayes?" Alexan shook his head and said, "I don't care what method you use, the salary must be controlled within the luxury tax." Hayes tried to sign as much as possible, and with his popularity, if he didn't renew his contract, the fans would be unhappy. It's better to be lower than the 45 million you said. If he wants to pay a maximum salary, let it go. New arrivals David Lee and Millsap are also good, we don't need that many inside lines. ”

Yao Ming now only plays 31 minutes with a salary of 12.4 million, and the superstars who generally sign the highest salary play more than 35 minutes, which is simply not contrived in Alexander's view. At this time, he didn't think about what Yao Ming brought him, and in September 2006, "Forbes" published the "400 richest people list" Alexander was among them, and his net worth soared to 1.2 billion, which was 15 times that before he got Yao Ming. Alexander went from being the poorest owner in the NBA to No. 9 on the NBA's richest boss list.

Some people may say that looking at the growth of Rocket's net worth, Alexander didn't make much money from Yao Ming, at most a little broadcast rights and advertising fees. It would be strange if even ordinary Chinese people could understand how Americans make money.

Yao Ming joined the Rockets, and Alexander got a business opportunity to develop the Chinese market. Many Chinese companies are willing to work with him, and he has benefited greatly from it. Why do people feel comfortable working with him? Because he's Alexander! He's famous! How did he get his fame and popularity? Be a rocket boss.

If the Americans take hundreds of millions of dollars and say to the Chinese, "I'll take some money in exchange for 10 billion for you." "The Chinese will definitely not agree. But in another way, many people feel that they have made money. Yao Ming made hundreds of millions in the United States, but brought hundreds of millions to the United States, which is a way for the United States to make money.

In short, Alexander felt from the bottom of his heart that it was wrong to renew Hayes' contract with a high salary, and it was also wrong to find a high-paid replacement for Yao Ming, with his capitalist thinking, the most important thing is always to make money.

This is the boss of the rocket, a man who is only interested in profit. Chinese fans are all rooting for the Rockets, supporting Yao Ming, and if they knew what Alexander was thinking, maybe a lot of people would want to pull him out and shoot him for 10 minutes.

Jeff Van Gundy had thought about pressuring Alexander over Hayes' contract extension, saying "he goes, I don't stay." He didn't expect that he was the person Alexander wanted to purge the most.

(To be continued)