Bishop of the Abyss

Chapter 219 219. The trading market opens: Waiting calmly for a response! (5K words for subscription)

As Luke selected Marc Gasol with the 18th overall pick in the second round, this year's Grizzlies draft has officially come to an end.

In the future, there will be a few teams to continue Taobao, but Luke has no desire to continue watching.

What's more, it is difficult to select really useful players with such a low pick. Compared with other teams who still have expectations, Luke is really not interested.

The only good player in Luke's mind from now on is Ramon Sessions, a point guard with a height of 1.9 meters and a weight of 86 kilograms.

Sessions spent a total of 11 seasons in the NBA in his career, averaging 10.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game.

In his peak season, he averaged 15.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game.

As a substitute player, Sessions is still very qualified. Although his shooting ability is poor, his lateral speed is also not good enough, and he is suspected of becoming a burden on the defensive end.

But Sessions is a high-ball quotient guard who is very good at playing pick-and-rolls. If he is only at the stage of resting after the main point guard, Sessions can indeed be of great use.

Under normal circumstances, Sessions should have been selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 26th overall pick in the second round.

Luke doesn't care about whether Sessions will fall into the hands of the Bucks as usual this year, but Sessions is indeed the only player that Luke can barely take a look at next.

As for the center Aaron Gray who has played in the league for seven years, although he can be called a standard blue-collar center, Gray obviously cannot enter Luke's vision, let alone be expected by Luke.

After briefly explaining a few words to Chris Wallace who accompanied him all the way, Luke got up and left the scene first.

Luke has a lot of things to deal with during this offseason, whether it is the upcoming summer league or the trading market that will open in July, these are all things Luke needs to worry about.

Especially the trading market in July and the free market in August, these two links are an important part of the Grizzlies' road to reconstruction.

As the bottom one in the league last season, if the Grizzlies don't make too many changes in the lineup in the new season, but only strengthen through the draft, then no matter how strong Luke's coaching ability is, it will not be possible for this team to complete. Turn over.

The hope of the Grizzlies' comeback is also pinned on the upcoming trade/free market.

Even if Luke's ability to discern gold has long spread throughout the league, few teams are willing to trade with Luke, but Luke has his own way of operating.

The reason why other teams are reluctant to trade with Luke is nothing more than fear that Luke will take advantage of it, but once this deal can make both teams win-win, Luke firmly believes that no one can refuse this temptation.

.........

After the draft, the teams in the league began to get busy with two things.

On the one hand, it is preparing for the upcoming summer league, how to arrange the playing time of rookies in the summer league, and signing with gambling nature. These are important links that every team in the league must have every year.

But relatively speaking, the busier one is the trading market that will open in July.

The league will officially open the trading market every July. At that time, the league's [-] teams can trade freely in private. As long as the trading conditions meet the league's standards, no one will ask whether there is any trick in it.

Right now this stage is when the management of each team is moving around. Although most of the intended transactions have been agreed in private before then, there are still many undeveloped transactions that are still in the embryonic state.

Any team that wants to strengthen the lineup in the new season will not miss the trading market in July. For teams that are not sure about hitting the playoffs in the new season and plan to overthrow and rebuild, the trading market is also selling stars. An important channel for high-quality chips in the future.

Luke asked general manager Chris Wallace to release the wind after the draft, saying that the team had plans to trade No. [-] pick Mike Conley.

As for the Grizzlies' requirements, the trade partner must be a league star. During this period, the Grizzlies can continue to increase their bargaining chips until the balance on both sides is no longer tilted.

Even the Grizzlies management also stated that, except for the Gasol brothers, anyone on the team can be a bargaining chip, as long as the players provided can satisfy Luke.

The news released by the Grizzlies has caused a very serious uproar in the league. After all, everyone knows that Luke's draft vision is simply a bug-level existence.

Where Mike Conley's upper limit will be in the future is still unknown, but what people know is that Mike Conley will definitely stand firm in the league and become an All-Star player.

Even if this process takes a long time to cultivate, Conley's value is still visible to the naked eye.

Coupled with the fact that there are several other young players who have performed well in the Grizzlies, this also makes the Grizzlies the key focus of the league trading market for a while.

Many people are eager to move about the olive branch thrown by the Grizzlies, repeatedly weighing which star in their own family can come up with a deal.

And other teams are not surprised by the way the Grizzlies are starving so much this offseason.

You know, the Grizzlies ranked last in the league last season, and they were the worst of the 30 teams in the league.

If Luke wants to lead the Grizzlies to achieve results in the new season, the reshuffle of the lineup must be an indispensable part.

At the same time, trading stars is naturally a shortcut to quickly soaring from the bottom of the team.

In this regard, Luke's operation method not only did not arouse the vigilance of other teams, but also reassured the management of each team.

Because Luke's trading methods in the past two years are so amazing, many people suspect that Luke is a robot with sophisticated calculation capabilities.

But being as strong as Luke at the moment can't avoid falling into vulgarity, which is exactly the same as normal people's team building ideas, and there are no too clever methods.

Maybe at this moment, the coaches of each team felt that the gap between themselves and Luke was not very big, but this guy's vision was a little bit vicious.

Hmm...maybe even luck is a little bit better.

…………

"Lu, I have recently received trade offers from many teams, but I haven't given you an accurate answer based on your intentions. I don't know what your plans are."

In the office, Chris Wallace sorted out all the recent transaction offers and placed them in front of Luke.

Seeing that Luke didn't even bother to take a look, Chris Wallace was really helpless.

After getting along with each other recently, Wallace has roughly figured out what kind of character Luke is.

On weekdays, Luke seems very casual, and doesn't care about some trivial matters at all. Although he has a lot of power in his hands, Luke never interferes too much.

Chris Wallace has a very high degree of freedom in many things, and Luke doesn't care about it. It seems that as long as Wallace can complete these tasks assigned by Luke, Wallace can do the rest by himself.

The only thing that makes Wallace feel helpless is that Luke is not good at building the team, and everything is done according to his own ideas.

Even if Wallace is willing to help, it will be difficult to get Luke to adopt him. Although Luke's team building ability is well-known in the entire league, for Wallace, who was born as a scout, he always feels that he cannot participate in the operation of players. What.

For example, this time, the Heat, which reached the finals last season, have already made plans to trade O'Neal, and do not intend to bet the team's future on O'Neal.

O'Neal will be 35 years old in the new season, and O'Neal's performance has declined visible to the naked eye last season. It is reasonable for the Heat to trade O'Neal to help Wade.

To put it simply, Riley intends to stop the loss in time, otherwise O'Neill's sky-high contract will be enough to make the Heat breathless in the future.

However, although O'Neal has entered the twilight years of his career and his personal dominance is far from as terrifying as his peak season, the Sharks are still Sharks after all, and they are definitely a very high-quality bargaining chip for a rebuilding team like the Grizzlies.

If O'Neal's state does not decline, few teams in the league can trade a behemoth like O'Neal.

From Chris Wallace's point of view, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Wallace also vaguely reminded Luke of this, but Luke didn't react much after hearing it, as if he was not interested in O'Neill at all. The feeling of not being able to get in the conversation made Wallace somewhat depressed.

"How about the rocket?" Luke asked casually while sitting on the sofa.

"There hasn't been any movement from the rocket side yet." Wallace shook his head slightly puzzled. "Last time you asked me if there was any news from the rocket side. Are you so sure that the rocket will definitely intervene?"

After the Grizzlies released the trade news, the team has received multiple trade applications in recent days, but Luke has always been paying attention to the Rockets' movements.

It seems that the purpose of releasing the wind this time is to attract the Rockets, which makes Chris Wallace always puzzled.

"The transaction is not in a hurry. After all, this kind of transaction involving the core of the team will definitely be more cautious."

"However, you must keep an eye on the Rockets' movements. Once you have news, don't forget to notify me as soon as possible."

After all, without waiting for Chris Wallace to answer, Luke turned his head and said to Lambiel on the other side, "The summer league will start tomorrow. During this period, you can give Mike more opportunities to perform."

"Mike's personal strength is already very stable. If we can arrange more offensive focus for him, Mike's data in the summer league will definitely become better."

"Don't worry, I know this matter well." Nodding in response, Lambiel smiled lightly at Luke.

As Luke's confidant to the Grizzlies from the Timberwolves, Lambiel knows that Mike Conley will become one of the high-quality bargaining chips in this offseason from the moment he is selected by Luke himself.

Although Lambiel didn't know who should be the Grizzlies' starting point guard after Conley was traded, I believe Luke had his own thoughts on these questions, and Lambiel consciously didn't ask too many questions.

The starting point guard for the Grizzlies last season was "Little Flying Squirrel" Damon Stoudemire. Although Little Flying Squirrel's offensive ability is not bad, his height of 1.7 meters is a very big problem on the defensive end.

And in the new season, Stoudemire will be 34 years old. The speed of guards at this age has begun to decline, which is also a hidden danger for the Grizzlies, whose guard line is already weak.

But even Lambiel can see this kind of problem clearly, and Lambiel believes that Luke must have a plan in mind.

So what Lambiel has been doing has been to earnestly complete the tasks assigned by Luke, and check the local bar service in Memphis in his spare time.

…………

The NBA Summer League begins in early July. The Summer League is a competition for teams in the league to examine the performance of rookies.

At the same time, the undrafted picks who were not selected in the draft can also take this opportunity to try to win a contract for themselves.

The competitive level of the summer league is not very high, but it allows scouts to see the performance of the players more intuitively.

However, although the summer league is a place to train rookies, the existence of Oden's level in the summer league is just a formality, and the playing time is generally controlled within 20 minutes.

Avoid the embarrassing scenario of facing an injury in such a useless game.

So this is why the summer league MVP winners every year are not those who are favored by all parties before the draft.

The Grizzlies selected two players in the draft this year, namely Mike Conley at No. 18 in the first round and Marc Gasol at No. [-] in the second round.

For occasions like the Summer League, Luke has always left it to Lambiel, and he didn't even bother to ask.

Occasionally, Luke will come to the scene to watch symbolically when he has time, to give encouragement to his rookies, and to do a good job of face project.

In fact, not paying attention to the summer league is not because Luke is not caring enough about his own rookie seedlings, it is because Luke is too confident about his draft vision.

From the moment he selected them, Luke knew that these little guys would be stars in the future.

Even if the game environment in the early stage of Luke's career may change, according to each person's specialty, Luke will always arrange a lot of targeted training for them during the offseason.

After all, no one is more aware of their best playing style and the offensive method that can best play their own threats.

Throughout the beginning of July, the Grizzlies who released the rumors of the trade have been silent for a long time. The outside world has never heard that the Grizzlies have started trade negotiations with any team. On the contrary, the Grizzlies have been accepting trade offers, but they have not responded for a long time.

Things were silent on the trade, but it was Mike Conley in the summer league that got the Grizzlies some attention.

夏季联赛前两场迈克康利分别交出了27分4篮板6助攻和31分3篮板7助攻的高效数据，让联盟各支球队不自觉地将目光投向至此。

Although from the moment Mike Conley was selected by Luke himself, the league knew that this guy would not be ordinary in the future.

But Mike Conley's outstanding performance in the summer league still attracted the eyes of various teams.

And the Grizzlies have recently received significantly more trade offers, and even teams that have made trade offers before have modified their trade chips in order to increase the probability of getting Mike Conley.

Mike Conley's performance is not enough to make the entire league fall in love with him, but what the Grizzlies want is a star-level player.

This also means that in addition to Mike Conley, the Grizzlies must also come up with other attractive bargaining chips, and it is precisely because of this that the teams are so interested.

To put it simply, under normal circumstances, the exchange of stars for future star seedlings is mostly because a certain team wants to rebuild, so it uses stars to exchange for potential rookies plus a large number of draft picks.

But the opportunity given by the Grizzlies this time is equivalent to an equivalent exchange.

Future star seedlings + immediate combat power + potential rookies. After this deal, the team will not only become more secure in the future, but even after a certain star is traded, the overall strength of the team may become stronger.

So when the Grizzlies let out the wind at the end of June, there will be multiple teams offering offers, making Mike Conley look so sought-after.

However, the Grizzlies have released the wind for more than a week, but they have never heard of which team has been favored by the Grizzlies.

Therefore, many people still think that the Grizzlies are boring and want to use this to test the value of Mike Conley, but in fact they have no plans to trade Conley.

After all, Luke has always been a fine individual, and his brain circuit is incompatible with most people. Few people can guess what Luke is planning.

Even if someone says that Luke just wants to use Conley to disrupt the trading market, in order to reduce the frequency of other teams' transactions, and buy time for himself to rebuild the team, the outside world may believe it.

Who made this guy Luke, a human being known for his "wisdom to know gold".

With a lot of rumors from the outside world, time passed day by day, the Grizzlies remained silent in the trading market as always, while Mike Conley's performance in the summer league became more and more brilliant.

Until the outside world began to feel that this might be a conspiracy by the Grizzlies, Chris Wallace finally sent back the news, "Lu, good news, the Rockets finally made a move, just now the Rockets provided me with a trade offer , but in terms of chips, the Rockets hope to be able to negotiate with you in person."

Pushing open the office door, Chris Wallace's face was a little excited. After all, Wallace had been waiting for nearly half a month for this matter.

Right now, even Wallace himself doesn't believe it. He has been observing the Rockets' movements for half a month, as if he is not sitting in the general manager, but back to the days when he was a scout.

If it weren't for Luke's calm self-confidence, Wallace might have been unable to persuade him to start a deal with other teams to avoid wasting time on the Rockets.

Fortunately, after nearly half a month of waiting, the Rockets finally threw out an olive branch as Luke predicted. Although it is not known who the player Luke wants to get, it is always good news to have a response.

"It's finally here." Luke closed the book with a smile on his face. He had been waiting for this day for a long time.

　Ask for a monthly ticket, ask for a recommendation ticket, thank you, third child!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)