Bishop of the Devil

Although many people couldn't understand Richard's deal, they wouldn't say anything. Only Stackhouse couldn't hold it in any longer...

He is a big-mouthed player, and even his senior Jordan dared to contradict him.

Now that Richard came to the Pistons, the first thing he did was to put him on the shelf. It's no wonder he can bear it.

Originally, he was quite happy about Richard joining the Pistons...

I finally survived Grant Hill's departure and became the team's absolute main offensive point. Last season, he averaged nearly 30 points per game.

Under this situation, he felt that after Richard came, he would definitely build the lineup with himself as the core of the team.

By then, I may be like Kobe, O'Brien and Ben, and win the Finals MVP and go straight to the top of my life.

As a result, before the dream was over, Richard put him on the shelf and sold him at a low price...

Yes, in Stackhouse's view, Richard trading himself in this way is definitely a cheap sale!

This is an insult to myself...

If Richard exchanged some precious chips, Stackhouse might be able to accept some.

But now Richard has made a deal that seems to be obviously a loss. What does this mean?

It shows that Richard doesn't take Stackhouse seriously at all, even though he ranked third in the scoring list last season, even though he averaged close to 30 points per game.

Selling them casually is like taking out the trash!

Stackhouse, who was so angry that he lost his mind, could not remember Richard's evil name.

"He will definitely regret his decision!"

"Yes! He will definitely regret it. Look at these rubbish players he brought in. They are all players that other teams don't want!"

"The most ridiculous thing is that he actually hired so many players from other leagues, a Chinese League player in his thirties, a player who can't even make it in the Chinese League."

"God, I now wonder if Richard had a lot of luck during the years he coached the Trail Blazers!"

"I dare to say that he will never win a championship with the Pistons..."

Before Stackhouse left Detroit, he held a private press conference, and the topic was directed at Richard.

After the press conference, Richard learned that Stackhouse had torn him apart...

He didn't pay much attention to it. In his opinion, this kind of idiot player was the same as Ricky Davis.

But he felt like he had to make a call to the Trail Blazers...

Stackhouse is a thorn in the side, and Richard is really afraid that after this guy arrives in the Trail Blazers, he will mess up the atmosphere in the Trail Blazers' locker room.

First, I called Zhang Weiping and asked him to sell Stackhouse as soon as possible.

Have the right chips and sell them quickly.

Then he made secondary preparations. If it didn't sell, Richard called Daben again.

When Stackhouse joins the team, let him take Ou and Artest with him. The three of them will give Stackhouse a beating first and make him be honest...

Poor Stackhouse had no idea what kind of devil he had messed with.

…

Regarding Nocioni, Richard contacted Ginobili and asked him to help inquire.

Things turned out to be going pretty smoothly.

Nocioni's contract with the team has just ended. He was undrafted in the draft and is preparing to play in Spain.

When I heard that Richard wanted to recruit me, I suddenly went crazy with joy...

As soon as I got the news about Ginobili, I booked a flight to the United States that afternoon to see Richard.

Nocioni's temperament is completely different from other foreign players. He is quite funny...

He is not as low-key as Nowitzki and Ginobili at all. His style on the court is quite...

tough!

Or to describe it as dirty is not an exaggeration...

A small flying kick with an open shoulder and a hidden elbow, a shoulder strike openly, an elbow covertly, and sometimes a flying kick.

The key is that he is stupid and bold, no matter who the opponent is, he dares to move.

Artest was once so annoyed by this guy that it almost led to a big fight between the Bulls and the Pacers.

In terms of personal strength, he can't be said to be too strong, but if he is placed in a strong team, he is qualified to be the team's main starter.

If he is placed in a weak team, he is qualified to be the second or third leader of the team.

On the offensive end, his style is different from other European forwards. He lacks the stability of outside offense and his main scoring method is air cutting and breakthrough.

The offensive method is relatively simple, but the effect is quite good, mainly because this guy's expression is quite ferocious when he goes to the layup...

He seemed to be fighting for his life. He yelled when he went to the layup. The expression on his face looked like he had been stabbed a dozen times. It was very painful to watch.

Others play for money, but he plays for life...

As for the defensive end, it has been said that he was kicked by Xiao Fei with his open shoulder and concealed elbow. Even if his physical fitness is not good, the defensive effect is actually good.

This guy is still a living treasure in the locker room, and his personality is quite interesting...

Richard was quite pleased to be able to get such a player without spending any money.

…

After Stackhouse was traded, there are currently four players left in the Pistons' original lineup who still occupy salary space.

Corris Williams, Burrows, Clark, Atkins.

The annual salary of these four people is about 13 million.

As for the nine people Richard received, the combined salary of Hu Weidong, Anderson and Laga Bell is US$6 million.

For Noccioni, Richard also gave him an annual salary of US$8 million for four years.

Nash's annual salary is between five and six million.

The remaining four are on rookie contracts, namely Elvis, Crawford, Okur and Arenas.

Elvis Presley and Crawford both received rookie-standard contracts. There is nothing to say about this. Their combined annual salary is less than three million US dollars.

As for Okur and Arenas, although they were both second-round picks, Richard still asked them to sign four-year contracts.

Both men gave Elvis the same contract standards...

The combined first-year salary of these two rookies is US$2 million.

Now comes the problem. Richard has solved the problem of numbers. The four old Pistons players plus the nine people he recruited, make up exactly thirteen people, which meets the minimum number of people for a team.

But now the team's salary space has a huge problem.

It's not that there are too many, which exceeds the salary cap, but that there are too few, so few that they are still far away from the poverty line.

The contract for 13 people is less than 32 million US dollars after full play. There is still 6 million US dollars left before the poverty line of 38 million!

At the moment, Richard is not ready to continue signing the contract, and will use the current lineup in the new season.

This results in no way to fill the poor line...

It's not that there is no solution, that is to sign two free agents and give each of them an annual salary of three million US dollars to make up for the six million US dollars vacancy.

But Richard feels that if he does this, he will lose a lot of money.

There aren't many decent players on the free market, and even if there were, they couldn't be signed for $3 million.

All Richard can do is sign any two...

But this would make the two cannon fodder players cheaper, and Richard would definitely not be willing to do it.

It's better to just leave it empty. Anyway, the shortfall of 6 million US dollars will not be taken away by the league, but will be divided evenly among the players in the team.

When Richard told team owner Davidson that his salary for this season was only $32 million.

Old man Davidson almost rolled his eyes in shock...

He really wanted to tell Richard, don't save yourself money for this kind of thing. Not to mention the salary that exceeds the salary cap, at least you have to fill in the poverty line...

Otherwise, if this news gets out, people will think that I, Davidson, am a stingy guy.

I am a wise man, Richard, please don’t harm me like this!

"Ahem, boss, we really have no choice. Instead of letting these six million dollars go to benefit others, I think it's better to distribute them equally among the main players in my team..." Richard said with a wry smile.

"Li, seriously, you don't have to save money for me. I'm already my age now, so what's the use of having so much money?"

"The only thing I want to see now is that the Pistons win the championship!"

The old man Davidson said to Richard with a confused look on his face...

Richard waved his hands quickly, what a joke, he really didn't plan to save money. You know, if he really wanted to save money, he could even control this year's total salary to 25 million US dollars!

This is now the result of Richard's lavish spending on contracts.

"You really misunderstood me. I really have no idea of ​​saving money."

"As for the championship, believe me, within four years, I will let you see the Pistons win the championship trophy!"

“Maybe not even four years!”

Richard smiled and said that he was quite confident about winning the championship...

Davidson nodded, as long as Richard was confident of winning the championship.

He was afraid that Richard would miss out on many good players because of saving money, causing the Pistons to fail to win the championship.

…

After Davidson agreed, it basically represented the completion of the Pistons lineup for the new season.

Among them, the center position: Geon Clark and Okur.

Power forward position: Chris Anderson

Small forward position: Gerald Wallace, Corris Williams, Noccioni

Shooting guard position: Hu Weidong, Laga Bell, Crawford

Point guard position: Nash, Arenas, Atkins, Burrows.

What makes Richard a little annoyed is that the current situation of the Pistons is similar to that of the Trail Blazers, with too few inside players...

The real inside players are Clark, Okur and Birdman.

As for Gerrard, he can play as a fourth position, but it is not cost-effective and cannot maximize Gerrard's power.

He suffers a bit against the player in the fourth position, and can take advantage of him in defending the player in the third position.

As for Nocioni, he is not suitable to play power forward, and is more suitable to appear at the small forward position.

This makes Richard very uncomfortable...

But thinking about being able to take off Yao Ming and Boozer next season makes Richard feel better.

The Pistons' interior lineup next season will be perfect.

Now I can only make do with what I have to use...

Although this lineup does not look particularly strong, in Richard's opinion, if he wants to, there will be no problem at all in reaching the Eastern Conference playoffs.

The main reason is that the defensive strength of each position is quite good.

With Nash in the No. 1 position, Richard is going to give him Beverley's entanglement.

In this way, Nash's shortcomings were made up, and Richard didn't know how powerful Nash could be.

Lagabell, in the second position, is also top-notch defensively.

Even though he is still far from the top, he still has no problem defending non-top shooting guards.

As for the third position, the three players are all defensive warriors.

At the fourth and fifth positions, Anderson's defense is good, and Okur is also above the standard. As for Clark, he is just a blue-collar center, and he can still be used on the defensive end.

This kind of defensive intensity is not a big problem if the Eastern Conference, which is much weaker than the Western Conference, wants to make the playoffs.

Of course, Richard has no plans to enter the playoffs this season...

In the coming season, what Richard wants is to maximize the value of these players under him.

In this case, Richard will have the leverage to introduce more powerful All-Star players!

…

The lineup for the new season has been completely determined.

Richard is quite satisfied. After coming to the Pistons, he really started from scratch. There is no decent bargaining chip in the team, so being able to create such a lineup is completely acceptable to Richard.

One bite won't make you fat, and lineup building can only be done slowly.

…

Let Miles take the team's newcomers to play in the summer league. The situation was not bad. They only lost one game in several games. The performance of the newcomers was remarkable.

But this is only the summer league. The specific strength of this group of players still depends on the main game!

On September 30, Richard summoned all the players on the team.

The team had already started training in the past half month, and now Richard felt the need to chat with his players.

"Guys, the preseason will start in a few days, and it's time to announce our Pistons' starting lineup for the new season." Richard held the player list and said to the players under his hands with a smile.

"The starting lineup for the new season is Okur, Anderson, Gerrard, Laga Bell and Nash."

"Of course, this starting lineup is just an experiment for me. After all, we are a new army and everything is still being explored!"

The five people whose names were called were all filled with surprise...

Except for Nash, the other four are actually inconspicuous players.

Okur is a second-round pick, and he is not an early second-round pick like Arenas. He is a pick in the middle of the second round.

Such a rookie was actually put into the starting lineup by Richard. He only felt that he was about to develop!

Being put into the starting lineup by Richard shows that Richard recognizes his potential.

Every player recognized by Richard is now doing quite well, and all of them have achieved considerable development.

Now it was his turn to have this good luck, and Okur grinned.

…

Laga Bell is not even as good as Okur, who is at least a promising rookie. Laga Bell is just an undrafted player. Although he has been in the basketball circle in the past two years, he is only a marginal player on the fringe. .

Now Richard not only offered him a sky-high contract, but also let him enter the starting lineup, which made him not know what to say for a while!

There was only one thought in his mind, and that was to work hard for Richard!

It is said that a soldier dies for his confidant, and that was how Lagabell felt right now.

…

As for Anderson, it's not appropriate to call him a birdman now. This guy hasn't come up with so many fancy things yet. He even has thin skin and tender flesh, and his appearance is no less than that of those little fresh meats.

At first glance, Anderson looks exactly like Dirk Nowitzki, who just entered the league two years ago...

Anderson is actually the most inconspicuous player in this starting lineup. Laga Bell is at least still in the NBA circle. Anderson is better off, he has already been in the CBA...

What's even more embarrassing is that he can't survive in the CBA.

When he heard he was put into the starting lineup, Anderson was dumbfounded.

He felt like this might be a joke...

What a big joke. I just joined the Pistons and actually got the starting position? ! This is not a joke...

Could it be that his big brother Hu Weidong played a role in this?

Thinking of this, Anderson looked at Hu Weidong gratefully...

He had been teammates with Hu Weidong for two years in Jiangsu Nangang. At that time, Hu Weidong was the absolute boss of the team. Even though Anderson was a foreign aid, his performance on the field was not as good as Hu Weidong, so he still had to listen to Hu Weidong in everything.

Hu Weidong also takes great care of Anderson...

In Anderson's view, after Hu Weidong found Richard's thick legs, he still didn't forget about himself and even brought himself to the Pistons. This big brother was so generous.

That's right, Anderson now thinks that Hu Weidong hired him for the Pistons.

…

Now Anderson just wants to thank Hu Weidong and this generous big brother.

…

As for Gerald Wallace, he is the highest-ranked rookie selected by Richard in this year's draft. It makes sense to put him in the starting lineup.

…

Some of the players who did not get the starting position looked a little ugly.

For example, Atkins, who was originally the Pistons' starting number one, has now been directly replaced by the newcomer Nash.

For example, Coris Williams was also the original starter for the Pistons, but now he has been squeezed out and became a substitute.

However, the two of them had nothing to say and could only accept it silently.

Nash scored 15+7 last season and was far stronger than Atkins. Even if Atkins felt uncomfortable, he couldn't find any fault.

As for Gerrard, this is the highest-ranked rookie Richard received this year, and Corliss can only silently accept the fact that his starting position has been replaced.

Both of them can accept it. Barros, the original substitute in the team, must be more acceptable...

On the contrary, last season's starting center, Geon Clark, was dumbfounded...

Originally, when he heard that Richard was coming to coach the Pistons, he was as excited as if he had taken a stimulant. Everyone he met happily all day long said that he was going to rise.

He even spent a lot of money to hold a grand party at his home to celebrate his upcoming rise!

Why is he so confident to rise? It must be because of Richard...

You must know that Richard had high hopes for him at the beginning. If the Bucks had not intercepted Hu and he successfully joined Richard, I am afraid that at this time, he would have been able to renew with a certain team in advance. Made an appointment!

Think about the inside players who have come out under Richard, all of them are super beings!

Ben and O'Brien are the finals MVPs!

Clark feels that he is definitely no worse than Ben and O'Brien. He was cheated by the Bucks. Otherwise, he might have replaced O'Brien and become the second center in the league!

You want to know how Richard evaluated himself back then?

The reason Clark didn't succeed was because he didn't meet the right coach...

If he were to coach, Clark would become the top center in the league.

In Clark, he saw the shadows of Big Ben and Xiao Ao.

Clark is the younger version of O'Neal, no, to be precise, the younger version of Duncan...

If you get it yourself...

These are the exact words Richard said at the press conference with the Bucks!

Clark was dumbfounded. What about the younger version of Duncan that he promised?

I said that I have the shadow of Big Ben and Xiao Ao...

He promised that if he got it, he would become the top insider in the league...

Why make yourself a substitute now? !

Is your Duncan used as a substitute...

Thinking of this, Clark felt extremely aggrieved and wanted to cry.

What is this? Was Richard lying to himself at the beginning?

…

Standing in the crowd, Clark felt more and more aggrieved and uncomfortable as he thought about it, and his eyes turned red.

He has always been looking forward to playing under Richard's hands. This has been his dream.

But what I didn't expect was that what I was looking forward to turned out to be in vain!

Richard didn't seem to pay much attention to him. Even for such a long time, Richard didn't talk to him alone.

This feeling of broken dreams made Clark so heartbroken that he couldn't breathe.

…

"No, I want to talk to him. We must talk!" Clark made up his mind that he must talk to Richard about this matter, otherwise, he would not give up.

He urgently wanted to know whether Richard was lying to him back then!