Bishop of the Devil

As time passes in December, the Pistons announced quite a piece of news.

To be precise, it is quite good news for all teams in the league.

They are preparing to put Okur, the team's chief backup center, on the shelf...

When this news came out, the teams in the league that lacked insiders went crazy. In this era, it is really difficult to find a reliable insider.

Many teams are still using veterans who entered the league in the 1980s, such as the Philadelphia 76ers and other teams.

Now the Pistons are willing to sell their chief backup center, and he is also a very good and very young center, which is enough to make every team jealous.

The first person to contact Richard was the Philadelphia 76ers. Their insiders are really a bit too old right now.

There is no way, the insiders who are in their prime are too expensive, and they don't have that much salary space to sign them.

And an insider like Okur, who is still on his rookie contract, basically does not occupy any salary space. This is simply the treasure that the Philadelphia 76ers dream of!

It's a pity that the Philadelphia 76ers don't have any bargaining chips that Richard values...

As for Dazhi, Richard is willing to change, but the key is that the salaries of the two sides do not match. If he wants to match the salary, with Dazhi's current salary, Richard will probably have to send at least five players to have a chance of matching. Salaries for both parties.

But five players went to exchange for Da Zhi...

No matter how you look at it, this is a disadvantage. You must know that the Pistons' current lineup has been carefully selected by Richard, and many of them are worth as much as Da Zhi individually.

If five were exchanged for one, Richard would lose all the money he could lose.

If the 76ers have bargaining chips, then Richard will definitely give priority to this brotherly team, but right now the Philadelphia 76ers really don't have any decent bargaining chips.

There are no high-quality players on the rookie contract in the team, so they would like to exchange them for draft picks.

But the Philadelphia 76ers' draft pick is not a high-value bargaining chip. After all, based on their record, they must be a late first-round pick, and their value is not high.

In the end, Richard could only regretfully reject the offer from the Philadelphia 76ers.

There is no way, some things in the business alliance still have to be based on interests, and brothers still have to settle accounts.

In addition to the Philadelphia 76ers, many teams have submitted trade offers to Richard.

Not all of these offers dissatisfied Richard, but there were still some teams that were quite sincere.

After all, Oku's value is there. If he doesn't spend some money, Richard is not that stupid to let him go.

But Richard has his own plans.

He has his eye on Joe Johnson of the Suns...

Right now, singles Joe hasn't shown up yet, so it's the best time to recruit him into the team!

In addition, Richard can also get a draft pick from the Suns.

…

As Richard expected, the Suns did make an offer.

However, this quotation is very different from what Richard thought...

They wanted to trade Penny Hardaway plus a first-round pick for Okur.

I have to say that the sun’s calculations are sound.

At present, Pence is no longer at his peak and has entered the end of his career. If it is just the end of his career, it would be nothing.

The main reason is that he also has a super maximum salary contract, worth 87 million US dollars in 7 years!

This contract signed in 1999, after finishing this season, there are still three years of contract to be executed...

The contract value for the next three years is close to 45 million!

An average of 15 million US dollars per year, but right now Hardaway is only averaging about 11 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists per game.

Obviously this is a pretty crappy contract...

When Richard saw the contract, he was really angry.

This is simply a rip-off of Chi Guoguo. Not to mention the salary matching, Hardaway's contract alone is a big pit.

Without any hesitation, Richard rejected the Suns' trade offer without saying a word.

There is no rush now anyway. The 3+1 rookie contract Okur signed with the Pistons was guaranteed for the first three years, and the last year was a team option.

This also shows how great the transaction value of Okur is.

After buying Oku, you can use it for almost two and a half years for free. Such a good thing can't be found anywhere without a lantern.

Richard is not in a hurry. There will still be some time before the trading market closes this season.

Let’s take advantage of this period of time to see if we can continue to increase Oku’s value...

…

The game against the Rockets is getting closer.

Now the Rockets management and their coach Tang Shuai are extremely anxious.

It's not that they are afraid of losing to the Pistons. The Rockets are now as good as the Western Conference. Losing is completely routine for them.

What really makes them anxious is the player Stoudemire...

Richard recommended Tang Shuai to select Stoudemire in the draft, and they indeed listened to Richard's words and selected Stoudemire with the third overall pick.

Not only that, Stoudemire's performance can be said to be completely worthy of the value of the third overall pick.

Tang Shuai is quite grateful to Richard for this...

But now comes the problem. This Stoudemire is a ruthless character. His strength is really strong, but his personality is quite troublesome.

This is a product that defies heaven and earth...

As soon as he joined the team, he got into trouble with Francis, the core of the team's backcourt.

There is no other reason than the issue of ball possession.

Francis is the core of the Rockets' backcourt and the team's main controller. He is responsible for distributing the ball in the backcourt.

What makes Stoudemire unhappy is that Francis did not give him more passing opportunities because of his status as the No. 3 pick...

This leads to the fact that Stoudemire's current data is quite different from Yao Ming!

Stoudemire is currently averaging about 14 points, 7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game in the Rockets. In fact, compared to his normal situation, this data is basically the same.

But you must know that under normal circumstances, Stoudemire is on the Suns.

The Suns have countless big players who have the right to get the ball, but the Rockets don't have so many big players who have the right to get the ball, and there is only one Francis.

Logically speaking, Stoudemire's data should be much improved compared to normal conditions.

With Stoudemire's current ability to hit hard in front of the frame, let alone averaging 20 points per game, but given enough ball rights to average 18 or 9 points per game, there will be no problem at all.

Even in Stoudemire's opinion, if he was treated like Yao Ming, his scoring would definitely not be less than Yao Ming's...

Young people are always full of blind confidence in their own strength.

Xiaosi was even a little too confident.

He wants to prove that he is more qualified to be the No. 1 pick than Yao Ming, but to prove this, he must at least have data comparable to Yao Ming.

Now Yao Ming's data is almost twice that of Stoudemire...

Under such circumstances, Stoudemire is now full of dissatisfaction with Francis and has quarreled with Francis on the training ground more than once.

If it was just a conflict within the team, Tang Shuai didn't care much.

In his opinion, it is normal for young people to have tempers. After slowly training them, it will not take long to get the two internal and external cores in tune. By then, the Rockets' future will be quite bright.

The biggest problem now is that Stoudemire has provoked someone he shouldn't have provoked.

Richard!

Tang Shuai really has a shadow towards villains like Richard...

Anyone who has had their brains beaten out on the court would probably stay away from villain players.

Although Richard is not a player, in Tang Shuai's opinion, this guy is more ruthless than a villain player!

Now Tang Shuai is afraid that if Stoudemire has such a violent temper, he will cause a conflict on the court and be killed by Richard.

The closer the game against the Pistons gets, the more worried Tang Shuai becomes.

In the end, I couldn't bear it anymore, so I called Xiao Si to his office, ready to have a good chat with Xiao Si.

"Man, the Pistons game is getting closer. What are your plans?" Tang Shuai has a relatively gentle personality. At this moment, he looked at Stoudemire kindly.

Stoudemire also has considerable respect for the coach Tang Shuai, and his attitude is quite respectful.

"Coach, I hope you can give me more opportunities to perform in that game!"

"I have only one plan now, and that is to beat Yao Ming in a head-to-head showdown, and then make Richard look bad!"

"I firmly believe that my future will never be worse than Yao Ming's!"

Xiaosi said to Tang Shuai confidently.

Tang Shuai sighed secretly in his heart. The young man in front of him was really too ignorant.

Stoudemire's strength is indeed quite good, which Tang Shuai recognizes very much.

But to say he is better than Yao Ming? Even if Stoudemire is his own player, Tang Shuai would not agree with this view.

Stoudemire's strength is definitely one of the top players in the draft in recent years.

Even in Tang Shuai's view, Stoudemire is not inferior to the current Grizzlies leader Pau Gasol.

But compared to Yao Ming?

It can be said that Stoudemire is the top rookie big man in the past two years, and Yao Ming is the top rookie big man in the entire NBA history!

Are you kidding? You must know that Yao Ming is currently averaging close to 25 points, 12.5 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game. Looking at the entire NBA history, Tang Shuai feels that this is already comparable to those few super centers.

O'Neal averaged 23 points, 14 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game in his rookie season, which was basically on the same level as Yao Ming, not much better than Yao Ming.

Even O'Neal, who is known as the most dominant inside player in history, is not much better than Yao Ming. How can Stoudemire compare with Yao Ming...

So Tang Shuai definitely doesn't think Stoudemire is better than Yao Ming.

But even if he felt this way, he couldn't dispel Stoudemire's enthusiasm. Anyway, there was no harm in it.

"Okay, I will have a good talk with Francis then."

"Strive to get more possession of the ball in that game and I'm sure Francis will know what to do."

Tang Shuai said with a smile.

These words made Stoudemire completely relieved. As long as Tang Shuai can handle Francis, he will have absolute confidence that in the next game against the Pistons, Richard and Yao Ming will look good!

"But I also have a request..."

"Can you control your temper by then?"

"You should know what kind of person Richard is. His nickname of Devil Bishop was not given to him by himself, but by outsiders."

"He is really a devil. I hope you can control your temper and there will be no conflicts on the field."

"If any conflict does occur, young man, remember to protect yourself, especially your head..."

Tang Shuai frowned, sighed, and said to Xiao Si.

Based on Tang Shuai's understanding of Richard, I'm afraid that the next game will definitely not be so stable...

Right now, he only has one wish, and that is for Stoudemire to be able to control his temper and not suffer a disadvantage on the court.

"Don't worry, coach."

"I will control my temper well."

Xiaosi didn't think too much, so he agreed first and then said...

He had been waiting for this day for a long time. When he thought about facing the Pistons in a few days, his whole body was trembling with excitement. He couldn't wait for the game to start immediately!

Where can I listen to Tang Shuai's advice at this moment?