Champions Creed

Chapter 383: Madness before the Trading Deadline (asking for monthly tickets!)
The New York Knicks are still first in the league after losing the Christmas game. In fact, their strength and record are enough to end the fight for the first place in the regular season three and a half months in advance.

Unless the New York Knicks suffer major injuries, it is almost certain that they will continue this dominance and winning percentage.

They may not be able to beat the Warriors, but they are more than capable of beating most teams in the league.

But New York fans know that what the Knicks need this season is not a regular season record, but a championship.

This is their only goal, this is the only goal of Yao Ming, Wade and KG.

As long as this goal is not achieved, the New York Knicks will be a failure this season.

Before Christmas, New York was confident of a championship.

But now, they must put a big question mark in their hearts about the final outcome of this season.

The Knicks cannot hold back the Warriors who have two ball-handlers, and this is a very realistic problem.

Yes, victory in the Christmas game does not mean that the Warriors can win the best-of-seven series, but the Knicks are not sure to win either.

Kevin Garnett's passion will always burn out, and this team can't rely on passion alone to get through the difficulties.

Why are the Warriors always successful? One well-known reason is that they have Roger, and another reason that is often overlooked is that they are always strengthening their lineup.

From the Magic dynasty to the Atlanta dynasty, and to the present, every year Roger's team will summarize the weaknesses of the previous season and then strengthen them.

This season is the same. The team has no second ball-handler? They added Boris Diaw. The perimeter defense in the transition period is not good enough? They added Matt Barnes.

Even Roger's team was very timely in "clearing obstacles". It is rare to see a championship team actively seeking a trade in the first week of November.

But the Warriors did just that, and it made the team better.

Their adjustments to the lineup are always timely, ensuring that Roger's team is always at the top of the competitiveness.

Roger is such a person, a person who does not compromise. He is not only decisive about the team lineup, but also decisive when he feels that he and a girlfriend are not suitable. As a result, Roger's love life so far has been very happy.

Top players should have this mindset: if you can’t change teammates as efficiently as Roger, then change teams yourself.

Therefore, the New York Knicks, whose lineup is already very complete, are thinking about one thing - how can we strengthen it?

James Dolan doesn't care about investment. No matter how much he invests, the Knicks can help him double it back.

So, Lenny Wilkens told management: "My team needs reinforcements!"

The people the Knicks need are also very clear. The outside line consisting of Payton, Wade and Jamal Crawford is a little too short, and the opponent Warriors' full forward lineup is at a great disadvantage.

Michael Sweetney is great, but his defense isn't strong enough to allow him to ignore the offense.

If you can play at the level of Ben Wallace on defense, then OK, your offensive incompetence is tolerable.

But if you can only play decent defense but your offense is as bad as Ben Wallace's, that's hard to accept.

Therefore, the Knicks' direction of reinforcement is very clear.

A tough, smart wing who doesn't dominate the ball but has a high shooting percentage.

After the news broke that the Knicks wanted to strengthen their wing wing, the first thing that came to New York fans' minds was the recently hot-selling Caron Butler.

Because the Heat are throwing Caron Butler out as a trouble, they don't have to pay too much to get him.

However, Lenny Wilkens specifically said that Caron Butler was absolutely not allowed.

If Caron Butler can make Gilbert Arenas so angry that he pulls out a gun, who knows what he will do with Garnett that day.

One of the important reasons why KG enjoyed his stay in New York was that both Wade and Yao Ming had relatively gentle personalities.

What about Caron Butler? Although the media is blaming Gilbert Arenas, no one knows how badly Caron Butler played a role in the "gun-carrying incident".

Just because Matt Barnes can get along well with Roger doesn't mean KG can get along well with Butler.

Although Caron Butler became a father at the age of 15, he is now in love with another woman and the two have a good relationship. If Kevin Garnett makes a joke about donuts, who knows whether Caron Butler, who has been in the cell since he was a child, will stage a gun scandal 2.0.

This Knicks team cannot afford the risk of chaos in the locker room. As one of the participants in the Atlanta dynasty, Lenny Wilkens knows better than anyone the importance of locker room stability.

Also, Caron Butler is not an off-ball wing.

He is a player who needs a certain percentage of ball possession. His best scoring methods are breakthroughs and mid-range singles, but the Knicks no longer have any extra balls to give him.

If he plays very frustrated in the Knicks, he might not be as effective as Michael Sweetney. After all, defense is something that requires selflessness.

Trade rumors about the Knicks are starting to increase, and some other championship contenders are also joining in the fun.

Unlike previous years when it took a long period of observation before making a trade decision, nowadays, many championship-contending teams hope to complete the trade as early as possible, rather than waiting until the trade deadline.

Because they have confirmed that the team will find it difficult to compete with the Warriors with its current lineup.

In this case, there is no need to continue testing the lineup.

If the deal is completed earlier, there will be more time to get used to each other before the playoffs.

Just like that, as soon as January of this season began, all kinds of trade messages were flying around.

Roger's Golden State Warriors is one of the few teams that has not been affected. Their lineup has completed the final upgrade in November, and the rest is just moving forward steadily.

After the Christmas game, the Warriors' rotation for this season is basically completely determined.

Boris Diaw will not start because his role in the regular season is not as good as Jason Richardson.

Jason Richardson has firepower that the Frenchman does not have, and he is also better at defending the No. 2 position.

Replace Tayshaun Prince? That's even more impossible, as Tayshaun Prince is the Warriors' biggest guarantee for wing defense.

But Dio can still enter the main rotation to display his talents, and when encountering a situation where two ball handlers are needed at the same time, Spoelstra will increase Boris Dio's role.

In fact, this is also the reason why Boris Dio's regular season statistics were average in the original timeline.

Because he doesn't have a chance to perform in every game.

But in some playoff rounds where he needs to play an important role, his data is not bad at all. In the first round of the 2006 playoffs, when the Suns defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, Dio was reused because Stoudemire was reimbursed for the season, so he averaged 18+6+6 in the series and 14+6+6 in the second round against the Clippers.

In the 14 Western Conference Finals, when the Spurs faced the Thunder, when Popovich needed to counter offense and increase Dio's role, the 32-year-old could still score 13+5+3 in a single round.

Boris Dio can usually hide in the system, but if you let him take on a bigger role, he can also do it.

And the most important point is that he will not get angry because the role he plays fluctuates.

When you don't need him to work so hard, he will drink coffee, taste red wine, take his camera to the streets of San Francisco to take various photos like a photographer.

When you need him, he'll give it 100 percent. After all, he loves basketball, too.

He is like a sensible KTV princess who doesn't disturb your life at ordinary times and only contributes all his love and enthusiasm when you need him.

Just like that, by mid-January, the Warriors had surpassed the Los Angeles Lakers and returned to the top spot in the Western Conference.

On January 1, the 15th game of the season, the Warriors visited Toronto to challenge the Toronto Raptors led by Vince Carter.

Although Carter is the leader, in fact, the Raptors and Carter are already at loggerheads.

All the grievances started in 2003, when the Raptors were aiming to rebuild, and they first resolved the issue of the coach and general manager. Carter was angry when he saw his mentor and teacher leave the team, but Raptors chairman Richard Petty comforted him: Don't worry about our flying man, we will trade for Canadian son Steve Nash, and then let your idol Dr. J be the general manager, and everything will be fine!
As it turned out, this was a complete blank check.

Last summer, Steve Nash did not refuse to return to Canada to play, but the price offered by the Raptors was far less than that of the Lakers, and their sincerity was not as strong as people expected, so Nash chose to renew his contract with the Lakers.

As for Dr. J, he never received an invitation from the Toronto Raptors.

The new general manager, Rob Babcock, the brother of former Hawks general manager Pete Babcock, only wanted to make Chris Bosh the right player. To this end, he removed Carter's mother's special parking space at the home stadium and fired Carter's personal therapist.

All Rob Babcock is doing is telling Vince Carter, "You better know your place."

You are unkind and I am unjust. After the Raptors did these things, Carter began to slack off this season.

In the games he played for the Raptors, he averaged only 15.9 points per game. Anyone could see that his strength was not declining, but he just didn't want to play at all.

And Carter made no secret of it. He said in front of reporters: "What Toronto did made me frustrated, so I didn't use my full strength."

This is another proof that Vince Carter is not good at dealing with the media. He thought that this statement would make fans and the media sympathize with him, but in fact it only gave him a reputation of "unprofessional attitude".

And in tonight's game against the Warriors, Vince Carter's professional attitude hit rock bottom.

After a timeout in the third quarter, Carter came on and told Roger, "We're going to double-team you based on Jason Richardson's touch. Just pass the ball to him."

"Vince, why do you have to give up on yourself?" Roger really didn't understand Vince Carter's behavior. There was a reason why the gap between him and the other people was gradually widening.

"Giving up on yourself? Don't lecture me from a high position. You haven't experienced betrayal from the team at all."

"I don't want to dig up old grudges, but the Chicago Bulls betrayed me, the Atlanta Hawks betrayed me, the Orlando Magic betrayed me."

"I have nothing to say to you. You are the winner, so whatever you say makes sense!"

Needless to say, the final result was that the Raptors had no fighting power at all.

After the game, the Raptors' Mr. 81, Jaylen Rose, could no longer bear it and exposed Carter on the spot: "Vince is a good teammate, but I can't understand him more and more. He once lifted Sam (Raptors coach) up and threw him hard on the massage mat because of an argument with the head coach. Just now, he even took the initiative to reveal the team's tactics to Roger!"

On the other hand, Roger had no intention of helping Carter. Of course, he had no grudge against Carter, so he was vague: "I don't know. It's up to you how you want to understand Vince."

But the reporters knew that given Roger's character, if he didn't directly deny it, it would be tantamount to acquiescence.

Vince Carter is caught in a dilemma, and the once glorious Canadian flying man has fallen to the lowest point in his career.

He didn't know what he did wrong. It was the Raptors who disgusted him first. He just wanted to enjoy victory in a team that was willing to compete for the championship, that's all. But now? He is being criticized by thousands of people.

Finally, Carter summed up the reason - he was not a winner.

If he were the winner, he would have a say just like Roger.

No matter where he is sold next, he will try his best to be the winner!
Ironically, this fierce competitiveness is exactly what Vince Carter lacked during his time with the Raptors.

And now when he took the initiative to leave the Raptors, his biggest missing link was actually filled.

The Raptors and Carter are destined not to have the best of each other.

Roger didn't know that this incident had affected Vince Carter's career trajectory. Originally, the New Jersey Nets were very close to trading for Carter, but because the "tactical leak incident" was thoroughly disclosed and the impact was several times greater than the original timeline (because it happened to Roger), the Nets backed off.

They don't know if Carter will continue to play seriously after arriving in New Jersey.

Watching the news of the New Jersey Nets withdrawing from the trade, watching the New York Knicks looking for wings everywhere, watching the hot sale of Caron Butler, Roger said to Spoelstra beside him on the team bus: "This year's mid-term trade may be the hottest one in history. The whole league has gone crazy to deal with us."

For the next half month, trade rumors continued to dominate the headlines of major media outlets.

When February came, those long-buried deals finally had their day of official announcement.

On February 2, 1 days before the 2005 trade deadline, the Toronto Raptors decided to trade Vince Carter to the Dallas Mavericks for Tarik Abdul-Wahad, Jerry Stackhouse, Josh Howard and the 23 first-round draft pick.

Dirk Nowitzki and Shaquille O'Neal got an All-NBA level outside teammate!

On February 2, 3 days before the trade deadline, the Los Angeles Lakers traded Jumaine Jones and a 21 first-round draft pick to the Miami Heat for Caron Butler.

On February 2, 6 days before the trade deadline, the New York Knicks traded Jamal Crawford to the Memphis Grizzlies for Sean Battier and Dahntay Jones.

Before the playoffs even started, the championship contenders had already made a mid-term upgrade in order to fight against the Warriors.

The alliance's desire to overthrow the king's rule has reached its peak.
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Vince Carter scored 39 points in one of the two games he played in Dallas and 42 points in another. It turns out that he was indeed slacking off in Toronto. His strength is still strong. The Flyers are completely transformed after leaving Toronto. I think the spring has come for the Western Cowboys. --Dallas Morning News

I don't care what kind of person he is, I only care whether he can play and contribute to victory. In this respect, Caron Butler is the player we dream of. -- Kobe Bryant talks about Caron Butler who indirectly caused the "gun gate" incident.

Duke's Sean Battier is almost the wing player that coach Lenny Wilkens dreams of. He is tough, intelligent, doesn't occupy the ball but has a high shooting percentage. This is Sean. Whether the world admits it or not, we are closer to the championship. - The New York Times

I can't remember the last time the NBA experienced such a crazy mid-term trade. Maybe this is the craziest one. This is enough to show that other teams in the league can't wait to overthrow Roger and don't want to wait another season. ——Charles Barkley talked about the consecutive blockbuster mid-term trades on the show.

The King's crown has never been more in danger. --Sports Illustrated.

(End of this chapter)