LeBron James, your house got robbed.

Chapter 119 The 2012 Draft (Part 2)

Boston acquired Harden in a trade, but then traded away the 9th and 10th picks in quick succession, clearly indicating a long-term development plan.

Chen Shuo's eyes sharpened, and he looked up to ask Grant, who was standing next to him.

"Chris, how many players are left on the Celtics roster?"

Upon hearing this, Grant didn't ask any further questions. He got up and directly called over the scout in charge of the back row.

He looked to be in his early twenties. The lean, white young man, wearing black-rimmed glasses, opened his laptop and repeatedly checked the information before speaking: "They currently only have five players with confirmed contracts: Rondo, Bradley, Bass, Wilcox, and Richard Jefferson."

"After the trade, Bradley left the team, and Harden—"

Chen Shuo interrupted the scout, "Bob, just tell me how much salary cap space they have right now?"

Scout Bob glanced at the computer again and gave a very accurate answer.

"After trading Harden, the Celtics' total salary is $3587 million."

Chen Shuo now understood the Celtics' plan.

The salary cap for the new season remains unchanged: $5804 million - $3587 million = $2217 million, which is enough to do a lot of things.

It's almost exactly the same situation Chen Shuo was in with the Cavaliers last year: plenty of draft picks and ample salary cap space.

Chen Shuo briefly thought about it.

This year, there's only one big fish that Anji can be satisfied with in the market.

"Their target is Howard, with Richard Jefferson's $1000 million contract as a matching offer, and a large number of draft picks as trade bait."

"After acquiring Howard's contract worth around $1900 million, they estimate they will have $1300 million in cap space remaining."

"They have enough people to fill in a lot of good, high-quality puzzle pieces, and they also have middle-class exceptions and biennial exceptions to continue to fill positions."

Kerr turned his attention away from the draft on the screen; they were still far from Chen Shuo's goal.

"The only problem lies with Howard's own wishes."

Kerr explained to Chen Shuo, "He only has one year left on his contract. If Dwight Howard himself is unwilling, he may leave during the 13 offseason."

Chen Shuo spread his hands and casually said, "So they should be prepared for both possibilities. If they can get Howard's contract extension commitment, they will be the strongest contenders and will complete their rebuild in a short time to challenge for the championship."

"If Plan A fails, they can continue to accumulate talent, while Stevens will need some time to adapt and explore, using this time to clarify his thinking on building the system."

Although Chen Shuo felt the lineup of Rondo, Harden, and Howard was a bit awkward, their pure strength was undeniable.

The most important thing is that this team is the Celtics. The same roster would have completely different results if given to different teams.

The Celtics have the best front office and team culture in the league.

When it comes to strengthening the team, it's not like the Rockets' stingy approach. If they see an opportunity, Ainge will definitely go all in for a big win.

This lineup is still worth considering.

The group casually added details in a few words, basically outlining the old fox Angie's team-building strategy.

"Their biggest competitor should be the Lakers. There have been rumors for a long time that the Lakers are willing to use Bynum as a trade asset."

"That's right, Jim Buss can't make decisions anymore. Jim Buss is very anxious and wants to achieve results as soon as possible, otherwise his position will be unstable."

Tyronn Lue casually steered the conversation toward the power struggles in Los Angeles, and even Nurse, who had stopped paying attention to the draft, joined in the discussion.

Chen Shuo shrugged and spread his hands, thinking that gossiping was indeed a universal human trait.

This can be considered a yellow-green battle in another sense, a fierce struggle with Howard as the prize.

On one side is the old fox of Boston, who dismantled the Big Three in an attempt to revive the team; on the other side is the Lakers' crown prince, who has just inherited the throne and is eager to prove himself.

Chen Shuo was quite aware of the power struggles within the Lakers organization.

On the one hand, as the general manager, he could obtain more inside information; on the other hand, with his "divine eye," he could also see a lot from interviews and interviews in later generations. With these two pieces of evidence, the general picture could be basically restored.

In Chen Shuo's view, the root cause of the Lakers' long period of chaos was Buss's indecisiveness.

Even Jerry Buss, the father who led the Los Angeles Lakers, couldn't escape the common desire for his children to work together to inherit and carry on the family business.

Therefore, Jerry Buss divided the team's shares into six equal parts and distributed them among his six children through a family trust, meaning that the highest power comes from the vote of the family trust.

That's not even the worst of it.

The problem lies in team management; Jerry Buss has been wavering between Jeanie Buss and Jim Buss.

Ultimately, it was decided that Jenny and Jim would share power.

Jim was in charge of all basketball affairs, while Jeanie was in charge of business and external affairs.

The NBA requires each team to have an owner participate in the Board of Governors to vote on all matters, big and small, within the league.

The league doesn't care about the internal power structure of the teams. The NBA office is only responsible to the team owner. For the Lakers now, that person is still Jerry Buss, but soon it will be Jeanie Buss.

In other words, from the NBA's perspective, Jeanie Buss is the owner of the Lakers.

But Jerry Buss put Jim in charge of all basketball affairs, which is where the disagreement arose, leading to four years of internal strife within the Lakers.

This internal strife swept through the entire Lakers team from top to bottom, and no one was spared, whether it was the Lakers' general manager, the current or former coach, or whether you were a Lakers star or a legend.

The four leaders were the first act in this major power struggle.

If Jim hadn't been so eager to achieve quick results and forcibly created an incompatible "Big Four," perhaps Kobe's Achilles tendon wouldn't have ruptured so early, and the Lakers could at least have maintained some semblance of dignity.

If Ainge can really convince Howard, it might not be a bad thing for the Lakers.

Compared to Los Angeles, where dramatic soap operas abound, Boston's meticulous and professional team truly offers Howard a chance to fully unleash his talent.

Chen Shuo could clearly feel the vitality of the Lakers and Celtics, two top powerhouses. This had nothing to do with the strength of the teams, but rather with the accumulation and development over a long period of time, which made people feel that the teams truly had their own unique character.

Los Angeles should be full of superstars, constantly bickering and drama, while the Celtics are quiet, ruthless, and arrogant.

So what should a knight be like?

Breaking news: The Warriors and the Kings have made a trade.

Grant's words slowly brought Chen Shuo back to his senses.

"Could it be related to Fredette?"

Grant wasn't surprised that Chen Shuo could guess it; after all, this guy was like a prophet, so it wasn't surprising that he could guess these things.

"The Warriors traded Jimmer Fredette to the Kings, receiving the Kings' 26th overall pick and a second-round pick in return."

"This first-round pick is the one we traded to the Kings last year, and we have the right to trade it with the Heat."

"They used their trade rights and traded with the Heat, so they got the 26th pick, and the Heat got the 30th pick, which corresponds to our record."

Wang Guan was truly persistent; after a series of maneuvers, he brought Lonely God back, so in the end, the King's loss wasn't that great.

They got the players they wanted to draft in the first round of 11 and 12, but they were missing one in the first round of next year's draft. Chen Shuo remembered that 13 was a weak draft year, so it didn't matter much.

With Curry out for the season and Ellis traded away, the Warriors gave Lonely Ball a lot more playing time. Regardless of his skill level, his stats were certainly inflated; otherwise, the Kings wouldn't have been so eager to take him on.

But what was the Warriors thinking when they suddenly got the 26th pick?

Chen Shuo suddenly had a bad feeling.

The Cavaliers acquired the 27th pick in a trade with the Celtics.

Chen Shuo quickly recalled a series of events.

In the original timeline, the Warriors should have drafted three rookies.

Besides Barnes, there are also Drummond Green and Festus Ezeli.

Dream is definitely a second-round pick, and Chen Shuo's 27th pick should have been a sure thing.

But with Chen Shuo changing so much, it's hard to say that no unexpected things happened.

Chen Shuo quickly looked up at the list on the screen. Aside from changes in Beal and Waiters, the draft hadn't changed much, especially the Clippers' 10...

After getting Austin Rivers with the first pick, the subsequent 10 picks looked exactly the same as Chen Shuo remembered.

Is this the will to correct the world?

Or perhaps it's the inertia of the original timeline at work.

Following this logic, the Warriors are more likely to choose Ezeli.

In the 2012 NBA draft, the Boston Celtics selected—

'

Jared Salinger

There were still four spots left, Chen Shuo looked at Grant.

"Contact the teams ahead of us, use the 27th pick we got from the Celtics, plus the second round as trade bait, and I want this pick before the 26th pick."

"quick."