What kind of advice Wang Shuo gave to Boss Qiao remains unspecified for now.
On June 27, Wang Shuo and Unseld flew to New York together to participate in the 2001 NBA Draft at Madison Square Garden, the "Mecca of Basketball."
As soon as Wang Shuo and Unseld, a young man and an old man, entered the scene, they became the focus of their peers.
Come and take a look, this is the Wizards general manager and Wizards head coach who have begun preparing for the 2002/03 season.
The circle of NBA general managers is not large, so the classic quotes that Unseld used to fool the Celtics management have become the "Bible" in the circle of NBA general managers.
“I didn’t expect a joke to spread so quickly.
You know, I heard people in the circle say that this joke was told by the Celtics management to the Bulls management, and then the Bulls management spread it to the entire circle. "For Unseld, who is used to being criticized by Jordan, at this moment, the weirdness of his peers is not even a complaint in his eyes.
"Why do I feel that the Bulls spread this joke to get back at Michael?" After entering the Wizards' front war room, Wang Shuo turned to Unseld and said.
Unseld smiled and said, "Mainly, the Bulls themselves have not had a good life in the past two years. In addition, the Wizards can win the No. 1 pick this year. Many media believe that Michael takes the greatest credit.
So even if they want to trade with us, they will definitely seize this opportunity to ridicule us to prove that their life is not so bad after Michael retires. "
Well, first thing I have to say is.
The Wizards mentioned here were able to get this year's No. 1 pick, and Boss Joe took the greatest credit. It does not refer to Stern giving the No. 1 pick PY to the Wizards.
But after Boss Joe took office, he successfully turned the Wizards from an ordinary bad team into a super bad team.
In the forward operations conference room, Wang Shuo deeply agreed with Unseld's point of view.
"By the way, Wes, do we still have chips to trade in the draft?" Wang Shuo asked Unseld before the draft started.
Unseld frowned and said: "Now only Jahidi White has some trading value."
Wang Shuo has been waiting for Unseld's words. In the 2000/01 season, Jahidi White, who is 206 centimeters tall and weighs 132 kilograms, averaged 8.6 points and 7.7 rebounds per game for the Wizards. He is of good size and can play in He can carry people in the low position, but his movement is too slow and his defense ability is average, which does not meet Wang Shuo's tactical requirements.
And Wang Shuo knows very well how vulnerable this "fat tiger" player will be to injuries in the future.
This is also true. If Wang Shuo remembers correctly, Jahidi White will fade out of the league due to injury in less than two years.
"Michael likes Brandon Haywood from North Carolina this year. He is 213 centimeters tall and has better rim protection. Can we trade him for Jahidi White?" Wang Shuo asked.
Unseld breathed a sigh of relief after pulling out the scouting report.
According to the data, Haywood's expected pick is only at the end of the first round. In addition, before this year's draft started, it was only considered an ordinary year by scouts. Therefore, as long as there are no surprises, the deal is guaranteed. It's not that difficult to complete.
No way, because the quality of the last few rookies in the 1990s was ridiculously high, scouts were inevitably fed up with it.
Unseld made up his mind that as long as Haywood could be traded for White, he would do his best to facilitate the deal.
Because just the two keywords of Jordan's favor and North Carolina junior are enough to make Unseld, the former NBA Finals MVP, break out in a cold sweat.
After a while, at the draft meeting, after Stern came out to speak despite a burst of boos, the 2001 draft officially began.
It's been a tradition since the league went through the lockout to boo Stern during the draft.
In the Wizards' conference room, after finalizing the transaction with the Bulls and Clippers, Unseld immediately handed over the envelope that would reveal the answer to this year's No. 1 pick.
With the first pick in the first round of 2001, the Washington Wizards selected Tyson Chandler.
As a background in Dayao's memoirs that helped Dayao successfully establish his confidence, Tyson Chandler, who is over 7 feet tall and has a wingspan of 7 feet 3 inches, has outstanding dynamic and static talents.
In addition, as the "wall of sighs" that will be difficult to break through no matter how hard James and Wade play in the future, his outstanding lateral speed in the same-height inside line will earn him the reputation of "Moving Fortress" in the future. .
It's a pity that this era is destined not to belong to Chandler.
Because whether it is O'Neal now or Dayao who will join the NBA next year, they are Chandler's absolute nemesis.
But no matter what, Chandler is definitely more worthy of the No. 1 pick than Brown in Wang Shuo's memory.
In fact, even Wang Shuo is coveting Chandler's talent. (Bah, are you coveting his talent?)
However, Wang Shuo is more looking forward to cooperating with him who has been beaten severely, has accumulated some defensive experience, and whose worth has been wiped out by the Bulls.
After all, as the "Lao Wang next door", how can the rookies who have been trained by themselves be as good as others who help to train them?
Then, with the second pick in the first round, the Los Angeles Clippers used their second pick as promised to help the Wizards select Pau Gasol from Barcelona, Spain.
Since Gasol did not know in advance that he would be traded immediately after being selected, when he walked to the main stage wearing a hat, he also used his not fluent English at this time to thank the Clippers for selecting him. Uniform team.
As a result, Gasol, who had just stepped off the stage and walked backstage to be interviewed by reporters, immediately became embarrassed because his agent Ludoi told him excitedly: "The Washington Wizards just played against the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Clippers. A three-way deal was made, and the Wizards told me they were willing to pay Barcelona a buyout fee of $2.5 million for you.
You will play in the NBA for the Wizards next season, Paul! "
Generally speaking, this kind of transaction that is agreed in advance before the draft has already completed the process. As long as the team does not temporarily regret it and ruin its reputation, it will take seconds to complete the transaction.
Consistent with previous agreement.
In this three-way deal, the Wizards will send No. 1 pick Chandler and Hubert Davis and $800,000 in cash to get Ron Artest and Jamal Crawford from the Bulls. In addition, the second pick Pau Gasol sent by the Clippers.
In addition to the two players from the Wizards, the Bulls will also knock out Elton Brandon and send it to Los Angeles for free, and receive the top picks Tyson Chandler and Hubert David sent by the Wizards. Si, plus a second-round pick from the Clippers this year.
As for the Clippers, Baylor, who is rarely a normal person for once, will help the Clippers get star big man Elton Brand plus the $800,000 in cash in this deal.
In the war conference room, I felt like I had already lost against the Wizards, Bulls, and Clippers.
With the third pick in the first round, they suddenly found out that Gasol, whom they had planned to use to rob the Cubs, had been drafted by the Clippers. The Hawks front office immediately contacted the Clippers. However, at this moment, Brand was already in their pocket. How can Baylor in this world care about Bob Cook, the general manager of the Eagles?
Just stay somewhere cool!
In desperation, the Eagles could only choose the attractively talented Kwame Brown.
In fact, the Hawks have not considered choosing Eddie Curry, nicknamed "Baby Shark."
But after they asked the Grizzlies if they could trade Eddy Curry for Raheem and were rejected, they recalled the physical test data of Curry's subcutaneous fat when he was previously training, and his subcutaneous fat was so thick that he could cook a whole table of dishes. The Eagles managed The team finally chose Kwame Brown, who has attractive talent.
For Kwame Brown, perhaps his destiny will change from now on.
Because compared to Jordan, at least the Hawks will be more patient.
However, if this can't be done, then it would be a shame if Jordan grabbed him and squirted in Wang Shuo's memory.
Next, with the fourth pick in the first round, the Bulls, who had already traded Chandler, selected Eddie Curry, the "Baby Shark" they had always wanted.
In his peak period, Curry actually performed pretty well on the offensive end, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get that famous super-bad contract.
However, expecting Chandler and Curry, who have not yet accumulated the experience of being beaten, to lead the Bulls to revival is obviously a pipe dream for the Bulls management.
With the fifth pick in the first round, the Warriors selected Jason Richardson.
When trying out Richardson, the Warriors front office had already been fascinated by his outstanding athleticism.
Last year, the Warriors management witnessed Vince Carter's transformation into a god in Oakland, so they very much hope that Richardson can become Carter for the Warriors and re-boost the team's box office.
With the sixth pick in the first round, the Grizzlies selected Shane Battier just like Wang Shuo remembered.
Although he has been heartbroken by American men in recent years, in the view of the Grizzlies management, Battier, who was known for his good character in college, should not bully them like Francis did last year.
Sitting in the forward operations conference room, while sipping coffee with Unseld, Wang Shuo was also sighing at the ridiculously high quality of this year's rookies.
With the tenth pick in the first round, the Celtics, who hold multiple draft picks this year, selected Joe Johnson from the University of Arkansas.
It's a pity that since the Celtics have already trained Pierce and "The Only Snail", "Single Joe" is destined not to get much playing time with the Celtics.
Previously, when recalling this draft, Wang Shuo also had thoughts about Joe Johnson.
But there is no way, there is only one basketball on the court.
Wang Shuo couldn't give Johnson a lot of ball rights to train him on the premise of quickly producing results.
In fact, Wang Shuo wouldn't have dared to select so many newcomers to train at once if Boss Qiao hadn't abruptly changed the alliance structure from a strong east to a weak west in the early years.
Even though many of them are already ready for combat.
Immediately afterwards, with the 11th pick in the first round, the Celtics selected Richard Jefferson.
Now, someone in the Nets' forward operations conference room was anxious.
no!
Didn't we agree that we would first select Eddie Griffin and then ask the Houston veteran to help us select Richard Jefferson for the trade?
Where did the Celtics' Cheng Yaojin come from?
Have you never heard of the rumors that the Celtics invited Jefferson for a trial?
And don’t they already have Paul Pierce?
Coupled with the newly drafted Joe Johnson, what do they want to do?
What do you want to do?
Of course, he wanted to rob the Washington Wizards, who had already begun preparing for the 2002/03 season.
The 21st pick in the first round is still a Boston veteran and the Celtics.
Don't ask, just ask because Tuen has many draft picks and can do whatever he wants.
After using this pick to select Gilbert Arenas, the Celtics immediately completed a trade with the Wizards.
In this deal, they will send Jefferson and Arenas from the Wizards in exchange for the Wizards' 2002 first-round draft pick, as well as the Wizards' starting guard for the 2000/01 season, the 183-centimeter-tall K. Reese Whitney.
In the new season, the Celtics, who have high hopes for "Black Bird" Antoine Walker and "Youth Version of Truth" Paul Pierce, are currently short of a substitute for former NBA All-Star Kenny Anderson.
They took a fancy to Whitney, who is "183" tall like Anderson and can shoot three-pointers.
In addition, the Wizards were willing to give away their first-round pick in 2002, so this transaction was easy and enjoyable.
While the Wizards were trading with the Celtics, Unseld was also communicating with the Cleveland Cavaliers, who had selected Brandon Haywood with the 20th overall pick in the first round.
In Wang Shuo's previous life, the Cavaliers agreed to the Wizards' trade request without even thinking about it, only to exchange Haywood from the Magic for Michael Dorick.
In the original timeline, the Magic, who would have made a small profit as a middleman in Haywood's deal, lost the opportunity to rob the Wizards.
By the way, after discovering that this year's first-round pick was so worthless, Wang Shuo also started to think about Parker, who would be selected by the Spurs with the 28th overall pick in the first round.
But such thoughts only existed in Wang Shuo's mind for a second, and then disappeared.
Because at the moment, with the Wizards personnel framework having been initially determined, blue-collar players like Haywood are definitely more important to the Wizards than Parker, who has not yet grown up.
The NBA has never been a card-collecting game. It does not mean that you will be strong if you gather a team of stars.
After all, it won't be long before the Los Angeles Lakers become the most vivid case.
A team needs both a core and components in various positions to ensure operation.
Sometimes, "1+1" is not necessarily greater than 2.
And in the new season, if the Wizards can really reach the finals, Wang Shuo still hopes that the Spurs and Kings can help him snipe the Lakers as he remembers.
You know, the enemy of your enemy is your friend.
Of course, the main reason why Wang Shuo had no choice but to give up on Parker was because the Wizards really had no more valuable chips at the moment.
After the first round of the draft, Wang Shuo and Unseld left the draft together because the Wizards' second-round pick this year had already been taken away by Boss Joe.
no doubt.
The Wizards are definitely the top winner in this year's draft.
certainly......
Without opening their eyes, after the draft, most American media questioned the way the Wizards built their team.
Because after absorbing as many as four rookies plus two players acquired through trade, in the new season, in addition to the already well-known Richard Hamilton...
This prodigy looks like he is about to fail.
But if you want to show off...
Why would you trade your 2002 first-round pick?
Could it be that, in addition to being the first team to prepare for the 2002/03 season, the Wizards also want to be the team to prepare for the 03/04 season in advance?
Indeed, little Zhanzhan, who is still in high school at the moment, is already well-known in the United States. If he skips college and directly jumps to the NBA in the future, the time will be right.
But considering that even if the Wizards can draft James as they wish, it will take time to develop...
Is it possible that the Wizards still want to prepare for the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons in advance?
Good guy!
The Wizards management has a long-term vision!
On June 28, almost all major sports newspapers and magazines in the United States made this evaluation of the Wizards’ performance in this year’s draft:
"The Washington Wizards, who have a long-term vision, have already set their sights on the NBA five years from now!"
…
