Bishop of the Abyss

Chapter 260 260. The Deal That Shocked the Alliance! !Radiate fear from within!Memphis All-Star Grizzlies?

The time has entered July, and the NBA trading market opens at the same time as the summer league.

However, although the alliance trading market is opened, judging from the situation every year, some big deals will only break out frequently in the middle of July or even in the second half of July.

A few days ago, all the deals that broke out in the league were innocuous, and it was difficult to attract the attention of many teams.

After the draft, the Grizzlies will undoubtedly become the most popular team in the league.

Although the Grizzlies only picked two players in this year's draft, these two players are the sedan chairs picked by the Grizzlies with the first round pick.

Coupled with the label selected by Luke himself, Hibbert and Batum have become sweet potatoes in the trading market.

Not long after the draft ended, general manager Chris Wallace received calls from multiple teams, all asking whether the Grizzlies were willing to trade Hibbert and Batum.

According to Luke's explanation in advance, Wallace did not veto it outright, but just pushed back and forth like Tai Chi, which made the teams hate it.

However, although the Grizzlies' tactful refusal made many teams complain secretly, it also aroused the desire of various teams to trade Hibbert and Batum.

In the adult world, if there is no face-to-face rejection, there is an opportunity to talk.

Right now, it doesn't matter what medicine is being sold in the Grizzlies' gourd. The important thing is that the Grizzlies seem to have plans to trade Hibbert and Batum.

As long as there is a chance, it is a good thing. Chris Wallace's refusal made the teams more concerned, and some people even sent scouts to watch the Grizzlies 24 hours a day.

Once news spreads from within the Grizzlies, try to gain the upper hand as soon as possible.

Rumors about the possibility of the Grizzlies trading Hibbert and Batum spread more and more widely. After being spread from person to person, it later became that the Grizzlies are actively selling Hibbert and Batum.

This made the two rookies always worried, for fear that when they woke up, they would learn the bad news that they had been traded.

Regarding the increasingly outrageous news from the outside world, the Grizzlies did not stand up and refute the rumors face to face.

The attitude of the Grizzlies further confirms these rumors from the outside world, making the teams that plan to play badly in the new season go crazy.

However, just as the outside world was thinking hard about how to get the favor of the Grizzlies, Luke focused more on the upcoming summer league.

This year's summer league, the Grizzlies did not recruit a group of young people to investigate like other teams. Instead, they invited a few old guys who had no ball to play at home to form a team whose average age is almost reaching the retirement line. It drew ridicule from many outsiders.

Roy Hibbert and Nicolas Batum are the most watched players of the Grizzlies in the summer league.

At present, the outside world has become crazy because of these two rookies. Now, the summer league is about to start, and almost half of the league's attention is on the Grizzlies.

I want to see what kind of individual performance these two can play in the summer league.

Although the intensity of the summer league is not high, it is not at the same level as the official NBA game. In a sense, the intensity of confrontation is not as good as that of the development league. It is difficult to judge the personal potential of players through such a game.

Fortunately, the players participating in the summer league are basically rookies who have just entered the league, plus a few second-year rookies at most, and there are very few players who have been in the league for more than three years.

With most of the rookies participating in the entire summer league, being able to perform impressively on the field is enough to prove the player's strength in the young group.

After all, everyone is a rookie who has just entered the league, and no one has the real strength to overwhelm them. The better they play on the court, the more they will definitely be favored by the team.

This year's summer league, the Grizzlies will be led by chief assistant coach D'Antoni. With D'Antoni's coaching qualifications, leading the team to participate in the summer league is really an act of self-deprecation.

After all, D'Antoni has long proven himself in the NBA. As the best "bombard master" in the active league, D'Antoni's offensive accomplishments are enough to crush most basketball coaches in the league.

Leading the team to participate in the summer league, this is simply a blow to dimensionality reduction.

However, the summer league will have a lot to do with Luke's next operations in the trading market, so D'Antoni volunteered, intending to let Batum produce an excellent personal data in the summer league and beat his personal worth. higher.

With the start of the summer league in early July, the first opponent the Grizzlies ushered in was the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Clippers picked Eric Gordon, who has a good offensive ability, in this year's draft. The summer league will be Eric Gordon's chance to prove himself.

Before the game started, in this ordinary summer league, both sides of the field were full of all kinds of scouts.

These are the personnel arranged by the management of each team to come to this game to observe Hibbert and Batum.

See if the two are really worth the team's lonely search for a deal, and train them as the core of the team.

Throughout the game, head coach D'Antoni arranged a lot of ball-holding tactics for Batum. As a coach who is obsessed with small ball offense, Batum, a player with coping ability, is D'Antoni's favorite existence. .

When the Grizzlies basically have the ball on the offensive end through Batum's hands, Batum's personal data is naturally very eye-catching, and even crushed the lottery pick Roy Hibbert, which made many teams suck Take a breath.

In the first game of the summer league, the Grizzlies defeated the Clippers by 13 points at home. As the core of tactics and the focus of the outside world, Batum contributed 17 points, 7 rebounds, 11 assists and 2 steals in this game.

The comprehensiveness shown by Batum made many teams start to move around, and even subconsciously compared Batum with LeBron James.

As the most comprehensive forward star in the active league, LeBron James has grown into the banner of the league. Although he has not won the two hard-core honors of regular season MVP and championship in his career, LeBron James' personal strength is absolutely beyond doubt.

When rookie Nicholas Batum hit a quasi-triple-double in the first game of the summer league, the outside world's expectations for Batum obviously began to increase.

Even if the Grizzlies coach D'Antoni arranges a lot of ball-holding tactics for Batum on the offensive end, it may be an ability to be named by the coach to become the core of the team.

In addition, Batum was personally selected by the "Hand of God" Luke in the draft, which undoubtedly greatly increased the outside world's desire for Batum.

The NBA has never lacked excellent outside scorers, and even a rookie player scoring 30 points in the summer league is not a shocking thing.

But players who can hit quasi-triple-double data on the court are definitely very potential. Even if they don't reach the star level in the end, they can definitely start in any team.

If you want to hit a triple-double, you must not only have excellent personal offensive ability, but also have a good overall view and coping ability. When these two abilities appear in a player at the same time, the training value of this player is destined not to be too low.

With 11 assists in a single game, Batum, a striker, has become the most eye-catching presence in the summer league.

Being able to send double-digit assists as a non-guard is rare in history, so it is not surprising that Batum will become the darling Luke in the eyes of the outside world.

It's just suffering from Roy Hibbert, another player selected by Luke in this year's draft.

Seeing that Batum, who was ranked behind him in the draft, was appreciated by the acting head coach D'Antoni of the summer league, Hibbert felt like a bolt from the blue in his mind, playing the whole game in a muddle, like sleepwalking. Can't get excited.

Facing the Clippers' starting center and undrafted pick Stewart Jackson, this set of matchups should have been a set of no suspense matchups in the eyes of the outside world. Hibbert will definitely win the victory with a crushing advantage.

As a result, what people did not expect was that Hibbert not only failed to beat Stewart Jackson in the individual matchup throughout the game, but also exposed many problems such as offensive hesitation and lack of concentration.

The data of 8 points, 7 rebounds and 1 block is the personal performance of Hibbert in this game. Although it is not too bad, it is obviously not linked to the expectations of Hibbert from the outside world.

Coupled with the explosive performance of another rookie player, Batum, who was personally selected by Luke, this made the outside world more and more unfriendly to Hibbert, and even attracted the attention of many Grizzlies fans. abuse.

Frankly speaking, I'm sorry for Hibbert's performance that Luke picked him at such a high pick, wasting an opportunity for the Grizzlies in vain.

The unanimous praise of Batum from the outside world and the doubts about himself made Hibbert a little depressed after the game.

In fact, it's not because of Hibbert's poor personal performance that he failed to perform well in this game, but the head coach D'Antoni put most of his focus on Batum.

All tactics are played from the outside to the inside, and there is not much room for Hibbert to play.

Otherwise, in terms of personal strength, Hibbert can beat undrafted Stuart Jackson to the ground with one hand.

As for the reason why Hibbert was obsessed throughout the game, it was D'Antoni who arranged a lot of ball-holding tactics for Batum, and it seemed that he wanted to train Batum as the core of the team.

Hibbert is not jealous, but the outside world has been rumored that the Grizzlies plan to trade themselves and Batum.

At this juncture, the acting head coach D'Antoni arranged a lot of offensive tactics for Batum, which made Hibbert feel that the Grizzlies might have to trade themselves out before the start of the season.

Thinking of this possibility, Hibbert only felt a slight tingle in his heart.

After learning that he was personally selected by Luke in the draft, Hibbert felt indescribable.

He has even imagined himself becoming a top center in the league one day.

But the legendary career has not yet started, and there is bad news in the summer league, which makes Hibbert, who is not talkative on weekdays, almost cry.

If it wasn't for the fact that there were too many people in the locker room, Hibbert really wanted to cry.

At the end of the summer league first game, when the players were talking and laughing in the locker room to send blessings to Batum, Luke actually opened the door and walked in.

"I shouldn't have disturbed you."

At present, Luke is definitely the most influential coach in the NBA. At this time, many players in the locker room saw Luke up close for the first time.

Especially Batum, who just played a good game, was so excited that his heart almost jumped out.

"No! No! Coach, my biggest wish is to be able to play under you."

"coach!"

Seeing that more than half of the players in the locker room couldn't call out their names, Luke couldn't help but say hello one by one, otherwise he wouldn't even know what they were called. The scene was a bit embarrassing.

Originally, Luke never paid attention to the development of the summer league. According to his personality in previous years, Luke directly took charge of the hands-off shopkeeper at the beginning of the summer league and handed over the full power to the assistant coach.

At most, he can show up at the end of the summer league and cheer for the players, which is considered a successful completion of the task.

But this year's Batum's performance will directly affect what kind of players the Grizzlies can get in the next trading market. With such a big event, Luke naturally doesn't have the heart to do other things.

Seeing Batum's high morale, Luke nodded in satisfaction.

With the help of acting coach D'Antoni, Batum will definitely become the most dazzling existence in the summer league this year. Luke feels very good about this.

After simply encouraging the players, Luke turned and left, planning to go to Chris Wallace to see what kind of trade offers the team has received recently.

But just after going out, Luke heard heavy footsteps behind him, turned around and found that it was Roy Hibbert with a bitter face, which made Luke a little puzzled.

"Teach... coach."

"Coach, please don't trade me out, I will definitely play hard and will not disappoint your expectations of me." After holding back for a long time, Hibbert mustered up the courage to say these words.

You know, Luke's reputation in the league has never been very good. With his violent temper and ruthless personality, Hibbert obviously needs a lot of courage to say these words in front of Luke.

Seeing Hibbert's anxious expression, Luke frowned in confusion, thinking that Batum's performance was too good, which made him feel pressured.

But before Luke could speak, Hibbert hurriedly waved his hands, "I don't mean anything else, Coach, I just...just..."

The scene of Luke subconsciously frowning made Hibbert think that Luke had lost patience with him. Facing this grumpy coach, Hibbert was afraid of attracting Luke's abuse, and even started to speak incoherently.

Patting Hibbert's arm, Luke said thoughtfully, "Maybe, I know what you are worried about, but don't be nervous, no one wants to give up a player who works hard enough."

"You don't need to know the specific things now. What you should do next is to play well. No matter what tactics Coach Mike arranges, you have to let yourself adapt to the environment on the court, not let the environment adapt to you."

"Looking at the entire history, there are very few players who can be used as the core of the team's tactics in their rookie season."

"Most people overcome difficulties step by step, and then transform themselves into famous basketball stars."

"It's just a game. If you want to succeed, you need confidence first. I hope you can play a personal performance that meets your worth."

Seeing Hibbert standing still, Luke smiled and turned to end the conversation.

As for whether Hibbert could digest it, Luke didn't care. If he couldn't even overcome this difficulty, he really didn't deserve to play under him.

…………

With the continuation of the NBA Summer League, Batum's performance has completely conquered the teams. In the first three games of the Summer League, Batum averaged 19 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists per game. is very dazzling.

There are also more and more trade offers from various teams asking the Grizzlies whether they are willing to trade Batum. Among them, the Bucks, Warriors, Clippers and Kings are all very sincere.

According to Luke, Chris Wallace has started in-depth exchanges with various teams. Although the Grizzlies have not officially announced the news of putting Batum on the shelves, the teams in the league have already acquiesced in this statement. .

Among the trading offers of many teams, Luke is most interested in the offers made by the Warriors and the Bucks. trade.

These two players both have excellent personal abilities. No matter who can join the Grizzlies, they will bring the Grizzlies an improvement in combat power.

Last season, under the leadership of head coach Nelson, the Warriors had a record of 48 wins and 34 losses. This record is good enough, but it can only rank tenth in the West.

With "Big Beard" Baron Davis becoming a free agent, the Warriors who created the miracle of the Black Eight have long since ceased to exist, and the team management is currently actively seeking changes.

Batum's personal performance undoubtedly satisfied the Warriors' management and head coach Don Nelson. In order to avoid long nights and dreams, the Warriors' offer like the Grizzlies is very sincere.

"Martial Saint" Jackson averaged 20.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game last season. He is the team's third scorer and is also a top second-rate star in the entire league.

If the deal is to be completed, the Grizzlies will have to take out some other bargaining chips while paying Batum, but players like "Martial Saint" Jackson are hard to come by. Mike Miller, who won the sixth man of the season, was even more brutal.

What makes the Grizzlies hesitate is the bargaining chips offered by the Bucks. Compared with the Golden State Warriors, the Bucks looked even more miserable last season.

The team's record is only 26 wins and 56 losses, ranking third from the bottom in the Eastern Conference, and it is a truly fishy team.

Michael Reid is definitely an excellent outside scorer, but he is not an excellent team leader.

The team management has understood that relying on Michael Reed is no longer enough to lead the team to change the status quo. If you want to make the team better, you must win the future by playing badly.

In addition, there are too many strong teams in the Eastern Conference that have the opportunity to hit the championship in the past two years. Even if the Bucks spend their lives in the offseason, they have no hope of touching the championship.

Therefore, the management is very decisive and chooses to continue to perform badly in the new season, striving to gain more chips for the future.

It is worth mentioning that the Bucks have successively traded Yi Jianlian, Bobby Simmons and many other players away from the team to prepare for the new season.

And Mo Williams, who just renewed his contract with the team last summer, was also put on the shelf. The management hopes to use Mo Williams, who is not bad, to exchange for some high-ranking draft picks, or potential rookies worth cultivating. .

In the trade negotiations with the Grizzlies, the Bucks stated that any player on the team can be put on the shelf, even the head star Michael Reed is no exception.

With Michael Reid appearing in this trade list, the attractiveness of Mo Williams will naturally be greatly reduced, otherwise Xiao Mo will be a very good choice.

The Grizzlies are currently in in-depth contact with the Warriors and the Bucks, plus several other teams that may facilitate a deal, the Grizzlies' deal with Nicolas Batum is officially coming to an end.

Maybe Batum didn't understand until the day before he learned that he might be traded by the team.

Why would the team trade themselves, a player who had such a blast in the summer league, instead of Hibbert's stupid big black...

…………

On July 7, local time in the United States, the league reported a deal that made all teams feel desperate.

The Grizzlies officially announced that the team has officially reached a deal with the Milwaukee Bucks. In this deal, the Grizzlies will send rookie Batum + point guard Mike Bibby in exchange for Bucks star Michael Reed.

The occurrence of this transaction caused an uproar in the league. You know, Michael Reed was the star of the Bucks last season, averaging 22.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.1 steals per game.

And while ranking tenth in the league in points per game, he also has a 37% three-point shooting percentage, making him the league's top shooter.

And different from traditional shooters, Michael Reid not only has an excellent off-ball shot, but even strong shots with the ball are the first-class existence in the league.

In any case, Michael Reid has also been the head star of the Bucks for several years, and the confidence in his heart is by no means comparable to that of ordinary people.

Teams in the league are not surprised that the Bucks will trade star Michael Reed.

After all, under the leadership of Michael Reid, the Bucks have been ranked at the bottom of the league for several consecutive seasons. As long as the management does not have water in their heads, they will inevitably make changes in the past two years.

It just shocked and angered other teams that the Bucks actually traded Michael Reid to the Memphis Grizzlies. For other teams that want to compete for the championship, this is simply an operation that helps the bad guys.

Even though the Bucks got a lot of bargaining chips in this deal, Nicholas Batum, who has excellent potential, and Bibby, who averaged 12 points and 4 assists per game last season, continued to seek deals, but the Bucks assisted the gangsters in their operations. , It still attracted a lot of teams to scold.

Originally traded to Chris Paul during the offseason, the Grizzlies have become a frightening team, and now coupled with Michael Reed, this simply makes other teams see no hope.

Although Reed is not a qualified team leader, Michael Reed is definitely an outstanding individual star.

Reed can shoot suddenly, especially his shooting ability is extremely outstanding, he can be called one of the top pitchers in the league today.

The difference between Reid and traditional pitchers is that his physical fitness and low singles are equally good.

He spared no effort in defense, aggressive tackles, grew from a second-round pick to a star player, and was extremely aggressive.

In his peak season, Michael Reid averaged 26.7 points per game. He is the best shooting guard except for a few stars such as Kobe and Iverson. He also had a burst performance of 57 points in a single game.

At present, Michael Reid's personal strength is not considered a first-rate star, but he is definitely the top existence of a second-rate star.

In the new season, Michael Reed will be the best sixth man to reduce dimensionality and attack, becoming a nightmare for the benches of all teams in the league.

Using the star of the Bucks to play the best sixth man, the behavior of the Grizzlies can be described as luxurious and willful. I am afraid that apart from the Grizzlies, there is no second team in the league that has the courage to make such a decision.

As for whether Michael Reid can accept the sudden drop from the head star to the best sixth man, Luke has no worries about this.

Michael Reed has gradually counterattacked from an undrafted pick to a leading star. Reed has experienced troughs and peaks along the way.

Joining the Grizzlies is not the end of Michael Reed's peak period, but the beginning of Michael Reed's new career.

The Grizzlies can bring Michael Reid benefits that he has never enjoyed in his career. In exchange for equivalents, what Reid needs to give up is status.

When the Grizzlies act as the sixth man, Reid also has unlimited firepower. Luke has already made a promise that he will not restrict Michael Reid's shots, but only some changes in his identity.

As for why Michael Reid is not used to fill the vacancy of the starting small forward, because Luke already has a candidate for this position. When the free market opens in August, the Grizzlies will definitely drop multiple depth bombs into the league.

The reason why Luke chose the Bucks' offer in the end and gave up "Martial Saint" Jackson was more because Michael Reed was more suitable for the Grizzlies' tactical system.

Even if a player like "Martial Saint" Jackson is more suitable as a sixth man to drive the offensive rhythm on the field.

But Jackson's biggest problem is that he must hold the ball to show his full strength. Once he switches to playing without the ball, Jackson's strength will be weakened by at least [-]%.

In contrast, Michael Reed is a star who is excellent both with and without the ball. In addition to being inferior to Wu Sheng in all-roundness, Reed's scoring ability is more explosive, which is more in line with the tactical play pursued by Luke and D'Antoni. Law.

At the same time, Reed is still a very humble player, which probably has something to do with Michael Reed's experience of climbing from a draft pick to a star.

With Kapono, Novak and other outstanding three-point shooters on the Grizzlies bench, humility and selflessness will become very important.

The only thing that makes Luke dissatisfied is that Michael Reid is a devout Christian. He usually likes to read the "Bible" and listen to Christian music.

The book Luke hates the most is the Bible, and he also hates those devout Christians.

If not, Luke would not have hesitated between Michael Reid and "Martial Saint" Jackson when the Bucks made a trade offer. After all, this is not a multiple-choice question.

With the Grizzlies once again getting strong support from Michael Reed through the trade, the Grizzlies' lineup for next season has already made all teams fear.

Chris Paul, Kevin Martin, Michael Reid, Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Hibbert, Grant Hill, Kapono, and Novak to name a few.

No one knows what kind of reinforcement the Grizzlies will make in the trading market and free market, but so far, the lineup that the Grizzlies have revealed to people is already terrifying enough.

For other teams that want to compete for the championship in the new season, challenging the Grizzlies is simply a nightmare.

After the transaction, the Grizzlies' current team lineup has only ten players, and the salary space is still enough to offer a full middle class, a mini middle class plus a few basic salaries.

The outside world can no longer imagine what level of existence this defending champion will evolve into when the Grizzlies make up the 15-man roster during the offseason.

　Ask for a monthly ticket, thank you for your support, thanks for the third brother!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)