In fact, in the summer of 2018, there were many opportunities to bring in reinforcements through trades.

George is by no means the only option.

Spurs' Kawai. Leonard will break out in a few days and ask for a trade, and was traded to Menglong on July 19, and Menglong, who got Leonard, went all the way in the new season and directly won the 18-19 season championship, making Leonard directly a god, and his reputation once surpassed James, Curry, Durant and other players in the absence of regular season MVP, and briefly became the first person in the league.

Compared to personal ability, Leonard is obviously better than Jimmy. Butler is stronger.

But between the two, Wang Feng still prefers Butler.

The reason is simple, getting Butler's chips in the first place is bound to be cheaper than getting Leonard.

In order to get Leonard, the Menglongs paid for All-Star DeRozan and a protected first-round pick.

DeRozan, as a player who can steadily contribute 20+ points all year round, wants to surpass him in trade value, and the Lakers must at least pay Ball + Ingram's chips.

In contrast, Jimmy. Butler must be cheaper, after all, Butler at this stage can only compare with DeRozan in terms of coffee position, or even slightly lower, far inferior to FMVP Leonard.

Of course, Wang Feng is not just thinking about the level of chips the Lakers have to pay.

Aside from Leonard's desire to fight for the boss, the Lakers are likely to fight with Wang Feng aside, looking at Leonard's career after leaving the Spurs, it is completely like a glass man, fighting and resting.

The season with the most appearances was 60 regular season games with the Menglongs, and it was even more complete when he arrived at the Clippers.

What Wang Feng wants is a qualified second leader with outstanding strength, not a thorn in the head who may grab the boss with him at any time, and will lie down due to injuries every once in a while.

Such a side-by-side contrast, Jimmy. Butler, although inferior to Leonard in terms of strength, was a better choice.

Looking at Butler's subsequent performance this year, it can be called hard and ruthless.

The only time the Timberwolves have made the playoffs in recent years and into the 2020-21 season was in Butler's 17-18 season.

At that time, there was a famous meme in the League, and that was Butler's famous statement.

"Who is the most talented one on the team? It's Downs! Who is the most physically gifted one on the team? It's Wiggins, but who is the one who works hardest on the team? It's me! ”

This summer, the Timberwolves will reject Butler's request for an early salary extension and give priority to Towns and Wiggins, a dismissive attitude that angered Butler and made the latter voluntarily request to leave the team.

A few days before being traded, in an intra-team training game, Butler led the third team to complete the first and second teams of the Timberwolves, shouting at the general manager that you can't win without me, making the Timberwolves disgraced.

After being traded to the 76ers, Butler helped the 76ers in the division semifinals with Leonard's Menglong bloody battle for 7 games, and was finally defeated by Leonard, and that season Menglong eliminated the Bucks and the Warriors with two 4:2 respectively to finally win the championship, and the most difficult round of the entire playoffs was the division semifinals with the 76ers.

Butler then left the team to join the Heat, where he reached the Finals that season, losing to the Lakers, a partnership between James and Davis, and finishing runner-up.

In the 2022 playoffs before Wang Feng crossed, Butler's Heat and the 76ers met in the division semifinals, facing the 76ers with the Embiid + Harden combination, Butler punched hard, led the team to eliminate the 76ers 4:2, and shouted after the game. "What? Choose Harris or not me? ”

It can be said that Butler has spent his entire career in being slighted, whether it is the Bulls, Timberwolves, the 76ers or even the entire league, he has never really taken him seriously, but Butler's strength is definitely worthy of the title of top forward.

Judging from the attendance and performance in the next four years, Wang Feng feels that Butler's priority is even higher than George's, and he is definitely the most suitable second choice.

The only trouble is that the conflict between Butler and the Timberwolves has not yet been stimulated, and I am afraid that the Timberwolves will not accept a direct trade application.

Referring to the situation in another time and space, Butler's trade request should have been submitted around November after the start of the regular season in the 18-19 season, when the regular season had already been played for about 10 games.

It's almost impossible to get Butler when free agency opens in the summer, and given the possibility of a butterfly effect, the Lakers will be in trouble if they don't do anything in free agency and then fail to trade for Butler.

“……”

"Although I don't quite understand why the second choice has to be Jimmy. Butler, however, went all out to bring in Paul in the summer. George, indeed, is the team's top priority. ”

Wang Feng takes Butler seriously, but the rest of the Lakers are clearly more interested in George, the first choice that Wang Feng wrote earlier.

But Wang Feng knows that George will most likely not choose the Lakers, after all, in another time and space, the Lakers signed James, and failed to attract George to join.

……

In Wang Feng's view, this meeting was a bit of a feeling of taking off his pants and farting, and the management discussed it fiercely, but did not argue about the reason, and finally only set a strategic policy to pursue George.

Rather than discussing the actual direction of the team's development, the meeting was more like a political power struggle. Buzz & Jim. The game of power in Bath.

Wang Feng is not interested in the little of the Bass family, anyway, just don't give the whole James or Leonard to compete with him for the position of boss.

Johnson only needs to operate in the summer according to his recruitment list, even if top stars such as George and Butler have not been signed, as long as the role players are in place, the strength of the Lakers will definitely not be too bad, after all, Wang Feng's strength next season will be stronger than now!

This confidence comes from the systematic season evaluation and reward distribution after the playoffs.

With the Western Conference semifinals and the Lakers eliminated by the Warriors, the system has begun season evaluation.

"Player Wang Feng completed all the games in the NBA2017-18 season, and the final best result, the semi-finals of the Western Division! Let's start talming your personal season stats! ”

"Played in a total of 11 playoff games, averaging 39 points, 11 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 3.1 steals per game!"

"Played in a total of 82 games in the regular season, averaging 36.3 points, 10.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.6 steals per game!"

According to the comprehensive evaluation of the player's performance this season, the final evaluation score of the player Wang Feng is...... S-！ ”

This is the first time Wang Feng has seen an S-level rating!

As he guessed, the system doesn't exactly follow the settings in 2K games, just like the scoring system, the highest score in 2K is A+, but in the system it is obviously not.

Since there is S-, then there must be S, S+ or even SS!