Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 1082 - 609

Chapter 1082: 609 Chapter 1082: 609 After the draft, the group that was undoubtedly the least satisfied with the results were the Lakers fans.

This year might be the worst in the Lakers’ history of building a team, as their city rivals, the Clippers, won the championship.

However, in the long run, this year was still an improvement compared to the past few years. Anthony’s arrival brought hope to the team.

But the Lakers suddenly traded Pau Gasol during the draft and picked a combo guard who seems to bring no immediate help to the team.

If this was to prepare for subsequent trades, then it made some sense, after all, Pau Gasol’s potential had been proven.

However, the Lakers management stated that the reason they chose D’Angelo Russell was that they did not want to miss out on the next Jordan.

Clearly, they had no intention of trading Russell afterwards, which was very obvious.

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The fans were unwilling to accept this result.

Similarly, Anthony, who last year wanted to team up with Yu Fei but ended up joining the Lakers to compete with the Clippers, also felt dissatisfied with the trade.

Playing basketball in a place like Los Angeles means accepting the scrutiny of the media in all aspects.

Soon after, Frank Isola, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, reported that Anthony had called his old teammate in New Jersey to express dissatisfaction with the Pau Gasol trade. He chose the Lakers because he hoped to win the championship quickly through this deeply-rooted team, and obviously, trading Pau for Russell would not speed up the process.

Then, Stephen A. Smith from ESPN revealed on his show, “Cameron wants to see the Lakers make impactful trades immediately, he doesn’t want to wait.”

The problem with this trade was that it did not effectively create salary space for the Lakers.

Even after offloading Pau Gasol’s contract, the Lakers were still unable to come up with max cap space, their salary cap had long been exceeded.

Therefore, their pickups in the free agency were hard to be impactful.

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Despite rumors about how dissatisfied Anthony was, he was not the kind of fool to be led by the nose, and he quickly clarified his stance.

He claimed that D’Angelo Russell was a “treasure” the Lakers had found.

This statement seemed to indirectly declare that he did not mind the trade happening.

If this is true, then the remaining question is—how does Kobe view this matter?

Does 37-year-old Kobe have the patience to wait for Russell to develop?

Kobe’s reaction was more subdued than many had imagined.

He indicated through private channels that he was well aware that the trade was going to happen and had no objections.

In the end, only the Lakers fans became the clowns.

It seemed they had no choice but to believe that Russell is the next Jordan or to accept that it’s nearly impossible for the Lakers to achieve better results before Kobe’s retirement than they did this year.

Following was the annual free agency.

Although there were no superstars entering the free agency this year, quite a few second-tier stars considered to be quality sidekicks became free agents.

The most notable ones included Miami Heat back-to-back champion Kevin Love, former Miami Heat leader Dwyane Wade, and LaMarcus Aldridge, the last veteran left in Milwaukee from the Yu Fei era, as well as DeAndre Jordan who went to New York with Durant.

In addition to these stars in their prime, there were also many capable second-tier players.

However, the main issue this year was that most of these people were interior players.

Such as Paul Millsap, Tyson Chandler, and the Lopez brothers.

This was good news for teams looking to strengthen their interior line.

Because the free agency market really had a variety of inside players meeting the needs of all kinds of teams.

But for the Clippers, who also hoped to reinforce their team through the free agency market, this distribution of free players posed a bit of a headache.

After Danny Granger’s contract expired, he quickly reached an agreement with the Clippers on a one-year minimum salary contract.

Clearly, Granger did not want to leave the defending champions.

Although the current Granger was hardly able to keep up with the NBA’s intensity, as long as it was for the minimum salary, there were still many teams willing to reserve a spot or two for experienced veterans.

Moreover, signing Granger did not affect the Clippers’ ability to swing their cash in the free agency market.

The Clippers’ most desired position to reinforce was the point guard.

There was only one person in this year’s free agency market that fit their needs.

That was Patrick Beverley.

In the past few years, Beverley had played for the Supersonics.

Originally, Beverley was brought in as a point guard when Roy was injured, later on, with the Supersonics acquiring Irving and Yu Fei transferring to the Clippers, Beverley lost his guide in Seattle as well as his protective umbrella, only serving as Irving’s backup.

Over these years, Beverley had given his all, faultless in all aspects as Irving’s substitute.

Therefore, the Supersonics were also willing to keep him, of course, the price had to be right.

The Clippers, who had plenty of money and cap space, started off by offering a very unreasonable price.

3 years for 28 million US dollars.

The Supersonics positioned Beverley as a backup, hoping to renew his contract with a multi-year mid-level deal.

However, a player’s value is often determined by the market.

The Clippers’ offer of 9 million a year salary was more than any mid-level deal.

For the Supersonics, that was a bit too expensive.

They struggled for a few days, then made a decision that didn’t surprise Yu Fei.

They decided not to match the contract.

That’s the Clay Bennett that Yu Fei knew all too well.