LeBron James, your house got robbed.

TNT Studio.

O'Neal held up the Cavaliers' record sheet and offered his opinion.

"As of March 7, the Cavaliers have lost 7 of their last 8 games."

"They currently have a record of 28 wins and 9 losses, which puts them third in the Eastern Conference, compared to the Heat's 30 wins and 9 losses."

"I'm pretty sure they need to make a new trade to find a more suitable backup point guard."

Barkley retorted directly:

"Come on, buddy, are you trying to teach Chen how to trade?"

"He has already secured the title of Executive of the Season."

"Besides, there's only one week left until the trading deadline."

"In my opinion, the Cavaliers just need to patiently wait for Paul to return."

O'Neal casually twirled the ring on his finger and continued speaking:

"They have enough assets, including the Trail Blazers' 13 first-round pick and the Heat's 13 first-round pick."

"They have no reason not to strengthen the squad, considering that the championship window is short."

"It's hard for KG to maintain his current level, after all, he's already a 35-year-old veteran."

Barkley was dazzled by the ring, but he was used to it and shrugged:

"Shaq, trust Chen. He knows better than you how to build a championship team."

"Otherwise, you wouldn't be sitting here with me."

Chen Shuo casually watched TNT's program; he had no intention of making any deals.

Jeremy Lin is good enough as a backup point guard, since Chris Paul will take up most of the playing time once he returns.

What the Cavaliers really lack is a quality wing scorer who can step up and break the deadlock in a stalemate.

The Cavaliers do have some draft picks left, but their salary cap space is basically at its limit.

Paul's contract is worth $1600 million, Chandler's is worth $1300 million, and Garnett's is worth a whopping $2100 million.

The combined salaries of the three individuals amount to a total of 5000 million.

Chandler was signed by Chen Shuo using available space under the cap, the Paul trade was a 6-for-2 deal, and the Garnett trade caused the team's salary to surge by $350 million, directly exceeding the luxury tax threshold.

Aside from these three players, the largest contracts are Ariza's 700 million and Batistuta's 600 million.

All the other players were signed using the rookie exception, minimum salary exception, and mid-level exception.

Even if a team were willing to trade for a suitable star player, the Cavaliers wouldn't have enough contracts to match that.

Therefore, Chen Shuo could only try to help Thompson grow from within.

From a long-term development perspective, once Kawhi Leonard develops into a high-quality one-on-one player, the team's overall system will be quite complete.

However, they will then have to face the challenges of Garnett's aging and Chandler's injuries.

Once the vertical jump rule is introduced, we need to trade Chandler as soon as possible and switch to a small-ball system with one big and four small or even five small players.

When the time comes, Garnett or his successor can directly take the number 5 position. As for the candidate, Chen Shuo has already made preparations.

Coming to his senses, Chen Shuo began to review recent transaction details.

Taking into account the shortened season, the league has extended the trade deadline to March 15.

For any season, the week before the trade deadline is always a peak period for trades.

But so far, the information we've received consists of nothing more than trivial transactions.

The Lakers and Hornets completed a trade, with the Lakers sending Luke Walton, Jason Kapono, and a 12 first-round pick to the Hornets in exchange for Ramon Sessions.

Walton's contract was a bad one, but he only had one year left.

So this trade is essentially exchanging a 12-year first-round pick for Ramon Sessions of the Hornets, which is basically a win-win situation for both sides.

After the Paul trade, the Hornets and Cavaliers have enough point guards to play mahjong together: Kyrie Irving, Vasquez, Jarrett Jack, and Ramon Sessions.

Trading Sessions for a first-round pick was a good move.

If all goes well, the Hornets' roster next year will be something to look forward to.

The Wizards and Nuggets completed a trade, with the Wizards using salary cap space to absorb Nene's contract, sending away the first-generation "half-orc" Nene, and acquiring McGee, who is at the top level below the brain.

Chen Shuo remembered that O'Neal was preparing for the "Shaqtin' a Fool" segment, and unsurprisingly, McGee was still the number one victim.

The funniest part, of course, is that the Clippers, as a third party, gave up a second-round pick and then used it to acquire Nick Young, making their already chaotic roster even more chaotic.

The Clippers are one of the few teams whose team-building strategies Chen Shuo completely couldn't understand.

Completely ignoring the team's structural weakness of lacking playmaking and development, they frantically filled in one isolation player after another.

Rivers' motivational rhetoric is working well; the Clippers still have a chance to barely make the playoffs, at least enough to sell one more round of playoff tickets.

……

Before the season deadline, the Cavaliers faced the Memphis Grizzlies at Quicken Loans Arena.

Following a meeting between Chen Shuo, Paul, Kerr, and Nurse, the Cavaliers coaching staff changed their strategic approach for the next two games.

They started by using Jeremy Lin as the primary point guard, developing the offense through pick-and-rolls between him and Chandler, while Thompson reduced his ball-handling role, only handling the ball in specific situations.

This change directly led to Jeremy Lin's impressive performances of 23 and 30 points in two games, while Klay Thompson's efficiency also began to improve significantly.

The only problem is that the opponents in these two matches were not of high quality.

The Bobcats are having the worst record in NBA history, having won only 5 games so far this season, halfway through.

The Timberwolves are in a slightly better situation, but they still haven't changed their status as a bottom-feeder.

Therefore, whether the changes to the team's tactical system are effective still needs to be tested by a strong team.

This Grizzlies team isn't strong enough to contend for the championship, but they have a complete and balanced roster. They even upset the Spurs last year, making them a formidable opponent.

The starting lineups for both teams were displayed on the large screen at the Quicken Loans Arena.

The Cavaliers replaced the injured Paul with Jeremy Lin.

The Grizzlies also have injury problems, with Randolph out for the season, and Marreese Speights taking his place as the starting power forward.

With Black Bear injured, Speights was called upon to fill the void. He is also an inside player with a strong offensive style but weak defensive style.

Black Bear is better at low-post offense, while Speights has a reliable mid-range shot, and both are excellent rebounders.

Speights spent the entire season with the Grizzlies, playing a low-budget version of Randolph.

The Grizzlies' other four starters are Marc Gasol, Rudy Gay, Tony Allen, and Mike Conley.

Gasol is a European center who combines playmaking, defense, and shooting.

Conley, like Paul, is a traditional point guard who excels at orchestrating the team's offense while also possessing solid defensive abilities.

The Grizzlies' tactics revolve around one inside player and one outside player.

Chen Shuo looked at the players who were positioned on both sides of the center line.

The injured black bear makes the knight much easier to fight.

After all, neither Chandler nor the aging Garnett relied on low-post one-on-one defense as an advantage.

This match is expected to be a meat grinder-like defensive battle.

Only games like this can test whether the Cavaliers' current tactical system is effective.