Chapter 412: Patching the lineup
Originally, for a championship team like the Trail Blazers, stability was the most important factor, and they only needed to make minor repairs to the roster. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ļ½ļ½ļ½Uļ½Eć But with Mills signing for a CBA team and a busy schedule for the new season, it becomes quite important to select the veterans on the bench.
And no one can guarantee the state of Roy and Oden's game, and it is true that Roy has shown a good competitive state in the AAU league, but it is unknown whether it can maintain such a level in the NBA regular season and even the playoffs. Oden has even been training solo in New York, and a big man like him is even more afraid of foot injuries, and no one knows if such a cheating schedule will make him suffer a recurrence.
So finding replacements at the back and inside is crucial, and McMillan has made up his mind to reduce the playing time of Miller and Camby, and both veterans have said understandably. Although winning the championship is very exciting, and it also makes them see that they still have a lot of gas in their tanks, but the NBA's official schedule is indeed a bit of a pitfall, even because of the shutdown, the veterans feel a little unbearable, and Miller even said that he can hand over the position of starting point guard.
There's no way, now the new generation is in charge of the No. 1 position in the league, although sometimes you can use rich experience to suppress the opponent, but most of the time the old arms and legs really can't do the opposite. Miller knows he'll soon need to take a back seat, and if the team's management has a good eye, it doesn't matter if they bring in new players early.
Originally, the Trail Blazers management still wanted to make plans and talk to other teams in a step-by-step manner, but sometimes the plan can't catch up with the changes, and if you don't go to other teams, other teams will naturally find you. The Mavericks need Fernandez to fill Kidd's ageing position, and Fernandez is also interested in leaving, he is tired of competing with Mills for playing time, and the Mavericks are sending Jordan Hamilton, the 26th pick in the first round this year, a swingman with good physical fitness.
It's a pity that Hamilton didn't have long to be happy about joining a championship team before he was sent to the Nuggets by the Trail Blazers in exchange for Felton, the former starting point guard who was sent to Denver because of the Anthony trade......
The Trail Blazers continued to add to the patchwork, and after cleaning up some of last season's fringe figures, they were able to snatch the 2009-10 Sixth Man of the Year Sixth Man of the Year Jamal Crawford from multiple teams for just two years and $10 million. Ye Feng also had to praise the management for doing a good job in signing this signing, which gave Roy a precautionary shot against Roy's possible bad state in advance, even if Roy performed badly, the configuration of Matthews + Crawford is very good in the NBA.
However, Ye Feng regretted a little that Dante Cunningham, who was used as a wonder soldier by McMillan in the playoffs last season, left the team and switched to the Memphis Grizzlies, for the simple reason that the Grizzlies offered a three-year, 6.3 million contract, and the Trail Blazers were unwilling to match. Of course, from a business point of view, this is a lot of money, as last year's rookie Luke Babbitt has grown up, and he is the same type of player as Cunningham.
Basically, the Trail Blazers have tinkered with the roster and that's it, it's up to other teams to continue to find the idea of a trade, and if the price is good, they can continue to negotiate, otherwise the management already plans to use the existing roster for the new season. Of course, as the league's new champion, many veterans also asked their agents to contact the Trail Blazers with the intention of hugging their thighs, but the team has no other movement except for signing 39-year-old veteran Kurt Thomas to supplement the interior line.
At present, the main rotation of the Trail Blazers has become: Miller/Felton at No. 1, Matthews/Crawford/Roy at No. 2, Ye Feng/Batum at No. 3, Aldridge/Babbitt/Thomas at No. 4, and Camby/Oden/Purzbilla at No. 5. In addition to the need to strengthen the substitute in the No. 4 position, McMillan is still very satisfied with the operation of the management, and the strength of the team has steadily improved without drastic changes to the original lineup.
The substitute at the No. 4 position is also in a hurry, there are not many high-quality power forwards in the free market now, but it is difficult for the Trail Blazers to afford the price, even if they can make an offer, others may not be willing to come to you to play as a substitute, even if you are the new champion, not every young player is willing to give up his status to hug his thighs. If an older player becomes the No. 4 bench, the Trail Blazers are not very interested, so they will have to wait and see how things go before the trade deadline.
But the Trail Blazers' minor fixes didn't make much of a splash in the free market, except for their signing of Crawford, which was a clever move, other moves were really small enough to be ignored, and the entire league was looking at New Orleans, to be precise, the Hornets were in charge of Paul.
At first, the Lakers, Rockets and Hornets were close to a three-way deal, the Lakers got Paul, and then Odom was sent to the Hornets and Gasol was sent to the Rockets; The Rockets sent Kevin Martin, Scola, Dragic and draft picks to the Hornets. At the time, the deal had already been approved by the league and was about to be done, but the owners of the rest of the league quit, and the combination of Paul + Kobe Bryant was scary to think about, and they accused Stern at the board meeting that he should not allow such a deal to happen.
Because the Hornets are still in league custody, Stern listened to the bosses, and through the league, he issued an order to Hornets general manager Demps to temporarily suspend Paul's big deal, and the deal was stillborn for each of the three parties.
But the "Queen Bee leaving" farce didn't end there, and Paul finally got his wish and left the weak Hornets, but his next home became another team in Los Angeles - the Clippers. On December 14, the NBA officially announced that the Hornets and Clippers trade would take effect, with the Clippers sending Eric Gordon, Carman, Aminu and an unprotected first-round pick from 2012 (from the Timberwolves trade) in exchange for Paul and two second-round picks from 2015.
Although Gordon, who is in the same class as Ye Feng, is the core of the Clippers' focus in recent years, in order to get Paul's promise not to jump out of the contract next summer, the Clippers gritted their teeth and put the hopeful star Gordon into the trade. Coupled with the previously selected and up-and-coming young interior Griffin and Jordan Jr., everyone knows that Los Angeles is about to change, although Kobe Bryant is still there, he has gradually aged, and Los Angeles is no longer the place where the Lakers dominate......