Bishop of the Devil

On June 26, this year’s draft finally began.

Richard gave Oladipo the West Lafayette gold medal the night before the draft.

When the draft started the next evening, when Richard appeared at the draft, he immediately attracted the attention of various teams.

Richard has been running the Clippers for three years. In this draft, Richard has the most first-round picks and the best quality. It is not known which players he will choose in the end.

"Li, which newcomers have you chosen this time?" Trail Blazers head coach McMillan approached Richard and asked with a smile.

In the previous Western Conference semifinals, the Trail Blazers lost to the Spurs, which made McMillan quite uncomfortable. Although Paul Allen did not accuse him of anything, let alone fire him, McMillan knew very well that if this situation continues next year In this situation, even if Paul Allen doesn't fire him, he won't be able to continue, and the fans will definitely drive him out.

"It's not bad, there are indeed some good newcomers this time." Richard said with a smile.

"We only have a first-round pick at No. 29 this year, and a second-round pick at No. 29. Lee, can you help us?" McMillan asked with a grimace.

In fact, if you ask Richard for help, you have to let Paul Allen do it, but Paul Allen can't bear this shame. Their Blazers lineup is actually quite good.

There was no other way, McMillan had no choice but to do it by himself.

"Hmm..." Richard pondered for a moment.

"I'm sorry, old man, there really aren't any particularly decent newcomers who would fall to your position."

It’s not that Richard doesn’t want to help the Trail Blazers. After all, he is one of his own. If he can help, he will do so...

But the key to the problem now is that there are really no decent players behind them.

There is no one who can play in the second round. In the first round, under normal circumstances, there will be no outstanding players after the 27th pick Gobert. The Blazers' 29th pick will definitely not get any outstanding players. Newcomer.

After hearing Richard's words, McMillan sighed.

He would not suspect Richard of lying to him, because Richard had no need at all...

Since Richard said that there are no decent newcomers that they can choose, then there certainly won't be any.

McMillan suddenly became less interested in this draft. If he couldn't select any outstanding newcomers, what was the point of participating in this draft?

If you want cannon fodder players, where can you find them? Just go to any summer league and you can pull out dozens or hundreds of them.

…

Seeing Richard and McMillan muttering to each other, many teams looked at McMillan with envy. They thought Richard was working as a consultant for the Blazers again.

After a while, Xiao Hua began to appear.

Judging from the excited expression on Xiao Hua's face, it seems that this draft will be a little different.

This is the first time that Xiao Hua has presided over the draft as the league president. In the past, he was responsible for announcing the second-round picks.

"Taking this opportunity today, we have something to announce."

"After this draft, we will change the draft rules, and we will probably come up with specific regulations in August."

After hearing what Xiao Hua said, everyone in the audience knew that the history of high school players being unable to participate in the draft would be broken. Starting from the next draft, there will be high school players entering the league.

Many people in the audience are important figures in the league, and they don't feel that this draft reform will have a huge impact on them.

At most, it will keep the scouts busy for a while.

"Now I declare the draft officially open."

…

"I announce that the Cleveland Cavaliers have selected Anthony Bennett from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with the first pick of the first round." Xiao Hua announced the candidate for the No. 1 pick.

There was an uproar on the court. No one expected that the Cavaliers would choose him?

It cannot be said that Bennett is not famous at all. He is still somewhat famous. For example, he was selected to the Sporting News' All-Freshman Team and the Basketball Writers Association's All-Freshman Team...

They look pretty impressive, and they all have All-American first-team honors.

But if you take a closer look at these two selection agencies, you will know that this award has little gold content.

National Basketball Sports Writers Association? ! This is as nonsense as asking Chinese basketball writers to judge this award...

These writers can do nothing but bullshit.

Mountain West Conference, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, minor leagues plus small schools, the key statistics are not particularly dazzling, averaging 16.1 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game, there is no data that can rank in the top three of the Mountain West Conference.

You must know that this is just a small West Mountain League. In terms of overall strength, it will naturally be stronger than the Ivy League, but it is not much stronger. Compared with top leagues such as the Big Ten League, the gap can be said to be as big as clouds and mud. Don't.

Everyone in the audience looked strange, and no one knew what the knight was doing. Anyway, in their opinion, this operation was too risky.

If there's one highlight about Bennett, it's probably his physical fitness.

Bennett's body has one characteristic: it's strong.

It's a bit like James, but there is definitely a gap between him and James...

Moreover, Bennett's height of 2.03cm played the power forward position in the NCAA. After entering the league, his height is estimated to only develop to the third position.

If playing the third position, Bennett doesn't have the skills...

Anyway, after thinking about it, everyone in the audience was a little confused about the knight. Maybe they wanted to take a gamble?

Bet that Bennett is the second generation of James?

…

Richard laughed. It was really interesting that the Cavaliers actually chose Bennett.

In this draft, the Cavaliers' selection of Bennett with the No. 1 pick is an unsolved mystery. The Cavaliers themselves don't open their mouths, and others don't know why they selected Bennett.

…

"I announce that the Orlando Magic selected Victor Oladipo from Purdue University with the second overall pick in the first round." A few minutes later, Xiao Hua came on the stage to announce the second overall pick.

Oladipo is recognized as the favorite for the No. 1 pick. Unexpectedly, the Cavaliers did not choose Oladipo and chose Bennett.

But it's normal to think about it. The Cavaliers already have Irving, and it's really difficult to arrange for a small guard Oladipo.

The Magic head coach was all smiles. Their favorite was Oladipo. They were afraid of being intercepted by the Cavaliers before, but now they don't have to worry. They got Audi safely.

Next, with the third pick, the Wizards selected Otto Porter, a player that Richard liked very much.

In Richard's view, Otto Porter actually has the potential to become the league's top 3D player, but being in a team like the Wizards greatly delayed his normal development, which also led to Porter's failure to fully fulfill his promise. own talents.

That is to say, Richard does not have the right draft picks at hand. Otherwise, he really wants to try to get Porter to see if he can cultivate him.

The original top picks Noel and McLemore fell directly to the fifth and sixth picks. Both of them were injured in the NCAA competition, which affected their draft positions.

Richard wrote CJ McCollum's name on the note and asked Cole next to him to hand it to Lu Kai.

The Nets' No. 7 pick already belongs to Green Kai, so Richard must have handed this note to Green Kai, not the Nets.

"I announce that the Boston Celtics have selected CJ McCollum from Lehigh University with the seventh overall pick in the first round."

This was Richard's move, and many people at the scene looked at Richard.

Richard's previous continuous operations directly cleared all the players in the first position in the team.

Even if Rondo comes now, he must have a decent substitute.

At present, Richard used the highest pick in the draft to select a small guard, which seems reasonable.

But people who know McCollum well feel that Richard has chosen the wrong person.

Richard definitely wants a backup point guard, but McCollum has no organizational skills at all. He is 191cm tall and plays the shooting guard position...