In fact, some media imagined the possibility of Wang Chao joining the Jazz team.

After all, there are only a few teams without a championship in the NBA, and there are only a few of them with enough salary space to sign Wang Chao.

The Jazz are not the favorites among them, but they are at least under consideration.

It's just that although the media has predicted it before, not many people really believe that Wang Chao dares to consider Jazz, he is really not afraid of losing.

Unlike teams such as the Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans, and Minnesota Timberwolves, the Nuggets want draft picks without draft picks, salary space without salary space, and a Mike. Conley's big contract left the team locked up and left him motionless.

Now the team has thrown Conley out of the baggage, but the result of two first-round picks is to get back Westbrook, who has a bigger contract and a longer term.

To put it mildly, although Conley's contract is rubbish, as a point guard, his strength is still good, with three-point shooting ability, defense, and rich experience in blocking and dismantling, which is more in line with Wang Chao's ball-holding style of a solid traditional point guard.

Wei Shao is different.

Although it is extremely luxurious in terms of statistics, Wei Shao and Wang Chao's playing style obviously conflicts, if Wang Chao attacks with the ball, Wei Shao's role on the court may not be as strong as Conley's, after all, his three-point shot is too bad to act as an outside shooter, and on the defensive end, Westbrook's performance is not necessarily better than Conley.

If you simply compare Westbrook and Conley together, it must be Westbrook is stronger, there is no doubt about it.

But if the two of them are paired with Wang Chao, under rational analysis, Conley may be more suitable for Wang Chao.

Moreover, basketball is a team game, and in addition to Wang Chao and Westbrook, at least three starters and several bench players with outstanding strength are needed.

In the current roster of the Jazz, the one who can take a look is Aaron, who has just been traded. Gordon & Jordan. Clarkson, and these two are only slightly overlooked, not very good.

First up is Aaron. Gordon, who averaged 14.4 points and 7.7 rebounds per game last season and only 12.7 points and 6.4 rebounds per game in his career, is too short and thin as a power forward, supported by dynamic talents such as good bounce and explosiveness, and weighs only 100 kilograms to protect the basket inside.

Jordan. Clarkson is not much better, averaging 15.1 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game last season, the only thing that is more acceptable is that his 46.4% shooting percentage and 36.8% three-point shooting rate are so-so, he can be the starting point guard of a team, but it is only a role player positioning, don't expect him to play a dazzling and wonderful performance.

As for the rest of the Nuggets' players, there is no need to even mention them, and they are not worth looking forward to at all.

Even if it is Wang Chao, with such a team, it is impossible to continue to win the championship, right?

But in Wang Chao's view, anything is possible.

The NBA2020-21 season, also affected by the pandemic, has changed the schedule to a great extent, starting with the sharp reduction in the off-season of the season.

The 19-20 season was won on October 21, and the new season started on December 23, with only a two-month off-season.

In the short time left, the Jazz can only make use of the little salary space left as much as possible, and attract all the powerful veterans to join with the appeal of Wang Chao, a champion evergreen.

I have to admit that Wang Chao's attraction is still there.

Soon after Wang Chao joined, the Jazz signed their first player, Cameron, who won the championship with Wang Chao in the Clippers last season. Anthony.

The player, who is in the same class as James and Wade, is currently 36 years old, but he still has gas in the tank.

Last season in the Clippers, Anthony as the team's starting forward, although the average playing time was only about 26 minutes per game, a lot of time was taken up by Harrell on the bench, but in the limited playing time, Anthony was able to contribute 14.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game to the team, shooting 44% from the field and 40% from three-point range.

Relying on his efficient performance, Anthony can be regarded as reversing his reputation for losing to the Lakers in 19 years and winning the first championship of his career as he wishes, which is no regret.

After the free market opened in the offseason, a number of teams threw olive branches to the veteran, and some teams made an offer of 8 million a year for him.

But Anthony still chose to defect with a base salary without hesitation after hearing that Wang Chao joined the Jazz.

The total salary in his career is as high as 260 million US dollars, naturally there is no shortage of these 8 million, he joined the Jazz, the main purpose is to return the favor, Wang Chao helped him realize his dream, so that he has no regrets in his career, and washed away the black pot of cancer in the Lakers.

has the same idea, as well as Wang Chao's old teammate Howard.

Howard has little playing time with the Clippers because Lopez's strategic position is too important.

But winning a championship in the Clippers paddled made Howard clearly realize that hugging Wang Chao's thigh is the easiest way to win the championship.

At present, he has four championships in hand, if he can follow Wang Chao to win another championship, Howard, who has five championships, will become the center with the third most championships in the history of the NBA league, second only to Skyhook Abdul-Jabbar and Lord of the Rings Russell, this honor is not taken in vain, and the Jazz team is indeed lacking in any position, especially the center, there is no one at the moment.

For Anthony and Howard to take the initiative to defect, Wang Chao naturally did not refuse to come.

Anthony will be able to play an average of about 13+4 per game as a substitute player in the next two years, that is, in the 20-21 season and the 21-22 season, and the base salary is definitely worth it.

As for Howard, although he later had the experience of running to Wanwan to spend all his time, at least in the original 20-21 season, Howard, who switched to the 76ers, can still contribute 7 points and 8.4 rebounds while playing only 17.3 minutes per game, and has no problem protecting the basket as a backup blue-collar center.

The joining of the two is definitely a big help for the Jazz team at this stage.

But after that, another player's agent reached out to Jazz management, which was a surprise.

That was Cousins, who was traded to the Cavaliers by the Lakers as a bargaining chip.

The Cavaliers originally had Embiid on the inside, and they chose to trade to Drummond in the middle of last season to form an interior twin tower with Embiid, but the actual results in the playoffs were not effective.

And they exchanged for Cousins because of Cousins' short contract period.

After trading for Cousins, the Cavaliers negotiated a buyout agreement with Cousins.

Obviously, Cousins, who was abandoned by the Lakers, is also reluctant, although a ruptured Achilles tendon is a major injury that can affect the entire career, but it does not mean that the death sentence is 100% pronounced.

There are cases in the league of players who can return to play well after a ruptured Achilles tendon.

For the Lakers to be so cold-blooded that they almost can't wait to trade him away, Cousins is also a little difficult to accept.

So when he learned that Wang Chao would join the Jazz, Cousins had a bold idea.

The same bold idea as the other plane.

As a result, a few days after Anthony and Howard announced their joining the Jazz, the Jazz officially announced again that Cousins, who had just reached a buyout agreement with the Cavaliers, joined the Utah Jazz on a one-year, $4 million contract.

The announcement of this news immediately caused a strong shock in the alliance.

Cousins is useless, and the injury of a ruptured Achilles tendon puts his future in jeopardy, but even so, Cousins is not a player who can be sent for 4 million.

The contract was so cheap that it was almost self-defeating.

But after all, Cousins chose to join the Jazz, not the Warriors, who won two consecutive championships and almost had the most luxurious lineup in the history of the league, so the response was much smaller.

What's more, the different time periods lead to different recovery and recuperation times for Cousins' injuries.

Originally, Cousins, who was injured at the end of January 18, spent 8 months recuperating and recovering from his injury before he could adapt to NBA-level games.

In this time and space, Cousins was injured in September of 20 years, and even if he continues to calculate according to the 8-month recuperation period, Cousins will not be able to return until May at the earliest, and a little later, in June or even July.

Due to the impact of masks, the schedule of the NBA2020-21 season has also been adjusted, and the playoffs will enter in mid-May, and the entire schedule will end on July 21, including the finals.

The best outcome is that Cousins will be able to return and play with the team in the playoffs, and if he is unlucky, he may not have a chance to play for the entire season.

For both the Jazz and Cousins, the signing was a big gamble.

Wang Chao is indifferent to this.

If Cousins can return to the Warriors' form, the signing won't be a loss.

In the 18-19 season, Cousins, who returned from injury to represent the Warriors, played 30 regular season games, averaging 16.3 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, although it was far from the previous level of 20+10 per game, but as an interior player, he was good enough, but unfortunately the injury struck again, causing him to be unable to continue playing.

In the following seasons, Cousins was injured and stopped, and although he did not play many games, in the limited playing time, data like 10+5 was still at his fingertips.

From this point alone, Wang Chao feels that he can also take this risk, anyway, 4 million can't be bought a year and can't be fooled, even if Cousins can't play, there is not much loss for the Jazz, after all, in this year, 4 million can't sign any players with outstanding strength at all.

As a result, the Jazz quickly assembled a roster that seemed to be barely alive in the first month of free agency.

Russell in the guard position. Westbrook & Jordan. Clarkson.

In the forward position, there are Wang Chao, Aaron. Gordon, Cameron. Anthony.

The center has Howard and Cousins.

Although the lineup is not particularly luxurious, it is remarkable, as long as Wang Chao is strong enough, it is not impossible to lead the Jazz to win the championship.

Moreover, although the Jazz lineup is stretched, there are one or two that are not bad, such as Jeff in the forward position. Green & Royce. O'neill.

As for the stronger opponents in the 2020-21 season, there are only two teams that can make Wang Chao feel threatened so far, one is the Golden State Warriors in the West, and the Lakers are fighting each other, although the Lakers won the game, they lost more, and they just scrapped an inside big nuclear Cousins.

On the other hand, the Warriors, although Thompson was also injured, it was only a skin injury, and he was alive and well after a week or two of recuperation, and the team lineup was not affected in the slightest, Curry, Thompson, and Green's Big Three are all there, and Ingram is also growing steadily and getting stronger, and even Jordan is in the lineup. Poole & Kevin. Looney is two players who can play well in the future.

Such a Warriors team is definitely not weak, and it can even be compared to the Warriors team that won the championship again in 22.

As for the other strong opponent, it is the Brooklyn Nets in the East.

Last season, without Paul and Durant, Jokic and Booker grew a lot, and although they stopped in the second round in the playoffs, they showed their strength.

Although the Nets have not changed significantly in the lineup in the new season, Durant will return from injury.

Even if Durant, who returns from injury, can show 80% combat effectiveness at his peak, the strength of the Nets will be quite terrifying.

There is Jokic on the inside, connecting the whole team, and Durant + Booker on the outside.

The only weakness of such a team is that its defensive ability is not strong enough.

Durant's explosiveness after the injury has weakened significantly, and the defensive ability is no longer what it used to be, and even at his peak, Durant's defense is only above average, Booker and Jokic are not players who are good at defense, although the Nets' offensive firepower is extremely strong, but the defense is not very good.

All in all, the new season is still quite challenging for Wang Chao.

——

At the beginning of December, Wang Chao officially arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah to participate in the shooting of the Jazz team's makeup photos for the new season, and held a brief press conference by the way.

At the press conference, a reporter asked a question that many people were very curious about.

"Why did you choose the Jazz as your next stop?"

Many people want to know this question, there are several teams without a championship, and the situation of the Jazz team is definitely the worst of several teams, obviously there are better options, why did Wang Chao choose the Jazz team?

Then they heard the answer from Wang Chao.

"The reason is simple." Wang Chao smiled and said: "Salt Lake City is very close to Los Angeles, and it only takes less than two hours to go back by plane, so it is convenient for me to go home to spend time with my family, compared to several other teams, which are too far away, so I will not consider it for the time being." ”

Journalists: "......"

Jazz Management: "......"

Wang Chao's reason was the first time even the Jazz management heard about it, and then they finally understood why Wang Chao took the initiative to find them, it turned out to be because it was close to home.

It seems that location is really important for NBA teams. (End of chapter)