Bishop of the Devil

After the deal between the Pirates and Greencap was officially announced, there was not much movement from all parties.

Richard selected two big men in this year's draft, and then brought in O'Neal. In addition, Varejao only has one year left on his rookie contract, so it is not unimaginable for Varejao to be traded.

However, with Varejao's trade, the Pirates' starting lineup last season has been reduced to two out of five!

The first thing a championship team usually has to do is to keep the lineup unchanged. Richard did a good job and directly sold two championship starters.

…

Although it is not surprising that Varejao was sold by Richard, it was only sold at such a cheap price, which still made each team feel uncomfortable.

If they had known Varejao was so easy to get, they should have taken action earlier.

Just a pick at the bottom of the first round and a fringe player can be exchanged for a championship center. This deal is simply not a good deal.

…

Jordan also took advantage of the offseason to go on vacation. He and his wife had divorced a long time ago. Now he is alone and his life is not too comfortable.

Jordan had no involvement in the team's transactions and left it entirely to Richard, who was fully responsible.

After the deal with Greencap was completed, Richard originally thought about whether to sell Millsap, but the bargaining chips provided by all parties did not satisfy Richard, so he put the matter aside for the time being.

In the coming season, Millsap can actually perform well and try to sell it for a good price before the All-Star weekend.

The work at hand is almost done, and Richard is now ready to deal with O'Neal.

Before reaching the deal with the Heat, Richard had envisioned this situation. It was unlikely that O'Neal would play for him honestly.

But even if he expected this situation, Richard didn't take it too seriously. The main reason was that O'Neal's emotions were easy to deal with. Richard might only need a phone call to make O'Neal willingly join the Pirates.

…

Richard didn't have O'Neal's phone number in his hand, so he called Kobe again and found O'Neal's personal number.

Kobe still hasn't realized what it is that Richard likes about this lazy guy...

Richard didn't explain much. After getting O'Neal's phone number, he dialed it directly.

"Shaq, good morning, I'm Richard." Richard said hello to O'Neal in a very gentle tone.

"Richard? God, you pirates won't start training so early, right?"

"It's too early for your training. I won't go to the training!"

"I'm not one of those newbies. I deserve to enjoy the vacation I deserve." O'Neill sounded quite dissatisfied and complained to Richard.

"Shaq, I'm not calling you to inform you about training. On the contrary, I can give you the privilege. If you can keep your weight from gaining weight during the offseason, I will allow you not to participate in team training." Richard said with a smile. .

For a player like O'Neal, offseason training is actually not beneficial to him.

Veterans of this age should take advantage of the offseason to relax and relax.

"Then what do you want from me? Li, we are not familiar enough to chat on the phone off the court." O'Neal asked with a frown.

"Shaq, don't play childish with me. We are all adults, so be more mature."

"I'm calling you this time to tell you a few things."

"To be precise, I'm telling you the benefits of joining the Pirates!" Richard said with a smile.

O'Neill remained silent on the other end of the phone, obviously also wanting to know what Richard was going to say next.

"The first benefit is that you can get the third or even fourth championship ring in your career. I think you can't deny this, right?"

O'Neill remained silent because he could not refute Richard.

The Buccaneers' insiders last season were Varejao and Mourning, this season they are Oden and O'Neal...

Obviously, they are not on the same level at all. O'Neal doesn't think he is worse than Mourning. Mourning can help the Pirates win the championship. No matter what, he is better than Mourning.

So a third and fourth championship ring is entirely possible, and O'Neal can't find a reason to refute it.

Seeing O'Neill silent, Richard continued to say with a smile.

"The championship is only secondary. I think you will definitely be interested in this next benefit."

"I have a way to make your free throws reach about 65%, just like Ben!"

Richard's words exploded in O'Neill's mind like thunder.

Like Ben? !

Before, O'Neal led the Lakers against the Trail Blazers, and lost on free throws!

O'Neal's free throws were too bad, and Richard used them endlessly to chop sharks...

Originally, the Lakers could have come up with countermeasures and used Shaq Shaq against Ben. O'Neal's free throws were slightly better than Ben's. If they cut each other off like this, the Lakers would still have some advantages.

But as Ben's free throw shooting percentage suddenly increased, it would definitely be impossible to kill each other.

"Can you really suddenly increase your hit rate like Ben?"

"I mean no need to practice hard or use awkward toilet postures!" O'Neal asked in disbelief.

At the beginning, he asked Kobe to go to Richard to find out the reason for the increase in free throws.

Naturally, he didn't find out. He had already given up hope on this matter, but now that Richard mentioned it again, it suddenly gave birth to fantasy in his heart.

How terrible would it be if his free throws could really reach the level of 65%? !

"No need to practice hard, no toilet posture, you don't need to do anything!" Richard said with a mysterious smile.

…

"Okay, Lee, if you can really do it, then the Pirates will win the championship next season, and I will blow up all the insiders!" O'Neal shouted excitedly.

How can I not be excited? I have been cheating on free throws all my life and finally see the hope of improvement.

…

Richard laughed. O'Neill's temperament was really easy to fool, and he had prepared other benefits.

For example, ask O'Neal about the age of his son, write a blank check to O'Neal, and will guide his son to become a superstar in the future...

Now I only mentioned two benefits, and it directly made O'Neal willing to play for the Pirates. It couldn't be smoother.

After notifying O'Neal to report to the team in early October, Richard breathed a sigh of relief.

The preparations for the new season are basically over on my side.

The lineup was set up quite smoothly and there were no surprises.

O'Neal, who might have an unexpected situation, was solved by himself in a few words, which was a good start for the following season.

Richard took out the team's lineup, and the more he looked at it, the more satisfied he became.

Center position: O'Neal and Oden.

O'Neal is undoubtedly the starting center, but his playing time will not be too much. Thirty minutes are enough, which can probably leave Oden with about 20 minutes of substitute time.

And Richard is not prepared to let O'Neal's attendance rate be too high. He will take about 30 games a season to give Oden more training opportunities.

In this way, Oden's playing time is not too small.

Power forward position: Milicic, Marc Gasol.

Under normal circumstances, Xiaojia started at the center position, but as he later developed a powerful three-point shooting technique, his style has gradually moved closer to the power forward.

Richard planned to wait for the youngster to join the team and then directly let him go to the power forward route.

Under normal circumstances, the Lakers selected Garfield in the second round, but they did not sign a contract with García and retained the right to sign.

It's not that Garfield has a contract in another league and cannot enter the NBA. Before he entered the draft, he played at Lausanne College in Vancouver and was not playing in a professional league.

Under normal circumstances, if the Lakers want to sign Xiaojia, there is no obstacle and they can sign at any time.

Richard naturally signed Xiaojia without hesitation and signed a cheap contract worth five million US dollars over four years, with the final year being a team option.

…

Small forward position: Granger, Millsap

Shooting guard position: Roy, Tony Allen and Ingram.

Sun Yue is positioned as a swingman by Richard, and Richard is prepared to give him playing time depending on the situation.

As for the point guard position, Paul and Rondo are enough.

As a result, the Pirates already have twelve players on their roster for the new season!

These twelve players, except for the weaker Sun Yue and Ingram, are all famous figures in NBA history.

This is Richard's team preparing to defend his title in the new season. Such a lineup, if nothing else happens, will be invincible. Regardless of whether it is the Pistons in the East or the Spurs in the West, they will definitely not be the enemy of this team.