Bishop of the Devil

Although next year's draft has not yet begun, Richard has already determined his choice for this draft.

The first-round pick he brought with him would definitely be Paul.

Richard managed to get the mid-first-round pick, and he planned to use it to select Granger, who would normally be the 17th overall pick.

This Granger can basically be regarded as a replica of pickled pepper.

Note, this is not a poor man’s version of pickled peppers, he is a normal version of pickled peppers…

As for the second-round pick, Richard plans to use it to select Gortat, the Polish hammer who would normally be at the bottom of the next round.

These three options, including point guard, interior lineman and small forward, are definitely the best draft plan that Richard can think of.

Of course, Richard's top priority now is how to get a pick in the middle of the first round.

This is quite important.

Under normal circumstances, the Bobcats have two first-round picks in the 2005 draft.

One is the fifth pick and the other is the 13th pick.

With the fifth pick, they selected Felton and missed De Xiaopang and Paul.

Felton is not considered weak, and his strength is still good, but he will definitely not be able to catch up with Fatty Bede and Dirty Cannon.

There was nothing they could do about this, and it had nothing to do with their selection vision. After all, De Xiaopang and Dirty Pao were selected with the third and fourth picks, and the Bobcats were also anxious.

As for the 13th overall first-round pick, it was obtained from the Suns in the expansion draft.

This is quite a coincidence...

The Suns have a player named Jahidi White with an annual contract salary of about $6 million.

Because the Suns have Marion and Stoudemire, White has no role at all in the Suns.

The annual salary of six million does not seem high, but it is enough to be the last straw for the Suns' salary space.

In terms of trade, no one is willing to take it. After all, the price/performance ratio is too low.

You must know that his data is only 4 points and 4 rebounds. With such data and an annual salary of 6 million, no team will be interested.

In this case, the Suns will target the Bobcats' expansion draft...

He put forward conditions for the Bobcats to select White in the expansion draft, and then gave the Bobcats a first-round pick.

Naturally, the Bobcats agreed to this kind of thing. Their new army had plenty of salary space, and it would not be a problem at all to swallow up a garbage contract with an annual salary of six million.

Richard was a little confused. In the 2004-05 season, the Suns clearly had the best record in the league. Where did they find the 13th overall pick for the Bobcats?

I just asked Miles to check it out, and it turned out that it was clear.

It turned out that this pick was the Suns' stock pick. They had taken it from the Nets before. Because the Nets had a good record, they traded this pick.

They probably didn't expect that the Nets collapsed this season, and their record was not as good as that of the Suns. In the end, they got the 13th pick. On the contrary, their Suns had a very good record, ranking first in the league.

If they had known this, I'm afraid the Suns would have most likely used their own first-round pick to trade with the Bobcats instead of the Nets' first-round pick.

…

After Richard learned about this situation, he frowned and began to think about how to get the Nets' first-round pick from the Suns.

Taking advantage of the fact that the new season has just started, taking advantage of the fact that the Suns don't have Nash and their record is not particularly good, try to find a way to get them to hand over the Nets' first-round pick.

This deal must be done as early as possible and must not be delayed. The longer it is delayed, the less willing the Suns will be to take out the Nets' first-round pick.

Thinking of this, Richard had an idea in his mind.

Two days later, Richard called Pierce.

Among the West Lafayette gang, Pierce is considered Richard's most loyal follower. In the previous incident where he was stabbed, Richard's company moved him beyond measure.

"Coach, do you know?" Pierce asked melancholy as soon as he answered the phone.

Richard was startled, what do you know? Could it be that the Suns are so anxious that they have already started contacting Green Kai in just two days? !

It's normal to think about it. The Suns are now eager to get Nash and then start to rise.

But after all, it takes time to adjust the lineup. The sooner they get Nash, the better chance they have to rise up sooner.

It's no wonder they're not in a hurry...

"Paul, is it because the team wants to trade Chauncey?" Richard asked.

"That's right, coach, it's really a headache."

"Although I also know that getting Okur to enrich our inside strength is not a bad thing, but Billups and I have been working together for so long, and I really don't want him to leave me." Pierce sighed and said.

He and Billups have been working together for some years. They are both members of the West Lafayette gang, so they naturally have a very deep relationship.

Now the team wants to trade Billups. Although he knows this is the best way for the team to break the situation, he still can't accept it in his heart.

With this lineup of Green Kai, if they want to win the championship, there is no possibility at all. They can only seek changes as much as possible without breaking or establishing. Maybe with some changes, they can gain the strength to win the championship.

Richard nodded, "Paul, you can continue to resist on this matter, although you should know very well that the team will eventually trade Chauncey."

"But you still have to have the necessary resistance and try to make this transaction as smooth as possible."

"The current situation of your team makes it difficult to achieve further results. I think you can perform well this season and get a good draft pick. Then I can help you in next year's draft. .”

Pierce was dumbfounded when he heard what Richard said.

Good guy, Richard is actually willing to help his team in the draft? !

Didn't he have a conflict with that old guy Anji? Why do you still want to help Lukai? !

Could it be that the coach wants to let himself taste the taste of a championship? Then he gave up his feud with An Ji?

Thinking of this, Pierce was even more moved.

However, he still couldn't understand why Richard allowed himself to continue to boycott the deal, knowing that the team would eventually trade Billups. Is his boycott meaningful?

…

It certainly made sense for Richard to ask Pierce to do this, and it was quite significant.

He is now seizing the Suns' intention to speed up the deal, and then trying to get Pierce to delay the deal as much as possible.

Nine times out of ten, the Suns will be begging for help in the end.

The relationship between himself and Pierce is very clear to the whole world. If there is anyone in the world who can persuade Pierce, then apart from Pierce's parents, Richard is the only one.

Even in this matter, Pierce's parents were useless and Richard had to intervene.

The Suns are definitely going to take Richard's idea...

At that time, Richard can easily negotiate with the Suns.

…

The next night, during Green Kai's post-game press conference, Pierce faced reporters and publicly denounced the recent trade rumors, implying that he would not agree to the deal under any circumstances.

He knew very well that Richard had some purpose in this matter, but at the moment he couldn't think of what Richard was pursuing. This was a game between management, and he didn't have that much information at hand. Naturally, I can't guess Richard's purpose.

But one thing he could be sure of was that Richard would never harm himself.

All I need to do now is follow Richard's arrangements...

Thinking about the 2005 draft, Richard would help his team select players, and Pierce couldn't help but feel excited.

…

Richard was relieved to see Pierce's public resistance.

In this matter, he was suspected of taking advantage of Pierce, but he promised to make amends.

…

A week later, Richard received a call from the Suns as he wished.

But what surprised Richard was that the call was not from D'Antoni, but from team owner Saville.

As soon as he came up, Savile expressed his gratitude to Richard for his previous tolerance.

Then the topic shifted directly to this transaction.

Originally, they had almost reached an agreement with Green Kai, but with Pierce's public resistance, the transaction entered a stagnant stage.

Pierce is now the absolute leader of the team. So far in the new season, he has averaged 32 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists per game, which is quite unbelievable.

Although Angie is the team's general manager, he can't completely ignore Pierce's opinions now.

If Pierce is really offended to death, he will definitely not be happy in his position as general manager.

At the moment, Ainge can only suspend negotiations with the Suns and wait and see what the limelight is.

After such a pause, the sun became anxious...

They immediately targeted Richard, hoping that Richard would take action to deal with Pierce so that the deal could proceed as soon as possible.

"Lee, Pierce has been resisting this deal, and the deal has entered a stagnant stage." Saville said with a wry smile.

There is no need to say too much when facing a smart person. Savile said half of the words and did not mention the matter of asking Richard to help.

"I can help you get Pierce, but I want to join the deal." Richard decisively stated his purpose.

Savile was startled. Richard wanted to join the original three-party deal?

Wouldn't that become a four-way deal?

But if Richard wants to trade, what can he offer? The Buccaneers don't seem to have anything to trade for.

And what does he want? Their new army doesn't seem to have much demand. Could it be that Richard is planning to make the Pirates a powerful player in the league in the short term? !

Think about it, this is impossible. It is not that easy for a team to rise.

Look at the Grizzlies and Raptors before. It has been almost ten years since they joined the league, but they still have no results.