After the Rockets sent the No. 4 pick in the first round to the Timberwolves, they were left with only one of this year's second-round picks that they had just traded from the Timberwolves, as well as a second-round pick of their own.

Since the Rockets are the champions of this year, their second-round pick is also the last choice at the bottom, and basically they can't choose any valuable players, at most they sign a bench soy sauce player in the form of a base salary.

The Rockets first used the Timberwolves' second-round pick to sign European center Nikola. Jokic then used his own bottom-rounder second-round pick to sign Taylor. Johnson.

Such an outcome was a big disappointment for Rockets fans.

Whether it's Jokic or Johnson, they haven't even heard of it, and after the Rockets selected the two, someone searched for information about these two, and then unsurprisingly found that these two players are not high-quality potential players, and even being selected in the second round is luck.

According to the fate of the vast majority of the league's second-round shows, I'm afraid it will disappear after a few years of the alliance's collapse, right?

In fact, because the Rockets won the championship, fans didn't expect much from the draft, but after all, the team had a first-round No. 4 pick before, but in this draft year, it is really puzzling to trade the draft picks to the Timberwolves in the face of a group of talented players.

But Wang Chao, who made these two draft instructions, was already satisfied.

Nikolai. Jokic, a two-time MVP winner in the future, a big core of the Nuggets, a real superstar, and the existence of the media rearranging the top of the 2014 draft many times, is definitely the undisputed strongest second-round pick in history.

It's really cool to be able to get such a big bull with a second-round pick.

Jokic was originally selected by the Nuggets with a second-round pick in 14, and then failed to land in the NBA directly because of his overweight in Europe, but continued to play in Europe for a year, and after some hard work, he lost weight, which successfully got the opportunity to sign with the Nuggets.

Jokic then eliminated Nurkic with the 16th pick in the first round in just one season in the 15-16 season, and quickly averaged a double-double All-Star level performance in the next two years, successfully won the maximum salary contract, and won the regular season MVP for two consecutive years.

Wang Chao chose Jokic, mainly to prepare for Da Yao's retirement.

Da Yao's age is not young, and considering his health, he is ready to choose to retire after completing his current contract, that is, after the end of the season next year.

At that time, the Rockets' interior line will only be Whiteside and Gobert.

Considering that the whole league is eyeing the Rockets, who have won two consecutive championships, Whiteside will inevitably be poached by various teams at the top of the salary.

After two seasons of growth and the blessing of Wang Chao's sparring potion, Whiteside's strength is now not inferior to Huaishen, who went to the CBA gilded in the original 14-15 season, and is even two points stronger.

At the beginning, the Rockets signed a 4-year contract with Whiteside, and his contract will expire in the summer of '16, just enough to put Jokic on the top line, plus Gobert, the Rockets' future interior strength does not need to worry at all.

As for the Rockets' own bottom-round pick, Wang Chao's choice of Taylor. Johnson isn't simple, either.

Taylor. Johnson plays as a defender and is 1.93 meters tall.

In the original history, Taylor. Johnson was an undrafted pick, but as an undrafted pick, he was one of the better rookies in '14.

This summer Taylor. Johnson was signed by the Heat on a two-year contract with a final salary as an undrafted player, and with two years of outstanding performance on the bench, he received a four-year, $50 million offer from the Heat.

This makes Taylor. Johnson became the first rookie in 2014 to receive a multi-million-dollar contract.

Of course, Taylor. Johnson averaged only 13.7 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists per game at the peak of his career, which is not a strong player, but this is the bottom pick in the second round, what more bicycle?

Taylor. Johnson's capital to gain a foothold in the league is his accurate shooting and desperate defensive ability, and signing him on a low-salary contract in the second round for three years is still cost-effective as a substitute rotation player.

——

With the Rockets picking Taylor. Johnson, the 2014 draft is over.

The spectacle was a must-have event, but it was just an appetizer, and the real event was just here, and with the draft season over, on July 1st, the free market opened!

In the management of the Rockets, in the general manager's office, most of the management staff were sitting here at this time, but everyone was silent and silent, and their faces were sad.

"General manager, do we really do nothing and just watch like this?"

One of them couldn't help himself and asked.

"Chandler and Isaiah are both potential players, and they are also important rotational players for the team, and the price on the free market is also very good, they are restricted players, even if the team considers the subsequent contract renewal of Kawai and Jimmy, at least in the form of a sign-and-trade method, it is right to use them to get more benefits! It's a shame to let it go in vain! ”

The general manager of the Rockets naturally understands this truth, but ......

He smiled bitterly, shook his head and said, "Everyone here knows what you said, but everyone should know why I didn't do it this way." ”

No one spoke.

Cause? Of course I know, because Wang Chao did not agree to this proposal.

According to Wang Chao's original words, whether it is Chandler. Parsons or Thomas Jr. will be coaxed and even maliciously raised by the league this summer, as a restricted free agent, the Rockets are eligible to match the contracts offered by any team to the two, but if they really do that, they will need to pay more than 10 million annual salaries.

And that's exactly what these teams are all about, and when the Rockets choose to match the offer, no one will be interested in these two players. Parsons and Thomas Jr. are just potential players, and the real superstar potential and value are Leonard and Butler, whose contracts expire next year.

By driving up the price, filling up the Rockets' salary space, forcing the Rockets to be under pressure from the salary space next year, and having to give up either renewing Leonard or Butler, is their ultimate goal.

Even if it is a sign-and-trade method in exchange for chips, in order to match the salary, while sending these two people, the Rockets will have to eat at least a 10-million-level contract, but the gains outweigh the losses.

In Wang Chao's view, Chandler. Parsons and Thomas Jr. are just cheap workers on rookie contracts, and the two have contributed to the team's success in the past three years, which is enough, and there is no need to completely squeeze the value of the two out.

Besides, the reality is that no team will pay too much value for the two of them, the restricted player is just the team has the right to match the contract, if you make an offer that you can't match, I can directly prostitute the player for nothing, why give the valuable draft pick or strength player to the Rockets?

The Rockets' management apparently didn't figure it out, and they just focused on the reluctance to let go of the two players for nothing.

Wang Chao didn't bother to explain to the management, anyway, the Rockets had the final say, as long as he didn't nod, no one dared to operate past him, including the general manager of the team, which was written in his signing contract, and now even if there is no contract constraint, no one in the entire Rocket team dares to disobey Wang Chao.

The honor and economic benefits brought to the Rockets by the two championships in three years have made the team owner Alexander's love for Wang Chao reach an unprecedented height, and he has told the general manager of the team more than once that he must meet all the requirements of Wang Chao.

Unless the general manager doesn't want to do it, he has to listen to Wang Chao.

"Hey......"

With a helpless sigh, the general manager of Team Rocket shook his head helplessly.

"It's useless for us to discuss this here, after the draft, Wang stayed in New York and didn't come back, without his consent, we can't make any private trades and reinforcements, no matter what we want to do or what we have to suggest, we can only wait until he comes back from New York."

The question is, why did Wang Chao stay in New York after the draft?

It's simple, Miranda. Kerr has entered the due date, and he stayed in New York, naturally so that he could see his child born as soon as possible.

Mr. Wang, who is already a billionaire, is not at all distressed to spend the money, having previously purchased a villa around Manhattan's Central Park worth more than $50 million, just to facilitate Miranda's production.

And as early as when he was waiting for childbirth, Wang Chao spent money to hire dozens of people from nannies, medical staff to midwives to take care of Miranda's daily life, and the luxury was comparable to that of the British royal family.

Wang Chao thought about taking his parents over and enjoying the emperor-like life, but the second elder was not willing to cross the sea to the United States, after all, he was not familiar with the place and did not understand the language, how could he stay comfortable in China?

Wang Chao's real estate purchased in the capital is basically written in the name of his parents, several sets of courtyard houses plus dozens of houses in the second ring road, so that the second old man is a charter public charter wife, every day is to collect rent, walk around the corner, and then watch the capital's housing prices rise crazy every day, I feel very happy.

In their worldview, just relying on these dozens of apartments in the capital is enough for future generations to eat and wear, and they can't understand what kind of horror Wang Chao has reached by virtue of speculating in bitcoin.

3 billion US dollars, converted into Chinese currency is 18 billion, according to the current average house price of about 50,000 in the second ring of the capital, 100 square meters of housing can be purchased 3,600 units, that sentence to buy a small half of the capital city is not an exaggeration.

When Wang Chao accompanied Miranda on his honeymoon in a mansion in New York, waiting for the birth of his child, the free market of the League was opened and had already begun to surge.

At the beginning of July, as soon as the free agency market opened, it was announced that a number of players had signed contract extensions.

At the same time, the Heat's Big Three announced that they would jump out of their contracts to become free agents, and of course, the three had different goals.

Most people know that James has been swept and defeated by the Rockets in the Finals for two consecutive years, which has made James have the idea of running away with a bucket, and the whole Heat team is working hard to keep James.

Wade jumped out of his contract in order to take a further salary cut, so that the Heat would have more salary space to re-sign James and sign some quality players.

And Pat. Riley, on the other hand, used the tactic of agitation in order to keep James, saying that "only a coward will leave".

But this obviously didn't work for James.

Pat. Riley is a strong general manager, coincidentally James is not muddy, he could deign to join the Heat for the championship, but in the past four years of the Heat, James has understood the situation of this team, and he also knows that Pat. Riley will never allow him to interfere with the rest of the team's rights.

In this way, it's still the Cavaliers! Moreover, the Cavaliers now have two top picks, Irving and Embiid, and the salary space is healthy, so how can they have more hope of competing for the championship.

So, on July 12, James publicly stated through Sports Illustrated that he would return to Cleveland to continue to compete for the championship for his hometown.

As soon as this news came out, it immediately caused a violent shock in the alliance.

The Miami Heat fans were furious, while the Cleveland Cavaliers fans were ecstatic.

The Emperor is coming home!

James' return allows the Cavaliers to build a top triumvirate combination of James + Irving + Embiid, and the team's salary space is still very abundant, and it is completely possible to sign another star.

A few days later, James officially signed a contract extension with the Cavaliers, and the new contract is a 1+1 two-year contract with an average annual salary of $22 million.

From this contract, you can actually see James's thoughts.

The so-called return to Cleveland and fighting for the championship for his hometown is just a high-sounding slogan, and the main reason for James' return to the Cavaliers is that the Cavaliers currently have a good roster structure and have a better chance of hitting the championship than the Heat.

The 1+1 contract is the back road he left for himself, and once it turns out that the Cavaliers can't win the championship, James will definitely run away immediately with a bucket and fight for more benefits for his championship plan.

Again, such an approach is not necessarily wrong, and there is nothing wrong with it.

As a player, James's behavior of holding his fate firmly in his own hands should be a model for players to learn from, like Wade, trusting the team and doing his best for the team, only to be offered a humiliating offer and finally forced to join the Bulls?

can be like Kobe, Nowitzki, Duncan, throughout their careers respected by the team, the players who retired in glory are only a few after all, and more are ruthlessly abandoned by the team after losing value.

It's just that it's normal to be infamous and criticized when doing this kind of behavior, especially for a top superstar like James, every action and behavior on his body will be infinitely magnified.

(End of chapter)