Chapter Eighty-Five: The Time of the Great Deal

This was followed by several other trades that broke out in the league, and on February 16, 2008, the Hawks sent Anthony Johnson, Tyronn Lue, Sheldon Williams, Lorenzen Wright, and a second-round pick to get the 'White Devil' Mike Bibby to bolster their guard line.

Clearly, the Eagles don't want to pass up the chance to play in the playoffs, and they are still willing to fight for a playoff spot.

Subsequently, the Spurs also broke the trade news.

On February 19, 2008, the San Antonio Spurs and Seattle SuperSonics completed the trade. The Spurs sent Brent Barry, Francisco Elson and a 2009 draft pick to get Kurt Thomas.

Kurt Thomas doesn't want to stay with the SuperSonics, but wants to fight for a team that has a chance to win a championship, and it just so happens that the SuperSonics don't want to keep the veteran with a rebuilding mentality.

The general manager of the SuperSonics team is Sam Presti, who was born in the "Spurs department", and Mike Brown is considered to be the same brother, and he has a bit of a mentor-apprentice relationship with Vicky, so it is just right to use such a trade as a smooth sailing.

The SuperSonics got an expiring contract and a draft pick, while the Spurs got an interior stalwart like Thomas ready for a high-intensity playoff showdown. It's worth mentioning that after this deal, the SuperSonics cut Brent Barry.

And the Spurs also immediately re-signed the veteran. In fact, from the beginning of the trade, Brent Barry stayed in San Antonio and didn't go anywhere. His name is just a glance at the details of the transaction.

In addition to some piecemeal reinforcements, taking advantage of the last period before the trade deadline, teams that aspire to make a career in the playoffs have seized the time to snar in the zìyóu market, and big-name stars can't think of it now, even if they have their own, they don't have that capital, let alone that salary space.

But if you can find one or two veterans in the zìyóu market, who don't take up shots and don't ask for much playing time, but can play their part in key moments, then the team is likely to go one step further in the playoffs.

Although the Cavaliers also want to find some suitable veterans in the zìyóu market to reserve personnel for the playoffs, and the Cavaliers, who have shown strong strength in the new season, are also very attractive to some veteran players who are not willing to move on and want to fight for a championship chance in the final stage of their careers. Forrest gump

But at this time, the Cavaliers' roster has reached 15 people, and in order to sign Lorenzen, the Cavaliers also terminated the contract of Provic to make room for Lorenzen.

At this point, the Cavaliers have run out of room to sign players.

Once everything was ready, the Cavaliers' game came again, and the following week, the Cavaliers will first challenge the SuperSonics on the road, then return home to face the Clippers who are short of soldiers, and then host the Rockets and Hawks at home. Of these four enemies, none of them are considered powerful, except for rockets. The SuperSonics have entered a rebuilding step from point to bottom, with a large number of draft picks in stock around potential rookie Kevin Durant, ready to shine in next year's draft. They may rise, but not this season.

The Clippers are now completely rotten, and Captain Brand, who has been a big contributor to consecutive playoff appearances, has been plagued by injuries this season and will not be back until at least the playoffs. However, looking at the current record of the Clippers, the playoffs are hopeless, and there must be a place for them in the lottery area.

The Hawks just traded Mike Bibby, but no matter how tough Bibby is, it will always take some time to integrate into the team.

Although the Rockets are not weak, they really have no threat to James without Artest as in history, and on the outside, the current Rockets cannot find a person who can stop James' offense. Sean Battier, maybe he has a set of defending Kobe, but James, is not his cup of tea.

What's more, now that the Cavaliers have got Stephen Jackson, their strength has been further improved.

The away challenge to the SuperSonics game started first, in the superSonics' home key center arena, the superSonics rookie Kevin Durant chose to break out from the beginning, the original low shooting rate directly doubled today, the first quarter of 12 shots 7 shots, 4 three-point shots, free throws 2 hits, 20 points in a single quarter, breaking the single-game scoring record of rookies this season, but also fully demonstrated his talent is not weaker than the league's top superstars!

Perhaps the resentment accumulated in the All-Star Rookie Game exploded in this game, all in all, Durant in the first quarter was decisive and unstoppable, and Larry Hughes, who defended Durant, could only let Durant shoot again and again above his head, and there was no way to take Durant, who had a clear height advantage.

Seeing this situation, the Cavaliers decisively replaced new recruit Stephen Jackson in the second quarter. Stephen Jackson took over the task of defending Durant when he faced Stephen Jackson's defense, his height advantage was gone, and more importantly, Stephen Jackson was very physically strong, and he was very good at using his strong body to press the opposing player.

Durant is still very immature, one of the main points is that his ability to resist pressure is still very weak, when he is under strong pressure, there is no way to ensure the stability of his shooting in the fierce physical confrontation, it is this reason that his shooting percentage has been low, and it just so happens that Stephen Jackson is the kind of player he is most afraid of fighting.

Strong body, not slow speed, and enough height.

With Stephen Jackson's tight defense, Durant's shooting percentage began to decline.

In fact, it was the right choice for the Cavaliers to let James defend Durant, but now James is putting more of his jīng power on the offensive end, and originally traded Stephen Jackson for this purpose.

After winning the All-Star MVP, James was a little more ambitious.

The Cavaliers have an excellent record this season, currently sitting in first place in the East, and he is also able to average 27.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 7.8 assists per game. At present, whether it is the scoring champion or the regular season MVP, he has the capital to impact.

Currently, James ranks third in points per game averaging, behind Kobe Bryant's 29 points and Tracy McGrady's 27.9 points. The gap is not big, and there is every chance to catch up and surpass. And if he can get the scoring title and lead the Cavaliers to the first place in the East, it is not impossible to win the regular season MVP with his statistics.

This discovery made James's heart come alive.

And so the game from the very beginning. James played very resolutely on the offensive end, although it was not like Durant's crazy explosion in the first quarter, but after the game, James also got 38 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, and was elected the most valuable player of the game, Zhang Kong got 15 points, 15 rebounds, and 3 blocks, but he was replaced after only 25 minutes in this game.

He sat on the bench and watched the final game throughout the fourth quarter.

After the game with the supersonic team, the Cavaliers won it bloodlessly. returned to the home court to meet the challenge of the Clippers, and now the Clippers, Elton Brand is injured for the season, Chris Carman is injured, and there is only one person left who can be used on the inside, Drew Gooden.

Perhaps it was the return to the quick loan center that spurred the anger of Drew Gooden, who scored a record 20 points and 16 rebounds in this game, both scoring and rebounding a new high this season. But even so, the Clippers still lost the game outright, the Cavaliers, James's score is still thirty+ and running in the direction of forty, and Stephen Jackson also performed well in the bench time, playing 25 minutes and scoring 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists, although not as good as LeBron, but it can be called all-round.

Zhang Kong still played for more than 20 minutes, and sat on the bench in the fourth quarter to watch all this.

In the third game against the Rockets, the Cavaliers still won, but in the fourth quarter, Zhang Kong sat on the bench again and watched the fourth quarter of the game with his chin on the bench.

Especially in the fourth quarter of the game against the Rockets, Yao Ming scored explosively at the beginning of the fourth quarter, and scored consecutive points in the restricted area to chase the difference to only two points, but even in this case, Mike Brown still had no intention of sending Zhang Kong on the court. Fortunately, LeBron James did not drop the chain at the critical moment, scored four points in a row on an inside-outside shot, and blocked Scola's layup in defense to stabilize the situation.

After that, the rocket also lost the energy to turn the tables.

The media has a nose greater than a dog and a more curious than a cat. A game like this, in their opinion, may be a tactical need. Two games like this, they can think that the players need to rest. However, this was the case for three consecutive games, and more importantly, in the third game, when it was clearly in crisis, Zhang Kong was still not sent to play.

Mike Brown's lineup not only made some people incomprehensible, but also made the media with a keen sense of smell aware of the naked eyeballs.

So, the day after the game against the Rockets. The articles full of yīn conspiracy were concocted in the hands of the media!

Source: Forrest Gump