Chapter 1190 1189. Prelude to Drastic Change
Liu Mang was unanimously elected MVP, and the explosive strength shown by the Hawks after losing a game had a huge impact on the league.
This summer, Liu Mang, who finished his fifth season in his professional career, was only 24 years old. With Liu Mang's "flexible" playing style, people have no doubt that he can maintain his peak until he is 32 or 33 years old. Moreover, his three most famous teachers are Jordan and the two evil spirits. These are old and strong types of celebrities who can still play as the core of a weak team at the age of 40 and can still win the regular season MVP at the age of 35 or 36. They taught Liu Mang how to protect his body and how to continue his peak period. If Liu Mang is still an MVP competitor at the age of 35 or 36, people will not find it strange at all.
Even if Liu Mang is a yellow man, the continuity of his state is questionable, but people still believe that he can maintain MVP-level strength at the age of 32 or 33.
Then the question is, Liu Mang will only be 24 years old after this season and before the World Championships in the summer, so he still has at least eight years of peak period. Liu Mang is also an iron man-level player. In the next eight or nine years, Liu Mang will be one of the best players in the league.
The young talent and draft vision of the Hawks can keep a strong lineup for Liu Mang to compete for MVP and championship during the Hawks captain period.
For some stars who did not enter the playoffs and have been eliminated in the playoffs, they saw Liu Mang unanimously elected MVP and began to take their own actions.
Ben Wallace, whose contract expired, has begun to look for a new team. After Billups was swept in the first round, he applied for a trade to the Pistons management.
The Pistons management was very happy and announced that anyone except Chris Bosh could be used as a bargaining chip.
Bosh said that it was unfortunate because he and Liu Mang were in the same division and had a championship-level lineup, but they were killed by the Hawks in their best year last season.
But compared with the other four of the 2003 Five Greats, he was very lucky. In the first year of his career, he played for a team ranked in the top three in the division, and for three seasons, he was ranked in the top three in the Eastern Conference.
After playing for three years with a group of big brothers, Bosh himself had become the strongest player of the Pistons, and the Pistons just collapsed and were ready to build a team around him.
Bosh needed attention very much, so he wanted to be the boss. In the original time and space, he and Carter had conflicts in Toronto because he wanted the spotlight. The biggest reason for joining the Heat was that he could have more national live broadcasts by playing with Wade in Miami, and James was the last giant to join the Heat.
For the Pistons management, if the previous lineup could not break through the Eastern Conference, then they would not want to spend so much money anymore, and simply start rebuilding around Bosh.
Billups, Hamilton, and Delfino are all good bargaining chips, and there are still some players on the bench who can be traded.
If a team wants Ben Wallace but does not have enough salary space, the Pistons can still take on some expiring contracts and sign and trade Ben Wallace. Although it is not allowed to calculate the amount of the contract before the sign-and-trade, it is still possible to trade on an equal basis. It is still good for the Pistons to take on expiring contracts to get draft picks.
Now the draft picks have been driven up by the Hawks.
After the Pacers were eliminated in the first round, the management discussed for a few days. Although they were very reluctant to part with this core three-core lineup that seemed to be at its peak, there was no other way. O'Neal, Stephen Jackson, and Artest were all on the shelf, and they could only rebuild and play badly.
It is not in Larry Bird's character to keep dragging it on. Now there is a chance to enter the playoffs every year, but there is absolutely no possibility of going further.
After the Sonics were eliminated in the first round, their management began to further the process of team share trading. Their boss could no longer drag it on, and the rumors of the Sonics trading were extinguished.
The Hornets with Paul, the Raptors with Milicic, and the Bulls with a group of quasi-first-class stars all began to look for stars. They have draft picks and talents from the past. Especially the Bulls, as long as Kobe is willing to leave, they can even put together a lineup that will satisfy the Lakers to exchange Kobe.
There are 10 teams in the league that have advanced to the second round and have not yet finished the first round. Half of the remaining 20 teams have started their own actions.
This is a rare regular season in NBA history. Just half a month after the end of the season, a large number of teams want to trade and a large number of stars want to change teams, and they are very urgent.
The reason lies in the pressure of the Hawks.
Many stars can't wait to defeat the Hawks!
There are three ways to make a talented team like the Hawks collapse.
One is to use money and team attraction to dig away their players.
This method is the most direct, but it is not very effective for the Hawks. Atlanta is one of the most livable cities in the United States. It is one of the top ten cities in the United States in terms of economy. The owner of the Hawks has made a lot of money with Liu Mang and is willing to spend money, unlike the owner of the Rockets.
It is unlikely to poach people by force. We can only start by giving more opportunities, but it is not easy. Among their rookies, only Prince will expire after this season. The others have at least one to two years of rookie contracts. It is easy for the Hawks to keep Prince. A contract extension will not have much impact on the flexibility of the Hawks' lineup.
The second method is to wait for the Hawks to fight among themselves, just like the Pacers, who had a fight, blamed each other, and the team's spiritual leader retired. No one could reconcile, and they collapsed.
The Pacers were purely natural and man-made disasters, and they were unlucky, just like Elgin Baylor played 9 games in his last season. The team started with a wave of losses and only won 4 games in 9 games. Baylor felt that he was no longer good, and the team was no longer good, so he chose to retire.
As a result, as soon as he retired, his teammates were like chicken blood. The Lakers immediately played a 33-game winning streak and played a 45-8 half-season record. That is, after Baylor retired, the Lakers played a crazy record of 41 wins and 3 losses, including a 33-game winning streak.
The cursed situation of Reggie Miller and Elgin Baylor is too rare. Expecting this is like praying to God, which is illusory.
The last simple and crude way is to beat them until they don't want to work together, just like the Pistons, who were beaten by Liu Mang for four consecutive years. In the fifth year, the Pistons completely collapsed.
If you want to deal with Liu Mang, who is sure to have a long career, you have to limit the strength of his teammates and break them down...
This is a very constructive method. Many teams and many stars have tried it, such as Yao Ming teaming up with Kobe.
Perhaps there is another way, that is to join with a salary reduction. Other stars get a 15 million contract, and he joins with 10 million...
Generally speaking, the stars who may do this are the top stars in the league, because only the top and popular stars will not care so much about salary.
And it is almost impossible for a superstar to do this. Face is still needed, just like Reggie Miller. In the last year, the Pacers fans wanted him to join the Hawks, but he himself was unwilling. Stockton was dug up by the Hawks coach Kruger after being rejected twice in a row and Liu Mang's relationship.
Ordinary stars don't have the time to join a strong team for the championship at a young age. When they get old, they just need to cling to someone. They don't have time to make more money.
So under the current situation, the league's first-line, top, and super-giant stars who want to change teams have no intention of joining the Hawks. They are all looking for other possible ways to win the championship.
That is, the first choice of current superstars, top stars, and first-class stars is the third way.
If you can't beat him, find a helper to kill him!
The players' goals are very clear. For example, Garnett's idea is still traditional. He wants a helper like McGrady around Liu Mang, Yao Ming around Kobe, and O'Neal around Wade. If it doesn't work, just two All-Star teammates will do.
In the eyes of the current superstars, Liu Mang's main helper is McGrady, just like Jordan obviously has other All-Stars and even the best defensive players besides McGrady, but in the eyes of the stars at that time, Jordan's helper is Pippen.
Superstars at their peak have a kind of confidence. They are confident that they can make their teammates better.
As for the helpers around Liu Mang, except for McGrady, who was relatively successful in leading the Magic team, had a scoring title, won the first team, and was a top ten player in the league in exchange for Rahim by the Hawks, the other Jason Terry and Rasheed Wallace were all players who were originally frustrated or called cancer, and Kwame Brown was even a fake.
In the eyes of superstars, Liu Mang's real helper is McGrady, and the others are just extras. They believe that even if they change a group of role players, Liu Mang can still bring them out in one or two years.
So the first goal of a superstar like Garnett is not to find two ordinary All-Stars, but to find a superstar. A pile of change together is definitely not as tempting as a hundred-dollar bill.
Just like Garnett plus Pierce, you need Ray Allen and a lot of other people, while Duncan plus David Robinson, just a group of role players, don't necessarily need a third star, team building will be simpler, Ray Allen is only a top star, but his salary is the same as Pierce and Garnett, which will inevitably have a certain impact on team building, just like the Heat Big Three in the original time and space, except for the big players, there is no money for role players.
Just when the league was messed up by Liu Mang's unanimous MVP, and trade rumors and team change rumors were flying all over the place, the second round opponent series tiebreaker that the Hawks had been waiting for was about to begin.