NBA peak

Chapter 168 Alliance Situation

After the Lakers cleaned up the management mess, the time has come to February 2018.

The trade deadline is set on the 16th Thursday after the start of each season. According to the schedule of this season, the 15th of this month is the day to determine the list of players for each team.

After the trade deadline, there is the highly anticipated All-Star Game.

This year's All-Star Game is scheduled to be held between February 2018th and 2th, 17 at the Staples Arena in Los Angeles.

This year's All-Stars coincided with a major change in the management of the Lakers. Since these days, the management of the Lakers has shown an unprecedented positive attitude, and their activities are very frequent.

Especially the new Lakers manager Pelinka, who is eager to prove his ability.

As we all know, the Lakers this year is a young team built with the core of young players such as Ingram, Kuzma, Ball, Nance Jr., and Lopez.

This season, relying on this group of teenagers, the Lakers have indeed made visible progress.

However, the improvement that is only visible to the naked eye is far from meeting the expectations of the new Lakers boss, Jenny Buss.

As a dynasty that once won the championship and got soft hands, how could Jenny Buss only be satisfied with a little improvement?
Jenny Buss' eyes were always locked on the O'Brien trophy.

Pelinka began a round-the-clock lobbying effort.

Pelinka first looked for his most promising potential star, Ge Feng.

Ge Feng is a restricted player for the Raptors. Pelinka knew that it was unlikely that Ge Feng would join the Lakers next year, but he still tried hard.

In addition to Pelinka, the new Lakers owner Jenny Buss also frequently appears in the management of other NBA teams.

Jenny Buss has a crazy idea.

Free agency in July 2018 was so tempting, Jenny Buss said nothing would go to waste.

This year's free agents include: LeBron James, Cousins, Davis, Paul George, Kevin Durant, Thomas Jr., Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Capela, Bradley, etc.

Many players here are superstars who can change the league structure.

If the Lakers can sign any of the above three players this summer, they can become the overlord of the league in the shortest time.

The total salary of the Lakers this season is 5254 million US dollars, but this year's NBA luxury tax line is 1.19 million US dollars.

This summer, the big contracts of Lakers veterans Lopez, Pope, Bogut, Randall and others will expire at the same time.

By that time, if the Lakers do not re-sign these veterans, they will have nearly $6000 million in salary space in the coming year.

The $6000 million salary space means that the Lakers can choose two All-Star players at will in the free market.

In this way, the Lakers can immediately have the background to win the championship.

This is definitely the craziest project of the year.

Not only that, but Jenny Buss wanted to take it a step further.

If she can solve the two rubbish contracts left by her brother within half a month, and pay a little luxury fee to the league next year, then the Lakers' salary space will be even greater, enough for them to sign three All-Star players next summer!
If this plan can be realized, the Lakers will directly soar next year and become a strong contender for the championship team no less than the Warriors and Rockets.

Jenny Buss has told the remaining 29 teams that if someone is willing to take over the junk contracts of Luol Deng and Mozgov, they are willing to pay future draft picks and any amount of money.

Jenny Bass put it all together, and she gave away all her little coffers.

Jenny Buss expects the Lakers to complete their transformation this summer and become the new overlord of the league!
All teams have entered a crazy stage, and the Philadelphia 76ers have the most sincerity, directly replacing their city poster with a portrait of LeBron James.

Every team is preparing for the free market in the coming year.

Halfway through the schedule, the records of each team have almost stabilized.

The Raptors, which had won 12 consecutive victories in the beginning, were gradually surpassed by the Rockets, but the Raptors still reached the No. [-] position in the Eastern Conference.

This is the first time in the past 20 years that the Raptors have stabilized at No. [-] in the Eastern Conference.

This season, under the growth of Ge Feng, the Raptors' trident style of play has completely replaced the previous tactical position of the Raptors' double guns.

Taking advantage of Ge Feng's rise, the Raptors surpassed the Cavaliers for the first time in the rankings.

Ranked first in the league is the Houston Rockets. The combination of light bulbs is becoming more and more perfect. Together with Ge Feng, Capela, Ariza and a series of giants, they successfully helped the Rockets achieve an overtake of the Warriors.

The Rockets have a terrifying 79.3% win rate this season, 7% ahead of the second-ranked Raptors in the league, and 10% ahead of the Warriors, who rank third in the league.

Ranked fourth in the league is the Boston Turtles from the East.

This Celtics team is definitely the dark horse team that exceeds the expectations of fans so far.

At the beginning of the season, the Celtics' core player Hayward suffered a broken leg injury and directly announced that he would be reimbursed for the season.

Originally, the fans thought that the Celtics would be happy again this year. Unexpectedly, Tatum, who was not ranked well in the draft, stood up and became the new core of the Celtics with super data of 23.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game.

Tatum is a first-year rookie!
I can't imagine how he did it. In the first year of his career, he led the Celtics to second in the Eastern Conference and fourth in the league. Tatum is definitely one of the most underrated rookies in history!

Fifth to No.8 are the Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Portland Trail Blazers, and Indiana Pacers.

Simmons of the 76ers beat Tatum and won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in 17-18.

In the first year of his return from injury, Simmons showed the terror dominance of the 17-year rookie No. [-] pick.

This season, Simmons averaged 34 minutes per game and was able to score a quasi-triple double of 25.8 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists.

Simmons can shoot suddenly and can play all 5 positions.

The only downside is Simmons' three-pointer. Just like what Ge Feng said, no one in your three-pointer can shoot accurately.

Simmons did not take a single three-pointer this season, but this does not affect the fact that he helped the team reach third in the Eastern Conference.

The 76ers relied on the combination of Simmons and Emperor Embiid to overwhelm the Milwaukee Bucks Antetokounmpo and Middleton to become the league's first twin towers.

Cleveland, as the old saying goes, is age and injuries that limit their performance the most.

Originally the team with the oldest average age in the league, James, the core of the Cavaliers, is four years older than the average age of the Cavaliers.

This season, James' dominance in the regular season has shown a sharp decline, and fans are mourning that James is getting old.

Irving of the Cavaliers is unknowingly growing into a new team leader.

The Cavaliers are temporarily ranked fourth in the Eastern Conference and sixth in the league this season.

(End of this chapter)