Bishop of the Devil

In the opening game, the Buccaneers defeated the Milwaukee Bucks with a score of 108:91.

Richard is quite satisfied with this result.

However, in future games, Richard is not prepared to let Mourning play for too long unless there are certain moments.

Cultivating the team's newcomers is still the top priority for Richard's next work. If a team wants to rise from a state of poverty and nothing, there will definitely be no way out without cultivating newcomers.

In the 2007 draft next year, Richard wanted Oden extremely.

There is still Mourning who can serve as center this year, but what about Mourning's retirement next year?

Although Varejao is good, he is not yet a top player at the center position.

Therefore, compared to Durant, Richard actually wants center Oden more.

Among the players on the forward and defensive lines, although no one is better than Durant, the gap is far not as big as the gap between Varejao and Oden.

Of course, what I'm talking about here is Oden, who is completely healthy and unaffected by injuries.

Moreover, Richard also wanted to see how far this player, who was rated so highly by the media, would have grown without those setbacks.

Before this, the players Richard selected were all successful players under normal circumstances.

Even Roy has played well in the league for several years.

But Oden was even worse. He left very few marks on the league.

This made Richard even more itchy. If he could really train Oden, he would feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.

But Oden is the number one pick, and it’s not that easy for Richard to get it...

If the Bucks' first-round pick is really lucky enough, they may be able to get the No. 1 pick directly.

And if he couldn't draw it, Richard would have to think of a way.

…

After the game, Richard summoned Rondo and Paul.

Paul scored 17 points, 5 rebounds, 11 assists and 2 steals tonight, directly scoring 59 points.

Judging from Paul's expression, he is quite satisfied with his performance tonight, mainly due to his two steals...

One steal is equal to five points, and two steals is equal to ten points.

"Chris, you scored 59 points tonight, is there no problem?" Richard took out his notebook and recorded Paul's points.

Paul nodded.

"Last night Cowens reminded me that your bet may cause you to brush up the data and affect the team's winning."

"He suggested to me that if the original rules remain unchanged, if I lose the game, my points will be halved."

"I don't know, do you think this plan is fair or not?" Richard said, looking at the two of them.

The two of them nodded, which was naturally fair. Both of them were players who pursued victory, and they were really afraid that the other would do anything for data, causing the team to lose.

Now that such a new plan has been proposed, both of them are in favor of it.

There were a total of fifteen games in Paul's schedule for the previous month.

There are 16 games in Rondo's schedule for the next month. Of course, it is impossible for Rondo to play one more game. When the time comes, the scoring will definitely still count the first fifteen games.

In these two months' schedule, the opponents' strengths are pretty much the same, and there isn't much of a gap.

…

In the next second game, the Buccaneers' opponent was another weak chicken, the Atlanta Hawks.

The Eagles are a real tank team. Anyway, they have been performing poorly for so many years and never stopped.

The key is that they failed to produce any decent players...

Of course, it's also possible that they don't want to show off, but they are too weak to achieve any decent results.

In this game against the Eagles, the Buccaneers truly demonstrated what it means to be a bully.

After three quarters, the Hawks collapsed. After Chris Paul played the thirty-five minutes stipulated in the bet, he was directly replaced by Richard.

Tonight's exposure and data explosion made Rondo feel even more stressed.

24 points, 4 rebounds, 17 assists and 4 steals!

In tonight's game alone, Paul scored 86 points, far more than the 59 points in the opening game!

If Paul can keep earning points at this rate, Rondo feels like he has no chance of winning this bet.

…

However, the next third game strengthened Rondo's confidence, because Paul's performance in this game was not outstanding, and what was even more embarrassing was that the Pirates lost...

The opponent is the well-known Raptors in the Eastern Conference, but this year's Raptors seem to be a little different.

Their two insiders, Bosh and Bargnani, are not traditional insiders.

As a result, the two suddenly broke out tonight. Bargnani made 3 of 4 three-pointers and scored 23 points, while Bosh scored 34 points.

If Mourning was on the court, Richard estimated that the Pirates would still be able to win even if the other two broke out inside.

But the key is that Mourning is now "hidden in the snow".

Richard doesn't want teams to think of the Buccaneers as their biggest threat.

We are not afraid of thieves stealing, but we are afraid of thieves missing...

If any team misbehaves and hurts Mourning, Richard will have no place to reason.

Paul had 15 points, 5 rebounds, 9 assists and 1 steal in this game. Normally he would have scored 38 points, but due to the loss, he only scored 19 points.

This is quite miserable. I scored 86 in the last game, but only 19 this time. The gap is not as big as usual.

Rondo was relieved, he still had hope of surpassing Paul...

…

This season, Richard's goal is definitely to be No. 1 in the Eastern Conference and strive to qualify for the All-Star team.

There are already five pieces of the super giant suit, and I will try to get one more this year.

But before that, Richard still had something to do.

That is to extend Milicic's contract in advance.

This is Milicic's fourth year in the league and the last year of his four-year rookie contract.

Milicic has been gradually trained by Richard to become an all-around frontcourt core. With such a high-quality player, Richard will definitely have a firm grip on him.

The Buccaneers' salary space this season is already the same as other teams, a little over $53 million.

The contract can be renewed, and salary space has always been a headache for Richard.

Because Richard has been constantly recruiting new players, and these newcomers are all very powerful players. When their rookie contracts expire, Richard will inevitably have to offer them a big contract.

Maybe in the past few years, it was easy to say that Richard could still turn around, but as more and more new players need to be signed, the team's salary space is not enough.

Of course he can pay a high luxury tax to sign as many strong newcomers as possible, but now that Richard is also the owner, he has to consider the team's income and expenses.

Although Richard doesn't care much about the team's profits, since he has chosen this career, it doesn't matter if he keeps losing money...

Richard is now worried about what kind of salary contract he should give Milicic.