Bishop of the Devil

The league was shocked, and the Buccaneers' enthusiasm for winning the championship was directly robbed by the news that Paul was put on the shelf.

Richard had already expected this situation.

Players like Paul are a great temptation for any team. Think about Paul being traded by the Clippers at the end of his peak, almost half of the team could be exchanged from the Rockets...

And at that time, Paul had never even touched the floor of the Western Conference Finals.

In this case, Paul is so valuable that it has caused so many teams to rush for him, let alone Paul now.

Paul is extremely young now. His career has just started, but he already has many important honors. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is the number one point guard in the league.

Although Nash led the Suns and had a very stable record, after all, he never led the Suns to a championship, so many fans feel that Paul is better than Nash.

This is actually true. Nash's defense is not at the same level as Paul's. Nash's offensive efficiency is slightly higher than Paul's, but this gap is far from making up for the gap on the defensive end.

The league's No. 1 point guard is about to be traded. It would be strange if teams don't go crazy.

Richard had anticipated this crazy situation, so he asked Miles to be in charge of this transaction. He was only responsible for making the final decision, so as not to waste words with the teams.

It has to be said that Miles is really talented in trading, and he took care of the entire transaction process in an orderly manner. It is no wonder that this guy can help the Warriors build a dynasty in the future.

This is a talent, a real talent.

"BOSS, these are the quotations of each team. Their initial quotation has been rejected by me once. This is their second or even third quotation. Take a look first." Miles took out A form was handed to Richard.

Richard took it over and started to read it carefully.

"The Bulls are willing to offer the No. 1 pick?" Richard smacked his lips and asked with a smile.

Miles nodded, "Yes, in addition to the No. 1 pick, they are also willing to take advantage of Nocioni and a 2009 second-round pick..."

The Bulls are completely crazy. Not only are they willing to take out the precious No. 1 pick, but they are also willing to take out the team's forward and defensive lineman Nocioni, and a second-round pick from 2009.

Nocioni played as a substitute last season because of overlapping positions with Deng Yingqiao. However, as a substitute, he averaged less than 25 minutes per game, but he was able to contribute 13.2 points. The defensive end is also remarkable. After all, Xiao Fei kicked the shoulder and concealed the elbow...

If it weren't for Deng Yingqiao in the Bulls, I'm afraid they would really be reluctant to take out Nocioni.

The Bulls can be said to have spent a lot of money, but if they can really get Paul, they will definitely not lose money.

Although the No. 1 pick is precious, who knows if you will get a parallel import...

In the past five years, although high-quality top picks like James, Howard and Durant have emerged.

But there are also "parallel imports" like Bogut and Bargnani. These two cannot be regarded as parallel imports to be precise, but they are not worthy of the No. 1 pick.

If the No. 1 pick can select players like James and Howard, the Bulls will definitely make money.

The problem now is that no one can guarantee that he will be selected. It is better to get a more reliable Paul. Paul's strength is no worse than these three high-quality No. 1 picks.

The Bulls management must have calculated this account very well. If they can get Paul, there is really no need to risk using the No. 1 pick.

"Let's put it aside for now and look at the offers from other teams." Richard nodded and continued to look at the offers from other teams.

What Richard didn't expect was that although the Heat also submitted an offer, the offer did not include the second pick in their hands.

They are willing to use Haslem, Bai Qiao, the 2009 first-round pick plus a second-round pick to trade Chris Paul.

I have to say that Pat Riley is thinking about good things again...

The Heat's record this year ranks last in the league. At first glance, their pick in 2009 may be very high, but Richard knows that once the Heat get Paul with such a cheap bargaining chip, they can enter the playoffs next year with their eyes closed. Game, the value of these 2009 draft picks will be very small.

"Just rule out the Heat. Riley has sweet dreams all day long and treats people like fools..." Richard smiled disdainfully.

Miles also laughed, knowing that Richard would never look down on the Heat's offer.

In the East, Richard is interested in the Heat and Bulls, mainly because of their draft picks.

However, Richard promised Paul that he would try his best to trade him to the Western Conference. If the Western Conference had similar bargaining chips as the Bulls, Richard would comply with Paul's request and trade him to a Western Conference team.

Richard took a look at the SuperSonics' offer. They were willing to give up the No. 4 pick in 2008 and last season's scoring leader Wilcox in exchange for Chris Paul.

Richard directly ruled out this offer. Wilcox's contract is not small, but his strength is a bit weak. Besides, what the Pirates are most lacking now are inside players.

Next season, the SuperSonics will move to the city and be renamed the Thunder. There will be no Seattle SuperSonics in the league in the future.

Even though the chips provided by the Sonics are not very good, in fact, their desire for Paul is much higher than other teams.

This team is simply miserable. They have very few bargaining chips at hand, and the team's lineup is so weak that it's not worth mentioning.

Richard looked at the Grizzlies' offer again. This offer stunned Richard.

Mike Conley, Hakeem Warrick, Darrell Arthur, Quinton Ross, Marko Yalic, Kwame Brown, and the No. 5 pick in 2008.

"What does the Grizzlies think of our Buccaneers? Is it possible that in their eyes, we are a garbage dump? What kind of garbage are these..." Richard rolled his eyes and said.

With the fifth pick and six outside players, the Grizzlies are going to tear the family apart.

Miles smiled bitterly and said: "Maybe they want to express sincerity as much as possible..."

Richard also became happy, the Grizzlies team is really kind of simple and cute.

Maybe as Miles said, they were afraid that Richard would look down on them, the Grizzlies, so they sent as many people as possible to leave a good impression on Richard and express their sincerity in the transaction.

The Grizzlies really have no advantage in competing for Paul. The most valuable thing they have is the fifth pick.

As for Mike Conley, his draft pick is quite high, but what is more embarrassing is that his performance in his rookie season was far inferior to the top three of Durant, Oden and Horford.

Durant averaged 22+5+4 per game in his rookie season and won the honor of Rookie of the Year.

Oden didn't play as much as Durant, so his statistics were not as good as Durant's, but he also won the honor of the Best Sixth Man.

Even Horford, who did the worst, had a double-double of close to 10+10 in his rookie season...

Conley only has rookie statistics of about 9 points and 4 assists. Although he has always played the starting position in the Grizzlies, his starting position is actually quite unstable and may be replaced by the little steel gun Lowry at any time.

The Grizzlies do not lack point guards, but they lack a point guard like Paul who can lead the team to victory.

Conley's performance last season was actually no better than Lowry's. Their statistics were almost exactly the same...

And Lowry is also a newcomer. The Grizzlies' current idea is to take out Conley, who seems to have higher value, but is no better than Lowry, in exchange for Paul, and then let Lowry serve as Paul's substitute.

Of course, Lowry can also be sold to get some chips to strengthen the team's lineup.

Richard could roughly guess the Grizzlies management's plan. In fact, there was nothing wrong with their plan, but they just had bad luck.

If you want to say which team in the league is toxic, it must be the Grizzlies.

Their toxicity is not something that happens in a day or two, but they do toxic things for several years in a row.

…

He had just played less than half of the game last season and sold the team's leader. This made people speechless.

In this 2008 draft, the Grizzlies actually did something toxic.

They selected Kevin Love with the fifth pick, and then reached a deal with the Timberwolves, trading Love for OJ Mayo...

I have to admit that Mayo is indeed a basketball genius, but he has too many problems.

Totally a thorn in the side.

The first is his drug problem. This guy has been caught taking drugs more than once by the league. The first time, the league was gentle and only suspended him for ten games.

Later, he was caught using banned substances on a plane. By 2016, this guy had been caught countless times and was banned by the league for two years.

In addition to the doping problem, this guy's character is also a huge problem. During an away game, he got into a fight with his teammate Tony Allen on the plane...

The most important thing is that he also has a lot of injury problems.

With so many problems gathered together, even if he is a Jordan-level basketball genius, he will definitely be indifferent.

Just imagine if the Grizzlies had chosen to keep Love, the Grizzlies' fate might have been completely different.

Love is not a historical power forward, but he is responsible. Otherwise, why would he have the nickname Guo Fu...

He can be both inside and outside, and his ability to explode statistics is also strong. After all, he is a 30+30 player.

He has a good personality, but I have never heard of Guo Fu being at odds with his teammates.

…

Of course, the Grizzlies have many more toxic things, such as renewing Conley with the largest contract in history, such as signing Chandler Parsons to the maximum salary...

Although Conley is good, that contract also restricted the Grizzlies' future signings, causing the team to fall apart.

"Miles, go have a talk with the grizzly bear."

"Among these six players, except for Kwame Brown, I don't want anyone else. You ask the Grizzlies to exchange the remaining five players for a first-round pick, preferably in 10 or 11 years. "Richard said with approval.