The Godfather of Basketball

After the Thunder won the championship, the celebration continued all night.

Tang Tian also stayed with the team members all night, watching the young Fourth Young Master go crazy there, it made him feel like he was back in his youth.

In his previous life, at this age, he had just embarked on the path of basketball coaching, and began to learn and grow step by step in college basketball.

In the past few years in the NBA, I have been busy running around. Because of my open eyes, it is difficult to experience the opportunity to accompany the team to grow slowly.

Also on this night, he chatted with his players the most since the season.

Both Kidd and Maggette are set to retire next season.

On Kidd's side, it is very likely that he will seek a coaching opportunity, and there is a high probability that he will return to the Nets who have played for the longest time in the past.

Maggette wants to enjoy his retirement time.

Among the remaining players, Livingston and Diaw are both preparing to test the waters of this year's free agent market. For them, the contract plus the Thunder's salary space has determined that it will be difficult for them to appear in the Thunder's roster next season. inside.

With four people gone at once, the Thunder's roster has also become tight.

Westbrook is the only point guard left, and the shooting guard is the healthiest. Harden, Sefolosha and Bazemore, small forward Durant and Middleton are basically enough, inside Ibaka, Brown, Tucker, Collison and O'Quinn are not too problematic.

Considering that the lack of reinforcement has already exceeded the salary cap and is infinitely approaching the luxury tax, the Thunder's reinforcements for the new season can only be basic salary contracts and rookies. This is not an easy task for Tang Tian.

After the celebration was over and a day off, the Thunder team started the championship parade in Oklahoma City.

The swarming crowd, the huge battle, the fans in Oklahoma City are no less crazy than the Cleveland before. The fans here had a grand celebration when the Thunder moved to this city five years ago. Parade, now they have won the championship in just five years, their madness is even worse.

"I believe this is the beginning of a dynasty." After the championship parade, on the stage outside the arena, team owner Clayton was full of pride.

His speech also attracted loud cheers from the fans.

The Thunder has a young core lineup, long-term core competitiveness, and Tang Tian, ​​who has incredible management and coaching skills. No one thinks it is impossible to say this.

The grand occasion when the entire league was sniping the Cavaliers will appear again on the Thunder.

After the championship parade was over, Tang Tian took a day off, and then discussed with Jones about the upcoming draft.

The Thunder have two first-round picks this year, one was traded by the Clippers and the other is their own. The Clippers have the 25th pick and the other is their own 28th pick.

In the second round, they only have their 60th pick.

In terms of lineup, the Thunder lacked guards, but the quality of this year's draft was really mediocre. With these picks, Tang Tian was not able to select very suitable candidates like in the past few years.

And after what happened last year, although the inner ghost was eliminated, Tang Tian didn't plan to hold a meeting any more just in case, but discussed with Jones privately.

This avoids news leakage, but the communication between the two people is also relatively limited.

At the end of the discussion, Tang Tian could only shake his head.

This year is really a small draft year, not to mention the second round of treasures, even the top pick, there is no sure candidate.

In the previous life, the Cavaliers used the No. 1 pick to select Bennett, becoming the undisputed No. 1 pick. Now the No. 1 pick belongs to the Magic, and I don't know what choice they will make.

"Can we consider trading a first-round pick for next year's pick?" At the end of the discussion, Jones said directly.

Tang Tian nodded, this is quite a solution.

"There are not many people we can sign in the free market, but we can also try to use draft picks to trade players." Tang Tian broadened his thinking.

Jones nodded. Although the Thunder are limited by the salary cap and cannot sign anyone, the deal can be done.

"You sort out some potential trading plans for me, and we will try our best to get it done during the draft."

Although the final candidate has not been discussed, the basic idea is already in place.

Jones was sorting out, and Tang Tian was not idle either. He flipped through the lineups of each team to see if there were any feasible trading plans.

During this process, a few names attracted him.

Ismail Smith, this guy has a good organization and assists, and he is also a great inspirational guy in the NBA. However, this guy is sinking in the Suns now, and he signed a basic salary contract. The Thunder can play the third point guard. If you improve quickly, you can also play backup point guard.

Kirk Hinrich, Hinrich is an orthodox point guard. He debuted from the Bulls, wandered outside for two years and then returned to the Bulls. Unfortunately, Rose is now injured. The first-round pick Marcus Teague didn't have many chances to play, and the Thunder also had great hopes of winning with the first round.

Jose Barea, this is Tang Tian's old subordinate. After the disintegration of the Mavericks, he has been dawdling in the Timberwolves. Although his statistics are not bad, he is used to playing in the playoffs. It is difficult for a bad team to collect statistics. , The Timberwolves have always liked to hoard rookies, and the Thunder's own 28th pick can probably be replaced.

Jones also found some plans, but none of them were as interesting as Tang Tian's. It seems that he can only look at them in the draft.

One of the biggest changes in this year's draft compared to last year is that the venue is not held at the previous Madison Square Garden in New York, but at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Russian Mikhail Prokhorov has been working on the team's relocation plan since he acquired the Nets in 2010. It was finally officially completed last year. The team changed its name from the New Jersey Nets to the Brooklyn Nets. The center arena is also officially put into use, which also means that New York, like Los Angeles, has two NBA teams.

As a new arena, Prokhorov spent a total of 1 billion US dollars, which is unparalleled even in the United States. The Russians are ambitious and want to squeeze out the Knicks and build the Nets into New York's upstart. Team.

This time the league held the draft here, which is also a kind of support for him. After all, apart from other things, the investment of these funds is a large amount of foreign investment, which is very conducive to economic development.

The day before the draft, Tang Tian also boarded a plane to Brooklyn, New York with Jones, Stevens and other members of the draft team.