Bishop of the Devil

At the end of the draft, Richard asked Myers to notify the four rookies and report to Charlotte in half a month, and then he returned to Charlotte.

Charlotte is about to hold the retirement ceremony of Mourning and Payton, and Richard will naturally attend.

Although Mourning and Payton are not Richard's West Lafayette players, Richard was familiar with these two players in his previous life, and now he is sad to see them retire.

Both of these players entered the league in the 1990s, and they are both old enough to retire. Richard knows that in a few years, his West Lafayette players will also start to retire.

Richard doesn't know how he will feel when he watches the West Lafayette players he handpicked retire.

…

At the retirement ceremony of Mourning and Payton, the two men solemnly thanked Richard and the Pirates generals for allowing them to taste the taste of a championship.

Jordan is an impatient person. In fact, when the playoffs started, he had already started customizing his championship ring, but he did not have the year engraved on the ring at the time...

The reason for this is naturally to prevent the Pirates from not winning the championship this year. If the year is not engraved, these rings can be kept for next year.

Fortunately, Jordan's preparations came in handy, and Mourning and Payton got their championship rings tonight.

Seeing the two veterans crying, Richard was sincerely happy for them.

…

After the retirement ceremony, Richard returned to his office. In three days, he will take Tiana and the children to the east coast for vacation. Now he is taking advantage of these last three days to quickly finish all the matters that need to be handled. Dealt with it.

…

In this draft, Richard acquired four new players, but the number of the team will not increase much. First, two veterans of the team left the team, and secondly, the new players who joined the Pirates in 2004 will wait until the end of next season. Will become free agents, Richard must rush to deal with these players before they become free agents.

Whether to renew the contract or sell it all needs to be decided by Richard.

In the 2004 draft, Richard selected three players, namely Iguodala, Varejao and Ariza.

All three signed four-year contracts at the time, with the final year as a team option.

That is, Richard needs to decide whether to implement the team option.

Ariza has been sold by Richard in the previous transaction, so what Richard needs to resolve now is the contracts of Iguodala and Varejao.

Now there are three solutions before Richard.

The first is to implement the team options of these two people, wait until after next season, let these two people leave or give them high-paying contracts.

Richard is not prepared to give high-salary contracts to these two people. The team can only sign three maximum salaries if the team has a high salary. Richard does not want to rashly give high salaries and limit the team's future ceiling.

And if Richard doesn't give these two big contracts, other teams will definitely give them big contracts and wait to sign them.

Iguodala definitely has a maximum salary, and Varejao is not qualified for the maximum salary, but a contract with an annual salary of several million and close to 10 million US dollars is definitely indispensable.

So if this plan is implemented, Richard may have no choice but to let these two players leave.

The second option is not to exercise the team option and renew the contract with them now...

This plan is definitely useless. Richard cannot offer a high contract, and it is unlikely that the two of them will renew their contract.

Richard Varejao doesn’t know, but Iguodala will never let himself suffer anyway...

The third option is Richard's favorite, which is to trade these two people in exchange for chips.

Iguodala is the new DPOY and a main member of the championship lineup. Selling him may affect the team's strength.

But in Richard's view, the impact is not very big. It just so happens that Iguodala is gone, and Huang Manbaloy can take the starting position.

In terms of defense, Roy is not as good as Iguodala, but because of Mad Dog's lingering props, the gap is not as big as imagined.

When it comes to offense, Iguodala is not as good as Roy.

Moreover, if Iguodala is traded, Richard will not be able to strengthen the outside lineup. At least he now has a good target.

Iguodala's trade value is quite large, so great that it makes every team salivate.

The third-year player won DPOY and contributed greatly to the championship. The future is definitely worth looking forward to.

Richard knows that Iguodala's lower limit is indeed high, but his upper limit is not as amazing as other teams speculated.

…

In 2004, Iguodala and Varejao were already on Richard's trade agenda.

As for the players who joined the team in 2005, Richard is definitely not in a hurry now. He will wait until the offseason next season to think about it slowly.

However, although Richard had the idea of ​​​​trading Iguodala and Varejao, Richard was not prepared to publicize this matter because he had already thought of the trading target.

…

The sun is shining brightly in Miami Beach, and countless beauties in bikinis are walking back and forth on the beach.

"Li, this negotiation place you arranged is really special." Riley said speechlessly towards Richard.

The place where Richard and Riley agreed to negotiate was on this beach.

"You have a good balance between work and life, Riley."

"Tell me about your quotation except for Oden and Milicic. I am mainly here for vacation this time, not specifically to come to you to discuss a deal with the Heat." Richard said with a smile.

"Iguodala, we want Iguodala plus Varejao. If you get them, Shaq will be yours." Pat Riley didn't ask for a first-round pick this time. He knew that Richard couldn't Give.

Richard smiled and shook his head, "I feel like it's a loss to replace Shaq with Iguodala alone, let alone Varejao."

"Let's do this, you send Shaq plus the Heat's first-round pick for next year, and we sign first and then trade for Iguodala."

Hearing Richard's offer, Pat Riley didn't shout that it was impossible this time. He came here to discuss a result with the Pirates quickly to prevent long nights and nightmares.

"Shaq plus a first-round pick for Iguodala plus Varejao."

"No, Shake plus a first-round pick can only be exchanged for Iguodala and Chuck Hayes."

"Shaq plus a second-round pick for Iguodala plus Hayes."

"Deal, happy cooperation."

In this way, in Miami Beach, Richard and Pat Riley completed a deal involving one of the fifty greatest stars in history.

For Iguodala, Richard himself has a trading plan, and now as the trading subject in exchange for O'Neal, it can be regarded as showing value.

As for Hayes, Richard really has no place to train this player. O'Neal, Oden and Marc Gasol are about to join, plus the original Milicic, there is no place for Hayes.

Four inside players are considered the standard equipment of a team. If there are more, they will basically be the patron saint of the water fountain. They will not get much playing time. If Hayes is left, he can only guard the water fountain. Richard also It's better to take it out and trade it with the Heat.

A second-round pick plus O'Neal, Richard is quite satisfied with this deal.

In the 2008 draft, there are still good prospects in the second round, and this second-round pick can show good value when it arrives.

As for O'Neal, Richard is even more looking forward to it.

It goes without saying how strong O'Neal is. Even if he is late, he is still one of the top centers in the league.

Richard can keep O'Neal healthy. There are not many centers in this league who are better than him.

The most important thing is that Richard can improve O'Neal's free throws!

This is the most important!

In recent years, O'Neal's free throw shooting has become more and more complete. Before, he could maintain a stable 50% hit rate. Even in the 2002-03 season, O'Neal hit an unprecedented 62% free throw shooting rate.

But since this peak season of free throw shooting, O'Neal's free throw shooting has never exceeded 50%, and has always been more than 40%...

In the season that just ended, O'Neal's free throws were only 42%!

And in Richard's hands, Richard only needs a few star points to qualitatively improve O'Neal's free throws!

O'Neal, who has stable free throws, is definitely a terrifying existence, even as an old O'Neal.

This is one of the reasons why Richard is confident that he will dominate the NBA next season!

On the day the deal was concluded, Richard called Miles to inform him of the deal and to contact the Heat at any time.

Early the next morning, the Buccaneers made an official announcement.

First, the team option on Iguodala's rookie contract was not implemented, and then he signed a five-year, $75 million maximum salary contract with Iguodala...

The most exciting thing is that the Buccaneers reached a deal with the Heat, sending Iguodala and Hayes in exchange for the Heat's O'Neal and a second-round pick.

The entire alliance was shocked, and everyone stared at the news dumbfounded, not knowing what to say at all.

Everyone knows that the Heat are selling O'Neal, but even if they wanted to make a profit, they never expected that O'Neal's next team would be the Pirates!