am i proud?

Chapter 285 Do you want to form the "Big Three"?

After winning the championship, the Clippers players and coaching staff held a grand championship parade in Los Angeles... Of course, such an occasion of showing their faces is naturally indispensable to the team's general manager "Bailey" and owner Sterling.

On this extremely joyful occasion, Wang Dalin gave everyone another "joy on top of joy", announcing in public that he would renew his contract with the Clippers in advance... which made the fans very happy.

He just released the news in advance. In fact, regarding the new contract, Schwartz had already helped him negotiate it before the finals. Now he only needs to wait for the free market to open on July 7.

下赛季王大林的年薪将会达到1332万美元，根据NBA的工资规则，他续约合同的起薪可以达到1398.9万美元，之后5年的年薪将分别为1538.9万美元、1692.8万美元、1862.1万美元、2048.3万美元和2253.1万美元。

In other words... the total amount of 6 years is 1 million US dollars!
Of course, Wang Dalin and the Clippers did not sign such a long-term contract. He only renewed it for 2 years, and the last year is still a player option.

If Wang Dalin hadn't left the Pistons, the contract he could have signed at this time would have reached $6 million over six years, which is the maximum salary he should have achieved.

According to the "Bird Clause", players who have played for the same team for three consecutive years can have an annual salary increase of 12.5%, while Wang Dalin has only been with the Clippers for one year, and his annual salary increase is only 1%. That's why he will only renew his contract with the Clippers for two years.

In addition to this year of his original contract, he can jump out of the contract and become a free agent two years later. At that time, he will be eligible to apply the "Bird Clause" and sign a super-maximum salary that truly maximizes benefits.

In the original history, LeBron James has used this trick many times when signing contracts. On the surface, it seems that he has made a lot of less money, but in fact he has not made less money at all!
For real superstars, salary income may not even be half of the total income, and more income from commercial endorsements and various investments is definitely.

Of course, Wang Dalin and the Clippers will have to wait for a while to officially sign the contract. At present, the most important thing for the team is the upcoming draft.

Wang Dalin had already suggested to "Lord Baylor" that the team's first-round pick should be Tony Allen from Oklahoma State University.

But the situation has changed now... At that time, they didn't know that the team could win the championship, so they were too optimistic when calculating the lottery. In fact, their first-round pick was ranked 29th, which is the last one in the first round. There is no chance of this lottery being able to sign this future All-Defensive Team member!
Now "Baylor" is focusing on Kevin Martin from Western Carolina University and Chris Duhon from Duke University.

I believe that many Chinese fans are familiar with Kevin Martin's "crooked machine gun".

Although he didn't have any outstanding performance in his rookie season, he has skyrocketed since the third season, and his scoring average has directly increased to 20.2 points per game. In addition, he has averaged more than 7 points per game in seven seasons in his career.

But Martin also has his weakness, that is, his defense is too poor...he is too thin, and he is the same type as Steve Nash, the kind who can't defend well even if he wants to.

In contrast, Wang Dalin thinks that Chris Duhon is more suitable for the Clippers.

Many Chinese fans don't know much about this player, but Wang Dalin, a senior fan, knows him very well.

In the original history, Du Hong was selected by the Bulls with the 9th overall pick in the second round. The Bulls only signed him a one-year contract with a basic salary of $1 (maybe the total amount is not so low, but the guarantee part of the contract should be so much).

不过杜洪倒是挺争气，新秀赛季场均上场26.5分钟，可以得到5.9分2.6篮板4.9助攻1抢断，三分命中率达到了35.5%。

Du Hong's scoring average ranks 15th among rookies in this class, steals average ranks 3rd, and assists per game ranks 2nd... No matter how you look at it, his performance should definitely rank among the top ten rookies in this class!
而且王大林还知道，杜洪职业生涯最巅峰那个赛季的场均数据是11.1分3.1篮板7.2助攻0.9抢断，三分命中率也达到了39.1%。

What Wang Dalin values ​​most is his very calm playing style. He has averaged only 1.5 turnovers per game in his career, and only 1.6 fouls per game... He is just a weakened version of Billups!

Therefore, Wang Dalin strongly suggested that "Lord Baylor" use the first round pick to win Du Hong. As for the second round pick, he should choose Trevor Ariza from UCLA!
This is the league's top 3D in later generations. His defensive skills are quite good, even close to the level of the best defensive team, and his three-pointers are very good.

Maybe many Chinese fans like to call him "Tie Zha", but in fact Ariza's three-pointers are not bad. As of the end of the 2019-2020 season, he has hit a total of 1535 three-pointers... This score ranks 34th in NBA history!
In the field of three-pointers, even the famous "Argentine Demon Sword" Manu Ginobili, "Melo" Carmelo Anthony and "Sao Paulo" Chris Paul are all behind him.

And... The top 3D Danny Green and Sean Battier in everyone's impression, the number of three-pointers they hit in their careers is only 1276 and 1250!
What's more, he can also make a great contribution to the team on the defensive end. The total number of steals in his career is as high as 1583, which is also ranked 34th in NBA history!
Doug Christie has been selected to the All-Defensive First Team once and the Second-Team All-Defensive three times. He can definitely be called a "defensive champion", right?
His total number of steals is only 1555 times, really can't keep up with Ariza!
Wang Dalin still remembers that in the Finals that year, if Trevor Ariza hadn't made a successful steal at the last critical moment, it would have been uncertain whether the Lakers would have won the O'Brien Cup!

With this comparison, everyone knows how good Ariza is, right?

……

But before the draft, Wang Dalin still has one very important thing to do, that is the engagement ceremony with Zhang Zilin!
Now that Wang Dalin had successfully proposed in public, even considering that Zhang Zilin hadn't graduated from college and couldn't get married formally, at least he should get engaged first.

There was not only one engagement ceremony between him and Zhang Zilin, but two engagement ceremonies.

This time I was in Los Angeles to take care of Wang Dalin’s friends in the United States, and I had to do it again after returning to China...the scale of that time would be much larger.

On June 6, Wang Dalin's engagement ceremony was grandly held in Los Angeles.

Almost all the hottest stars in the NBA today attended his engagement ceremony, such as Shaq O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and others.

Of course, some friends who have a good relationship with Wang Dalin also came to the scene...such as Lamar Odom, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, Paul Pierce, Antoine Walker, Corey Maggette and others.

Some potential new stars who have entered the NBA in recent years have also received invitations from Wang Dalin, such as Amare Stoudemire, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Kenyon Martin, Paul Gasol, Jason Richardson and others have all come.

Head coaches and general managers of some teams also came, such as Pistons general manager Joe Dumars, Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor, Heat general manager Pat Riley, Clippers head coach Mike Dunleavy, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle and so on.

All the Clippers players who had just won the championship came, and Wang Dalin's three adopted brothers, Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton, of course, also attended in costumes.

Yao Ming, who is already in the Warriors, and Battelle, who has been traded to the Nuggets, are also here.

According to the customs in the United States, the engagement ceremony is just a ceremony, but after discussing with his parents, Wang Dalin decided to invite the guests to two banquets according to Chinese customs.

This group of Yankees felt that it was a novelty... I didn't expect to eat and drink a lot during an engagement ceremony, so there were various wine fights on the scene.

For example, Kobe was drunk by Iverson... It's hard to say who is better than the other in terms of football skills, but in terms of drinking capacity, Kobe is far worse than Iverson who wandered the streets since he was a child.

And Artest and Big Ben.

These two drinkers are very good. They drank until their faces turned red and they still didn't decide the winner. On the contrary, they were quite sympathetic to each other... If they knew that the "Auburn Hills Palace Incident" in the original history was caused by themselves, they don't know how they would feel.

Wang Dalin's drinking capacity is average, so he didn't drink a lot, mainly because Zhang Zilin's father was showing off his power.

The veteran's drinking capacity was even better than that of Liu Yudong back then, and he directly got Riley, Carlyle, Dumas and others all drunk on the spot.

On the evening of June 6, the NBA Draft was held at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York. Wang Dalin, Deng Levy and "Bailey" came to the scene together.

As in the original history, the No. [-] pick in the draft was indeed Dwight Howard... The Magic has always had a good eye for draft picks, and this time is no exception.

Howard is 206cm tall in bare feet, 209cm in shoes, 109kg in weight, 223cm in wingspan, 77.4cm in situ bounce, and a maximum bounce of 90.2cm... It can be seen that this guy has a good static talent, but he did not go all out in the physical test.

Based on Wang Dalin's understanding of him, he can almost reach the height of the basket above his head when he often takes off from the spot in the game, how can it be possible that the vertical jump height is only 77.4cm?

Next is this year's rookie Charlotte Bobcats, who selected star center Emeka Okafor from the University of Connecticut with the second pick in the first round.

If it weren't for his lack of potential due to his age, he should have become the No. [-] pick in this session.

Then came the No. [-] pick to the Bulls, who selected shooting guard Ben Gordon, also from the University of Connecticut.

Most of the subsequent draft picks are no different from the original history. It is nothing more than the Clippers and Warriors' picks have moved back a lot.

As a result, the Warriors chose Tony Allen with the 22nd overall pick in the first round, which surprised Wang Dalin... As expected of Jerry West, the "LOGO man", his vision was terrifyingly accurate!
Finally it was the turn of the Clippers.

"Lord Baylor" did not hesitate to use the first-round pick to select Chris Duhon, and then used the second-round pick plus some cash to trade the 8th pick in the second round from the Eagles, and chose Trevor Ariza.

As usual, Wang Dalin immediately contacted the two rookies on the phone, and said a lot of words of encouragement to them on the phone, which made the two Xiaomengxin unspeakably flattered.

After the draft, less than a week before the start of the free market on July 7, Wang Dalin was in no rush to return to China. After all, he hadn't signed his contract extension with the Clippers yet!

Sure enough, at noon on July 7, the Clippers couldn't wait to make an official announcement-the head star Wang Dalin and the Clippers renewed a two-year contract of 1 million US dollars, and the last year is a player option.

After signing the contract, Wang Dalin should have returned to China immediately, but he still delayed for three days because he had to prevent "Master Baylor" from making some very stupid deals.

Since O'Neal announced on July 7 that he would leave the Lakers, NBA teams have offered offers to the super center.

The Heat's offer is Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant plus the 2006 first-round pick and 2007 second-round pick;

The offer from the Mavericks is: Except for Dirk Nowitzki, anyone else can choose at will;
Timberwolves' offer is: Except for Kevin Garnett, anyone else can choose at will;
The Grizzlies offer is Pau Gasol, Andre Miller, Jason Williams plus a 2006 first-round pick.

In order to get O'Neal, the "League's No. [-] Center", these teams all went all out.

How could such a lively "Lord Baylor" not make up one?
He wanted to offer the Lakers Ron Artest, Alonzo Mourning, Quentin Richardson plus two future first-round picks, but Wang Dalin stopped him in time.

"Lord Baylor" was very puzzled by this, and he even said something like this to Wang Dalin - "Darling, he is Shaq O'Neal! As long as you two work together, we can win at least three championships!"

Wang Dalin replied disdainfully: "If you send Ron and Quentin away, I bet we won't win a championship in the next few years!"

"Lord Baylor" was still very puzzled, and continued to persuade him: "How could it be? You are the best power forward in the league, and Shaq is the best center in the league... With your twin towers, we will definitely win many championships!"

Wang Dalin told him that O'Neill was old, and his condition would only decline faster and faster in the future, but "Lord Baylor" didn't believe it at all... Alas, his vision was just like this.

Later, Wang Dalin was really impatient with him, and he dismissed the idea with one sentence—"If you insist on getting Shaq, I will immediately ask the team to trade me away...If you want me or him, you choose!"

Although this deal was blocked by him, the other deal was a bit tricky... It should be said that Wang Dalin was also quite tempted!
The 76ers made an offer to the Clippers. They sent the newly selected No. 9 pick Andre Iguodala, the 2006 first-round pick and some cash to get the Clippers' Quentin Richardson and Alonzo Mourning.

Quentin Richardson is of course a very good role player. This season he can even be called the "third leader" of the Clippers, but knowledgeable fans know...he is incomparable to Iguodala!
But the Clippers still have to get Mourning, which is a bit uneconomical... Even though he is old now, Mourning is still qualified to play the starting center in many teams. This season, he averaged only 26.8 minutes per game last time, and he could get 10.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.8 blocks. This performance is not bad at all!

So "Master Baylor" immediately wanted to reject the offer when he first received it, but fortunately Wang Dalin stopped him in time.

There is obviously room for negotiation on this deal. I believe that the 76ers uniform team also knows that their offer is a bit outrageous... Just a high-ranking rookie plus a first-round pick whose value is not yet known. To get high-quality players like Quentin Richardson and Mourning, is it too whimsical?

How optimistic is this about Iguodala?
In fact, from Wang Dalin's forward-looking perspective, trading the Clippers in this way has already made money, and will form the so-called "Big Three" in advance...In the original time and space, Iguodala's performance in the second season can already be called a "pseudo-giant", and from the third season onwards, he is a real "giant"!

However, based on the original performance in time and space, Iguodala's offensive firepower in his rookie season is definitely not as good as Quentin Richardson's now. If this deal is really made, the Clippers' offense will probably drop a little next season.

But Iguodala's defense is obviously better. As long as he improves fast enough, his offensive and defensive style is obviously more suitable for the Clippers than Richardson.

At that time, with him and Artest as the second and third positions, even Wang Dalin can hardly imagine... How terrifying the Clippers' perimeter defense will be!

So Wang Dalin was really torn... Should he form the "Big Three"?

(End of this chapter)