Bishop of the Devil

On April 14, the Clippers' last game of the regular season was against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Over the years, the 76ers have accumulated some good players, but they don't have any top stars.

Wang Zhizhi has completely entered the substitute lineup this season, and this season is also his contract year. I don't know if he will continue to stay in the NBA after this season.

Except for Wang Zhizhi, the 76ers currently have Jrue Holiday, Thaddeus Young, Lu Wei, Nocioni, Speights, Evan Turner and other good players in the lineup, but because no one can play in key situations, Players who always make the final decision, so their record is not much better than that of the Eagles.

During the warm-up period before the start of the game, Dazhi approached Richard.

"Coach, after finishing this season, I want to join the Clippers with a minimum salary to see if I can get a championship ring before the end of my career." Da Zhi said with a smile.

"Welcome, welcome." Richard naturally welcomed him.

Dazhi is not young now, and is already approaching the age of 34.

At such an age, Da Zhi's current speed is far less than that of his peak period. Da Zhi's main offensive method is to rely on his own speed to throw away the opposing big players, and then gain comfortable shooting space.

Now with the serious decline in speed, it is naturally difficult to find so much comfortable shooting space, and he has become a substitute for the 76ers.

But even so, Richard will not refuse Da Zhi. No matter how weak the current Da Zhi is, he will definitely be better than those stinky tomatoes and rotten eggs in the Clippers. Let Da Zhi stay on the bench and play according to the situation. , maybe it can produce good results.

"But you have to be prepared to play a long game, because I don't know when I will win the championship." Richard said with a smile.

Although starting next year, the Clippers' lineup will basically begin to take shape, but the formation of the lineup does not mean that they will definitely win the championship.

If the Clippers' lineup enters the playoffs, there won't be much of a problem, but if they want to win the championship, it probably won't be possible in the short term.

"It's okay, just in time for my children to come to Los Angeles to go to school."

"By the way, I heard that Bit and the others are in the same school. When the time comes, let's let my kid join us too." Dazhi asked a little embarrassed.

Dazhi's son is named Wang Xilin, who is exactly one year older than Libit and the other three boys. If he really comes to Los Angeles to go to school, he will probably be in the same grade as Libit and the other three...

With a father like Da Zhi, Wang Xilin must not be much shorter. Richard remembered that when he was 14 years old, his height was over 1.9 meters.

Richard is already somewhat sympathetic to the elementary school students in Los Angeles...

Dazhi has made a lot of money over the years, and he naturally wants to give his son a better education. Now that he has come to Los Angeles, in addition to wanting to get a championship ring before the end of his career, he probably also wants his son Wang Xilin to get a better education. Good education is also an important reason.

"Yeah, okay, I'll go talk to Kobe during the offseason." Richard nodded and agreed.

…

The Philadelphia 76ers won this game. Except for a little shark, the Clippers players were basically just playing tricks.

Richard didn't bother to preach to these players. Most of them would be eliminated in the next one or two seasons anyway.

…

With the end of the regular season, the playoff roster is also coming out. Of course, this has nothing to do with the Clippers. Richard is currently planning to see if he can find a team to compete in the autumn wind and get a first round. Bottom pick.

This pick is naturally used to select Jimmy Butler...

Although Jimmy Butler is not in Richard's team building plan, no one would want to miss such a player with such a low pick.

The price/performance ratio is quite high, with only the 30th pick in the first round, you can get such a dark and tough player.

…

The Clippers have a record of 29 wins and 53 losses this season, ranking third from the bottom in the Western Conference and sixth from the bottom in the league.

The Atlanta Hawks, who had made a deal with Richard before, were more embarrassed in the end because they failed to enter the Eastern Conference playoffs and only achieved a ninth-place record in the Eastern Conference.

This record made Richard extremely satisfied. If he failed to enter the playoffs, he could get the 14th overall pick at the end, which was completely enough.

On May 15, the NBA’s annual lottery began.

Because Richard did not have a strong desire for a draft pick that was too high, he did not go to the lottery in person this time. Instead, he asked Sun Xiaoben to go to New York on his behalf.

In the end, Sun Xiaoben's luck could only be considered average, with the sixth-worst record in the league. As a result, he got the eighth overall pick...

Sun Xiaoben was originally very proud to get the No. 1 pick to the Clippers, but now he only gets the eighth pick, which makes him quite embarrassed.

Richard is quite satisfied. The eighth pick is pretty good. Anyway, it is definitely enough to get Klay Thompson.

As for the Hawks' draft picks, their luck can only be considered average. Their league's 13th worst record just happened to be the 13th pick...

As a result, Richard has two more lottery picks on hand, the eighth pick and the 13th pick.

The eighth pick was used to get Klay Thompson, and the 13th pick was used to get Leonard. Richard was quite satisfied with the situation.

…

What Richard didn't expect was that as soon as their draw ended, a team immediately came to the door, wanting to make a deal with Richard to get the No. 8 pick from the Clippers.

This team is the Spurs…

Richard recalled the Spurs' previous moves in this draft and could roughly guess Popovich's intentions.

Under normal circumstances, the Spurs only have the 29th pick in the first round of this draft, but Popovich has been seeking a trade, hoping to get a top-10 pick in order to win Leonard.

They initially targeted the Bobcats' ninth overall pick, but the deal didn't go through.

However, after Leonard was selected by the Pacers with the 15th overall pick, Popovich immediately made a big move and traded the team's outstanding backup guard George Hill with the Pacers in exchange for Leonard. Nader.

In this deal, the Spurs only sent George Hill, but got Leonard, the No. 42 pick and the signing rights of Roback in the 2005 draft from the Pacers.

Now it seems that the Pacers have lost all their pants.

However, no one felt that the Pacers were at a loss at the time. After all, in his second year, George Hill averaged 12.4 points per game on a team like the Spurs.

Now Popovich directly comes to Richard to make a deal with George Hill.

George Hill simply traded for the No. 8 pick in Richard's hands...

It's strange that Richard agreed. How could he give away the No. 8 pick he finally got because of George Hill?

Richard is actually a little curious as to how Popovich is so sure that Leonard will be able to play. After all, Popovich is not a time traveler...

At this moment, Leonard is actually not famous at all. In terms of attention, he is actually not as good as the Morris brothers who are running in the same term.

Some experts compared Leonard to Rodman, because Leonard's offensive skills at the time were quite crude, and he couldn't even see it.

The only thing he can do well is probably his long arms and big hands, which is a good material for him to grow into a top defender on the outside.

Leonard himself did not come from a prestigious school, and he was not well-known in college. In addition, the team's position is just a defensive leader, so naturally he will not be much higher in the draft.

But even so, Popovich still wants to trade a top-10 pick to win Leonard. To be honest, Richard really doesn’t know where Popovich’s confidence comes from...

…

"Lee, are you sure you don't want to consider it?" Popovich asked on the phone with a frown.

In fact, in Popovich's view, the chips he gave him were actually taking care of Richard, because he didn't ask for any additional chips at all...

For the current Clippers lineup, having George Hill will be a perfect reinforcement.

Hill is 191 centimeters tall and can play as a combo guard, both at the first and second positions. There is no positional conflict with Sun Yue.

After winning Hill, he formed a backcourt combination with Sun Yue. Although it is not the top backcourt combination in the league, it is very powerful.

What Popovich didn't expect was that Richard directly rejected him without any hesitation!

Does this guy have a very confident candidate?

Thinking of this, Popovich panicked...