The longest river

Chapter 187 The Trail Blazers' New Starting Point Guard
The Trail Blazers were very active in the free agency market before the All-Star Game.

The primary objective, of course, is to find another suitable starting point guard.

Although Yang Shuai's stats before the All-Star Game were impressive, the management could see that his playing style was taking a heavy toll on him.

In a normal season, they might let Yang Shuai continue playing like this.

After all, the management knows that the team's overall strength this season is still far from being able to compete for the championship, so it's not a bad idea to let Yang Shuai put up some good stats.

The key issue is that Yang Shuai has just returned from a major injury. If he were to play like this again and miss the rest of the season, it would be a huge loss.

Moreover, from the team's long-term perspective, they also need a qualified point guard.

After all, even Jordan needed Pippen to share the playmaking burden.

Just at that time, something happened in the east that was neither too big nor too small.

Damon Stoudemire has requested a trade from the Raptors.

That's right, it's "Little Flying Squirrel," who entered the league in the same year as Yang Shuai and won the Rookie of the Year title.

Although the Raptors have been at the bottom of the Eastern Conference for the past few years, Stoudemire's stats have been consistently good, generally maintaining around 20+10, and his three-point shooting is also decent.

However, he had a very bad season with the management over contract renewal issues.

From Stoudemire's perspective, his classmates Yang Shuai and Garnett both received contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, so why shouldn't he, the "Rookie of the Year" from the same draft class, also get one?
However, it is clear that no management would choose to renew a rookie's contract at this time, knowing that the league is about to be suspended; they will definitely wait for a new collective bargaining agreement to be released.

Stoudemire didn't get a contract and felt disrespected by the Raptors, so he requested a trade.

The Raptors agreed.

Rookies are expected to play for three years, and now that three years are almost over, the team's record hasn't improved at all. They also know that Stoudemire isn't the kind of player to be the core of a rebuild.

This is exactly what the Trail Blazers wanted.

They certainly don't need Stoudemire to be the core of the rebuild; they just need him to assist Yang.

Rumors about a trade between the two teams had already surfaced during the All-Star Game.

What is known to the outside world now is that Kenny Anderson and two first-round draft picks were traded for Stoudemire and other players.

The Raptors' asking price is clearly not low.

Yang Shuai didn't pay attention to these trade rumors, not because he didn't want better teammates.

Given the opportunity to play with better players, who would deliberately make things difficult for themselves?
When the Bulls acquired Rodman, Jordan didn't say he was too good and he didn't want him. If he did, he would be completely out of his mind.

The main problem is that he has very little familiarity with the players of this era.

He basically knows all the stars of this era. You see, he had a pretty good chat with Duncan at the All-Star Game. Even if you asked the Trail Blazers to make a trade, they couldn't possibly make one.

He can offer some advice on the draft, but whether or not they can be selected is a matter for management.

After the All-Star Game, Yang Shuai returned to Portland to begin new training.

He unexpectedly gained a wave of points during the All-Star Game, accumulating another 5 points in total.

He redeemed a B-level explosive power, raising the upper limit of his layup to 91.

In addition, his rebounding, dunking, and ball handling have all improved slightly.

He needs to raise all these attributes to their maximum level before the end of the season, which is about a month and a half before the season ends.

It was around this time that Rondo came to Portland and talked to him about the summer.

Because he had studied under Vaccaro before, his collaboration with Vaccaro, who was with Reebok, went very smoothly.

Reebok's summer training camp this year will be held under Yang Shuai's personal name, and Yang Shuai will play the same role that Barkley played back then, acting as a mentor.

Of course, he might need to do more than Barkley did back then, and he might need to play in games.

This is also something that Rondo specifically came over to discuss with Yang Shuai.

Although Yang Shuai is famous now, he is still young, and there will inevitably be young players challenging him in the game.

After all, it's normal to have the mentality that "he's only 2 years older than me," and some people might want to boost their own fame by challenging him.

Moreover, there will be reporters at the training camp, and some people will be recording. It would be a bit embarrassing for Yang Shuai if he gets dunked on or something.

"Confiscate the videotape."

Yang Shuai's smiling words surprised Rondo.

"Just kidding, it doesn't matter."

If Yang Shuai were to worry about something like this, he wouldn't be himself.

Then Rondo and Yang Shuai talked about the players they wanted to acquire in the summer.

Some of the names Yang Shuai had heard of were Tyson Chandler and Dirk Nowitzki.

However, he froze when Rondo mentioned one person's name.

"You were just talking about Yao Ming?"

"Yes, Yao. He participated in Nike's training camp in Paris last year. He is very tall and has a chance to enter the NBA."

It really is Yao Ming! Yang Shuai felt a sense of familiarity she had never experienced before.

Just like when he saw the Chinese team in the Summer League back then, playing in the league and being able to meet someone of the same skin color, who is actually from the same country, is a really different feeling.

However, this surprised him.

He knew that Yao Ming was the number one draft pick in 2002, but it was only 1998 at the time.

Will Yao Ming really be able to come to the US training camp?

"The rest doesn't matter much, but Yao Ming will do his best to win it."

Yang Shuai didn't know if Yao Ming would be able to enter the NBA earlier, but it would be nice to meet him at the training camp.

The following day, the Trail Blazers announced a trade with the Celtics.

The Trail Blazers traded Kenny Anderson and a future first-round draft pick to Chauncey Billups and Dee Brown.

Yang Shuai was woken up from his sleep by Billups' phone call.

When Billups said he was coming to Portland, Yang Shuai thought he was still half asleep.

When he finally woke up, he was a little dazed.

After confirming the deal and finishing his conversation with Billups about meeting in Portland, he still felt somewhat incredulous after hanging up the phone.

Wasn't the previous trade rumor about Stoudemire?
And more importantly, wasn't Billups the third overall pick in the 1997 draft?
The Celtics traded him already?!

Auerbach... well, Auerbach announced his retirement after failing to get him.

But even without Auerbach, you couldn't possibly make such a suffocating trading move, could you?
Yang Shuai thought for a moment, although it seemed that Billups' performance in the last match between the two teams was indeed not very good.

But a rookie is watched for three years, and a third overall pick is thrown away after half a season. Even in his eyes as a time traveler, this is unbelievable.

Did Whitsit hold a knife to someone's throat?

Yang Shuai then called Paul to ask if there were any details he was unaware of.

Indeed, there is such a thing.

The Celtics will put Billups on the trading block partly because Billups' performance has indeed fallen short of expectations for a third overall pick.

比卢普斯本赛季代表凯尔特人队打了51场，首发44场，场均上场25.4分钟得到11.1分2.2板4.3助攻，投篮命中率39%，三分命中率33.9%。

This efficiency is indeed a bit poor, especially considering that this is the performance of a rebuilding team, and the data itself may be inflated.

However, another reason is that Billups was involved in a sexual assault case.

This case is both melodramatic and familiar.

The gist of it is that Celtics player Antoine Walker had a female companion he had known for six months. Perhaps looking for excitement, he invited Billups and Ron Mercer to a nightclub for group sex.

Then, after the woman finished, she sued them.

The reason it's familiar is that, if Yang Shuai remembers correctly, Derrick Rose seems to have had a similar experience, except he played the role of Antoine Walker in such an incident.

It's not that Yang Shuai is racist, but rather that the Black community is truly chaotic.

And now, thinking back to Billups' state of mind when they were eating Rocky Mountain oysters in Denver.

University isn't necessarily that good; Billups clearly got himself into trouble by playing around with too many women.

Paul also provided more details about the deal.

The Trail Blazers originally wanted Stoudemire, but Kenny Anderson didn't want to go to Toronto, and Stoudemire didn't want to play with Yang Shuai.

Yang Shuai: ? ?

He, who was innocently dragged into the controversy, said that he was not familiar with Stoudemire at all.

However, this is not entirely incomprehensible. Yang Shuai received a contract worth hundreds of millions of yuan while Stoudemire did not, and in the end, he still had to work as Yang Shuai's assistant. Stoudemire must have some pride.

Of course, the most crucial reason why the trade didn't go through was that the Trail Blazers also rejected Stoudemire's offer to extend his contract early.

Just then, Billups revealed that incident, and the Trail Blazers immediately changed course.

Although Billups played poorly for the Celtics, a change of scenery can be beneficial. What if he performs well in Portland?

This aligns with the Trail Blazers' initial thinking; they were making plans for the future.

Moreover, in terms of age, although Billups is a rookie, he has played two years of college basketball and at 21 years old, he is even older than Yang Shuai, so his maturity level is not low.

After listening to Paul's entire explanation, Yang Shuai finally understood the situation.

He doesn't care about Billups' personal life; that's his business. He's focused on the football field.

From the perspective of a time traveler, Billups is the future Finals MVP.

Moreover, he and Billups attended the Nike training camp together and even lived in the same dormitory.

When he was injured and hospitalized before, Billups also visited him.

So the final outcome of this deal is definitely good news for him.

(End of this chapter)