Chapter 62: Transactions Flying All Over the Sky

"Hey Zheng, how did you know the Pistons would win the championship? You even guessed the big score. Damn, is this what you call fortune-telling in the East?"

Carmelo Anthony, who was sitting in Zheng Yang's house watching the 03-04 season finals, was surprised. Looking at the score that no one had expected before the game, Anthony really began to doubt whether Zheng Yang had any special abilities.

Before the finals started, they were discussing how many games it would take the Lakers to beat the Pistons this year. Yes, you heard it right. It was not about who would win or lose, but how many games it would take the Lakers to beat their opponent.

Wade and Anthony both thought it would be 4-2, but Zheng Yang was the only one who thought the Pistons would win the finals 4-1.

When he expressed his opinion, Anthony and Wade almost laughed to death. The Pistons won? Or was it a gentleman's sweep?

Unless the sun rises from the west, it is absolutely impossible.

So the three of them made a bet that whoever lost would pick up 300 balls for the other.

Zheng Yang was betting with two people at once, which meant that if he lost, he would have to pick up 600 balls.

But how could Zheng Yang lose?

The Lakers and the Pistons both have the same lineups as in the original history, without any changes. There is no other possible final result.

This is exactly what happened. The Pistons easily swept the Lakers 4-1 and won the championship in an upset.

"What is this "fortune telling"? What is this all about?"

What do you call this? This is called understanding football!
Okay, tomorrow you and Dwyane must pick up 300 balls each for me, and don’t cheat! "

"Row."

Anthony agreed reluctantly, but ultimately did not break the contract, and Wade on the other side also nodded.

After watching the game, the three of them made a bed on the floor and took a rest.

Anthony and Wade rented a house near the stadium, but when they had nothing to do, they would always come to Zheng Yang's house to watch the game together, and sometimes they would stay there to rest together if it was late.

The three young people didn't care too much, and as the weather was starting to get hotter, they basically just slept on the floor for the night.

……

Shortly after the finals ended, the teams began making various trades.

Teams like the Lakers F4, who failed to win the championship this season, and the four-star Mavericks are ready to disband!

But the one that had the greatest impact was the Lakers' OK combination.

This summer, Kobe chose not to exercise his player option and intended to leave Los Angeles. At the same time, O'Neal's contract had only one year left. The 32-year-old Shark originally wanted to seek a long-term contract of 1 million, but the Lakers refused to renew his contract.

The breakdown of the OK combination made the Lakers realize that it was time for the combination to break up. Who to keep might be a painful choice, but the answer is obvious.

It's time for the Sharks to leave...

The reason why the Lakers did not renew the contract with Shark is that he is already 32 years old and he has missed about 15 regular season games each year due to injury for three consecutive years.

They didn't know whether the other side could bring them another championship, and the young Kobe would obviously be a better choice.

Youth is capital!
The news that the Sharks requested a trade shocked the entire league, and almost half of the teams made offers to the Lakers.

O'Neal is indeed old, but he can still be said to be the top center in the league.

Trading him to form a championship-contending team would obviously be a shortcut.

On July 7, the Lakers traded O'Neal to the Heat, and the Big Shark has been traveling east since then.

On the day after being traded, O'Neal told the media that he would definitely bring a championship to the city of Miami, which shows how confident he is.

Zheng Yang learned the news a day or two before the transaction. Wade told him.

The team told him they traded for him to get O'Neal, who would come to help him win the championship.

The league's top center will help him win the championship?

God knows how excited Wade was when he heard the news. He even jumped up excitedly.

Then he quickly realized one thing, that he would most likely be the first person in the championship club to win the championship.

Wade was so happy that he immediately shared this with Zheng Yang and Anthony. Of course, he didn't do it to show off, he just wanted his brothers to be happy for him.

Although both of them were very jealous, in order to prevent Wade from succeeding, they kept saying verbally that it was nothing, nothing.

They don't want a big shark to assist them.

They want to win the championship by themselves...

In addition to the Lakers' trade, Zheng Yang has also been paying attention to the Mavericks' trade.

Of course, the focus is Nash and Fat Toutuo. In the original history, they both left Dallas this summer, but Zheng Yang doesn’t know whether this result will be repeated this year.

After the playoffs were stopped in the Western Conference semifinals, Nash's team has been discussing Nash's contract extension with Mavericks executives.

Nash wanted a high-paying contract, but in the first round of negotiations, the Mavericks were only willing to offer him a four-year, $4 million contract, with only partial salary guarantee in the last year.

As expected, this contract, which was far from what was expected, was rejected by Nash's team.

The two sides soon started the second round of negotiations.

In the second round of negotiations, the Mavericks changed the contract to 4 years and 4 million US dollars, but Nash was required to play 60 games each season. This was the greatest sincerity Cuban could give.

At the same time, at the end of the negotiation, Cuban also said a polite sentence.

"If other teams are willing to offer you a high-priced contract, I will be happy for you too."

Obviously, Cuban was sure that no other team was willing to offer Nash a big contract.

But the fact is quite the opposite. After the second round of negotiations ended in failure, Nash was invited to a mansion by the Suns that night.

At this moment, the core members and several senior managers of the Suns are here. They are here to lobby Nash to join the Suns. They need an All-Star level point guard to pair with Stoudemire.

Originally their target was Kobe, but there were too many teams chasing Kobe, so they could only set their sights on Nash, but they were willing to offer Nash a 6-year, $6300 million contract.

This is much more sincere than the Mavericks.

But Nash did not agree on the spot. He still wanted to stay with the Mavericks, so he told Cuban that as long as the Mavericks were willing to offer a matching contract, he would choose to stay with the Mavericks.

Upon learning the news, Cuban held a management meeting overnight, and the final result was that Nash's ability was not worth such a high-priced contract.

They also have to free up some salary space to sign Eric Dampier, the second-best center in the Western Conference. They are ready to offer him a seven-year, $7 million contract. Eric Dampier himself probably didn't expect that someone would actually believe his boast!
It turns out that there are really people who are stupid and have a lot of money!
Finally Nash decided to return to the Suns.

The day before signing with the Suns, Nash called Zheng Yang. He didn't call Nowitzki, Finley, or Fat Tou Tuo, but only Zheng Yang.

The others are Nash's teammates and friends, but only Zheng Yang is Nash's brother.

“Man, I might have to leave Dallas!”

Nash told Zheng Yang about recent events, and Zheng Yang could hear hesitation in his tone.

"Zheng, do you want me to stay here?"

Finally, Nash asked Zheng Yang this question.

Zheng Yang smiled.

"Steve, from a brother's perspective, I certainly hope you can stay and continue to fight alongside me.

But what I want to tell you is that if you stay with the Mavericks, you will definitely win the championship in two years.

But that might just be a third or even fourth champion!

If you go to the Suns, you will have a whole new career.

Remember what I told you before? You are a person with offensive talent, and only in the Phoenix Suns can you truly activate your talent.

You need to think about this seriously!"

Nash didn't say anything, just hung up the phone silently, and the next day, the newspaper published the news that Nash had signed with the Suns.

The Son of Wind who led the team to launch the seven-second offense is finally about to appear!
He still did not choose to stay and win a championship. He is not at the end of his career yet, and he still wants to compete for the championship with his own efforts.

Nash's departure is a blow to the Mavericks and also to the team's head coach Nelson.

He really wanted to keep the other person, but unfortunately he failed to do so in the end.

A year ago, he was able to trade for Zheng Yang based on his personal ideas alone, but now he can't do it.

During this year, team owner Mark Cuban has been cultivating his cronies to weaken his influence in the team.

What he says in the team is not so effective now!
He didn't want to care about so many things anymore. He just wanted to lead the Mavericks to win a championship, then resign and go home to rest.

He is so tired!

On August 8, the Mavericks reached an agreement with the Atlanta Hawks to package Fat Toutuo and guard Tony Delk to the Hawks in exchange for the team's point guard Jason Terry and forward Alan Henderson.

So far, two of the four-star Mavericks have left!

Fat Monk was also very reluctant to leave. Of course, the main reason why he didn't want to leave was because of Zheng Yang.

His brother, they have been together for almost a year, and their friendship has become stronger than ever!
On the day of the transaction, he came to Zheng Yang specifically to get drunk, and ended up getting completely drunk.

Although this guy is not good in every aspect, it has to be said that he has deep feelings for Zheng Yang.

I usually treat him very well and always think of him when good things happen. Sometimes when something goes wrong, he always takes the blame.

Shortly after sending Fat Toutuo away, the Mavericks officially signed Eric Dampier, the second center in the Western Conference.

The final contract was 7 million for 7300 years, which is faster than robbing a bank!

Other junk contracts may become junk contracts slowly after one or two years of signing, but Dampier's contract was already a junk contract the moment he put pen to paper.

At the moment of signing, Eric Dampier had only one thought in his mind: he would never have to worry about money again in his life.

Boss Cuban is such a nice guy. If I say I am the second best center in the Western Conference, he will give me 70 million. But if I say I am the best center in the league, the contract will be over 100 million!
Cuban, who was stingy with Nash's contract, gave all his tenderness and generosity to Dampier...

He really made me cry to death!
Lock up this couple for me, and don’t let them enter the market!

After these three major trades, the four-star Mavericks officially changed their appearance and formed a Big Four lineup with Nowitzki, Zheng Yang, Finley and Dampier as the core.

As for who is the real giant and who is the fake giant, it will become clear after the new season starts!

……

Zheng Yang also knew that there were many new faces in the team, but he had no intention of building good relationships with them in advance.

This year he is no longer the same player he was as a rookie last year. After outstanding performances in the regular season and playoffs, his tactical position in the team has become second only to Nowitzki.

Of course, Zheng Yang also knew that this was Nowitzki's team. Unless the Mavericks owner changed, as long as Nowitzki was still there, the position of team leader would never be his.

But at least he is the second player in the team. Ask him to build good relationships with rookies and the "second center in the Western Conference"?
If he has that much free time, he might as well spend more time training in the gym.

He is preparing to make a splash in the new season!

More than four months of training during the offseason has enabled Zheng Yang, Wade and Anthony to make great progress.

Zheng Yang's ball-handling and attacking abilities have improved by two levels. Wade's breakthroughs have become sharper, cleaner, and his shooting has become more accurate.

His level of hard work during this period is second only to Zheng Yang. After all, the thought of becoming teammates with the Sharks and competing for the championship with him suddenly makes him full of energy.

Anthony's breakthrough and shooting have also improved a lot. Although his training intensity is not as high as Zheng Yang and Wade, it is not low either.

The fact that he was able to persist in the championship club made Zheng Yang think highly of him.

At the same time, they have been playing one-on-one during this period, which has actually improved Anthony's one-on-one defense ability a lot.

But I also hope that he can be more active in defense on weekdays, otherwise he still won’t be able to defend against people when the time comes.

Several months of training brought their relationship closer and also made them respect Zheng Yang more.

After all, only those who have trained with Zheng Yang know how harsh he is on himself. Whenever Wade and the others were exhausted, this guy would continue training.

With this kind of willpower and physical strength, it's no wonder he can always play the whole game.

They used to be quite envious, but now they only have respect for him.

When it was mid-September, Anthony and Wade left Dallas one after another. They were going back to prepare for the training camp for the next season.

Zheng Yang returned to his days of training alone. Although the process was very boring, he enjoyed it very much.

He likes the process of becoming stronger, which gives him a strong sense of accomplishment!
The Mavericks' training camp for the 04-05 season is about to begin!
(End of this chapter)