NBA: James wants to team up with me

Needless to say, Irving needs to say more. As the thickest thigh next to James, Irving's ability to charge into battle is quite outstanding. Even among all point guards in the league today, he is at the top level.

Irving's main shortcoming is that he is also a glass player and often gets injured. Whether in the Cavaliers, Celtics or Nets, there have been situations where the team lost the series due to missing key games due to injuries.

In addition, there is his rather magical brain circuit. For example, he is a staunch supporter of the flat earth theory and resolutely refuses to get vaccinated during the mask period, which makes people wonder whether his mental state is normal.

But at least at this early stage of his career, Irving is definitely a very good player at the point guard position.

As for Andrew Wiggins, the 14th-year No. pick was supposed to be sent to the Timberwolves as a bargaining chip this summer in exchange for Wolf King Kevin Love.

As the No. 1 pick in the NBA, Wiggins' talent is unparalleled and he is indeed at the top level. Although his career has been tepid, he was nicknamed "Brother Wolfberry" because of his overly competitive attitude.

But if you take a closer look at Wiggins' career, you will find that he has been able to steadily average 20+ points per game starting from the second season of his career, including averaging 23.6 points and 22.4 points per game during the Timberwolves period.

But the funny thing is that Wiggins was not selected to the All-Star for the first time until he joined the Warriors in the 2021-22 season.

Is Wiggins good? In fact, he is quite impressive. He has averaged 18.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in his career, and his shooting percentage can also be maintained at around 45%. In normal years, he is suitable for being the No. pick in the NBA.

But in 2014, Wiggins was a bit undeserved as the No. pick. After all, there were also Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic among the rookies in the same year. Both of them were MVP-level players. The former The MVP may still be a little bit wet, but Jokic deserves the MVP title. After all, he is the player who will become the number one player in the league in the future.

In Wang Chong's view, exchanging Wiggins for Love is not a particularly cost-effective deal. Love's immediate combat ability may be better than that of first-year rookie Wiggins, but it is also limited.

Love, who serves as a power forward, is only 2 meters tall and has a wingspan of only 03 meters. His positioning is actually a bit awkward.

Playing in the inside position, Love is slightly shorter and lacks the ability to protect the basket. He always suffers on the defensive end. The only thing that is pretty good is rebounding. If he plays on the outside, Love's mobility is somewhat insufficient, and it is difficult to protect those players. Players with faster mobility can easily be passed by in one step.

In terms of offense, Love's main offensive methods are catching and shooting from the outside and scoring from the inside. This is also his biggest advantage. In the future, when the league enters the small ball era, inside players will have to have three-point shooting skills. , From this point of view, Love, who serves as a power forward, is considered a good player.

The reason why Wang Chong does not intend to repeat the trade of Wiggins for Love is mainly because with a little training, Wiggins can fully serve as the starting shooting guard of the Cavaliers. His athletic ability is excellent. As long as his attitude improves and his defense It can definitely reach the league's first-class level.

Wang Chong is fully confident that through six or seven months of the regular season, it should not be a problem to train Wiggins to a level close to Butler's this season. It is enough to achieve such a level.

A team with Wang Chong has never lacked offensive firepower. What they need more is defensive ability and the mobility to keep up with fast break counterattacks. Love does not have these two points. His mid-to-long-range shooting ability is more suitable for James. A star-studded system.

The last and most important two points are: one is that compared to Wiggins, whose rookie contract is only 500 million, Love's 1500 million contract is a little more expensive, which is not conducive to Wang Chong's subsequent signing arrangements; the other is that the original 14- Wang Chong remembers the famous scene of "The Seven Jedi" in the Cavaliers Finals in the 15 season. With Irving already in the team, he doesn't want to take too many risks. Even if Love is injured, he is completely a Celtics player. Linick caused a flagrant foul, but who can guarantee that Love, who partners with Wang Chong, will not encounter the same thing in the 14-15 season?

Winning the championship in his first year with the Cavaliers is a systematic task, and there is a reward that is so rich that Wang Chong cannot refuse it. He cannot take this risk.

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Basically, the Cavaliers' backcourt combination for the new season is determined to be the combination of Irving + Wiggins. With Wang Chong on the front line, the Cavaliers' main lineup actually has two vacancies, but these two are actually Wang Chong already has a candidate in mind.

For the power forward position, Wang Chong plans to introduce power forward Pau Gasol, whose contract with the Rockets has expired.

I just finished using my younger brother Marc Gasol, and I immediately followed my older brother Pau Gasol, maybe a little bit.

But even Wang Chong has to admit that the Gasol brothers are really great.

Gasol is already a former teammate. Let’s not mention it for now, let’s talk about Pau Gasol.

By the 2014-15 season, Pau Gasol was already 34 years old. Normally, by this age, most of the post players' competitive status has begun to decline significantly, that is, Duncan, Garnett, Nowitzki, etc. Top players can maintain their competitive status for a few more years due to their high level of strength.

Pau Gasol was also not favored at this stage, so in the summer of 2014, Gasol, who became a free agent, signed a three-year, 3 million contract with the Bulls, with an average annual salary of only 2200 million.

Although before joining the Bulls, Gasol rejected the Lakers' offer of a 2-year, 2300 million contract for him, even then Gasol's market price was only 1150 million, which can only be counted in this league with an annual salary of tens of millions. To a very ordinary extent.

But who would have thought that after joining the Bulls, Pau Gasol would actually rejuvenate his career for the second time. Playing 78 games for the Bulls during the regular season, Pau Gasol averaged 18.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2.7 rebounds per game. Assists, replacing Carlos Boozer as the Bulls' new mainstay.

This performance made Gasol's market price rise. Even in the following 15-16 season, Gasol's condition declined slightly, and his regular season average dropped to 16.5 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists. After he did not exercise the player option and jumped out of the contract, he was still robbed by many teams. He finally signed with the Spurs for 2 million in 3000 years. He jumped out of the contract again a year later and re-signed a 3-year contract with 4800 million in San Antonio.

At the current stage, Gasol must be the most cost-effective player in the league's free market, and he is also extremely good and outstanding in immediate combat ability.

Pau Gasol didn't do well with the Rockets. It was better when he and Dayao formed the inside twin towers at first. However, with Dayao's retirement, the Rockets lineup declined, and Gasol was unable to support himself alone. In addition, the Rockets Already planning to rebuild, naturally there is no idea of ​​keeping this veteran.

Unlike the original Gasol who won two championships as Kobe's partner with the Lakers, Gasol in this time and space has not won a championship so far, even his younger brother Marc Gasol, who entered the league several years later than him. Now he has six championship rings on his hands.

It would be false to say Gasol doesn't want a championship.

Wang Chong did not go through the Cavaliers' official management, but directly contacted Gasol in a private capacity. When the latter learned that Wang Chong invited him to join the Cavaliers to compete for the championship together, he immediately nodded in agreement without even thinking.

Although the outside world has mixed opinions on Wang Chong's sudden decision to join the Cavaliers, no one will deny that the Cavaliers with Wang Chong have directly become one of the strongest teams in the Eastern Conference. Even those media who are not optimistic about Wang Chong only made their evaluation based on the comparison of the Bulls and Cavaliers' lineups. No one doubts that the Cavaliers will not be able to enter the playoffs under the leadership of Wang Chong.

Pau Gasol is certainly aware of this, because his younger brother Marc Gasol has been playing with Wang Chong since he entered the league. He knows Wang Chong a little better than other ordinary players. He knows very well that if there is anyone who can help him win a championship, then Wang Chong is undoubtedly the most likely person!

Therefore, Gasol directly agreed to Wang Chong's invitation without any hesitation, and also agreed to Wang Chong. In order to ensure the success of the Cavaliers' subsequent signings, his signing with the Cavaliers would be postponed for a few days to facilitate the Cavaliers' progress. Trading operations.

Having secured Gasol, Wang Chong's recruitment work is already half successful.

And while Wang Chong was busy with the team's recruitment work, James finally couldn't sit still.

The news that Wang Chong suddenly joined the Cavaliers shocked him, and it took him two or three days to digest the news.

Although he couldn't figure out the significance of Wang Chong's move, it was an opportunity!

With the current salary space of the Cavaliers, as long as they tighten their belts a little and trade a few players with relatively large contracts, such as Varejao and others, they are fully capable of signing him and Wang Chong at the same time!

At this time, James suddenly felt that Wang Chong might want to join forces with him when he joined the Cavaliers. After all, who in this league doesn't know that the totem of the Cavaliers is LeBron James? Previously, he had been using the media to build momentum for his return home, and the momentum was quite huge.

Therefore, James couldn't hold back after all, and asked his agent to contact the Cavaliers to express his desire to return to the Cavaliers to win a championship for the team, and expressed his willingness to appropriately reduce his salary to reduce the team's burden.

James took the initiative to come to the door, which should have made the Cavaliers management ecstatic.

But things went against expectations. David Griffin looked confused. He had not forgotten the three conditions in Wang Chong's agreement to join the Cavaliers. He was unwilling to play with James, so the Cavaliers could not sign James.

This condition was agreed upon by team owner Gilbert. How dare he, a mere general manager, violate it?

"I'm sorry, Mr. Rich. I'm honored that LeBron is willing to play for his hometown team, but it's a pity that the Cavaliers have no plans to sign LeBron in their plans for the new season..."

On the other side of the phone, James' agent Rich Paul was numb.

What did he just hear? The Cavaliers actually rejected him and James? That's LeBron James! The chosen one, the winner of two consecutive MVPs, the emperor superstar that other teams cannot exchange for even if they use all the players of their own team as bargaining chips! The general manager of the Cavaliers actually refused without even thinking about it?

When Rich Paul incredibly conveyed this matter to James, James was shocked and immediately thought of a possibility.

"Wang Chong must have asked for it! Only that guy can do this kind of thing!"

James has still not forgotten that in the summer of 2010, he had the idea of ​​​​going to Chicago to defect to Wang Chong, but when he called Wang Chong to express his intention, the other party actually dismissed him and even ridiculed him. James almost got angry.

At that time, James secretly vowed to defeat Wang Chong in the Heat and let him know how good he was.

He never expected that four years would pass by in a blink of an eye, but in the four years he spent with the Heat, he never crossed the threshold of Wang Chong, and once again licked his face and wanted to hug Wang Chong's thigh.

"You don't want to join forces with me, do you think the rest of the league doesn't? As long as I want, I can form a super team at any time! I will definitely beat you on the court! Win the O'Brien Cup!"

This is how James wanted to return to the Cavaliers to embrace Wang Chong.

Wang Chong’s recruitment work continues.

Pau Gasol can serve as the team's main insider, but after all, Gasol is an insider with poor confrontation ability. With his increasing age, Wang Chong must be prepared for him in case of a large number of players during the regular season. Gasol was injured in the playoffs due to playing in the game. Wouldn't it be as miserable as the Cavaliers' Seven Jedi in the 14-15 season?

Wang Chong's candidate is Hassan Whiteside, who is 2 meters tall and plays center.

The famous Huaishen rose to prominence in the 14-15 season.

Whiteside, who entered the league through the draft in 2010, did not have a smooth career. At one point, he had no ball to play with. In desperation, he could only go overseas to play. In September 2014, Whiteside returned from the CBA. Seid returned to the NBA and signed a non-guaranteed contract with the Grizzlies. However, his performance was still unsatisfactory and he was eventually waived by the Grizzlies.

By November 2014, the Heat signed Whiteside, and then Whiteside showed amazing rebounding and interior rim protection abilities in the Heat. He averaged 11 points and 24 rebounds in less than 11.8 minutes per game. With 10 blocks, he became the Heat's main center.

In the subsequent 15-16 season, Whiteside's average playing time increased to 30 minutes per game, and his data also increased to 14.2 points, 11.8 rebounds and 3.7 rebounds. While being elected as the league's rebounding leader, he was also selected to the All-Defensive Second Team.

His outstanding performance earned him a super-large contract, worth 4 million in four years.

After receiving the superstar contract, Whiteside also experienced a data blowout. In the 16-17 season, his average data per game soared to 17 points and 14 rebounds per game.

However, this was Huaishen's only highlight moment. As he participated in more games, Whiteside's various shortcomings were exposed. He lacked offensive methods and his defensive and rim protection ability seemed to be outstanding, but in fact it was far from the top level. , the most important thing is that as a blue-collar insider, an annual salary of close to 2500 million is too luxurious.

However, all of the above does not exist for Wang Chong. After all, Whiteside is just an unknown player that no one cares about. No one pays attention to him. The Cavaliers can easily win him with only a minimum salary contract.

After signing Gasol and Whiteside, the Cavaliers basically have enough inside players, because the Cavaliers also have inside players, such as the famous Eight Wise Kings Tristan Thompson and the King of Bumping, Varejao, plus Wang Chong can also play the power forward position, so the Cavaliers have more than enough inside players.