69novels Chapter 147
Chapter 147
The first time he did so was when Auerbach asked for the price of Ron Harper, the main point guard of the Chicago Bulls last year! Ron Harper is a perfect fit for the Celtics. He has three-point shooting, defense, good organization, and rare championship experience. However, the Bulls asked for Tracy McGrady. Auerbach hung up the phone without saying a word. Are you kidding? Although Ron Harper is good at both offense and defense, he may surpass McGrady in terms of combat effectiveness and help in the playoffs, but you, Ron Harper, are not 26 years old, but 36 years old! If it was Harper, who was 26 years old and had not been seriously injured, Auerbach might indeed be tempted, but now? You, an old guy who can play for two or three years at most, want to trade for 19-year-old McGrady whose talent is already blinding?
What do you want?
From the perspective of equal exchange, this is of course a loss, but there are still many big-headed ghosts in the NBA. There are really people who are obsessed with championship experience. For example, on the second day of the free trade market, the Spurs announced that they had traded with the Bulls for 34-year-old Steve Kerr for a 2000 first-round pick + Chuck Person!
This price is not cheap!
But in order to win the championship, the San Antonio Spurs have obviously put everything on the line!
And Auerbach also signed a shooter with the same attributes as Kerr: Dell Curry!
It's just that the cost is much lower. The price of 10 million for 3 years made Dell Curry's parent team, the Charlotte Hornets, crazy and refused to match.
For the Celtics, although the price is not low, the Celtics can afford it because their main lineup is in the full rookie bonus period.
Of course, in this case, Auerbach is still very kind. Seeing that Dell Curry's parent team, the Charlotte Hornets, lacks a power forward with size and offensive ability, he chose to sign first and then trade when he could have signed Dell Curry naked!
Using Derrick Coleman's expiring contract to trade Dell Curry with the Hornets, a sign-and-trade, of course, this kind of behavior that could have been eaten directly but did good things will definitely be rewarded.
In the end, the Celtics exchanged Derrick Coleman for Dell Curry, plus a second-round pick for the Hornets next year!
In terms of personal ability, Derrick Coleman can naturally play Dell Curry. Even in the limited substitute playing time last season, Coleman can still score 15 points with a hit rate of 60%.
The only problem is that this guy has become fat again. If he wants to recover to the state where he can play, it will probably take two months!
After trading away Derrick Coleman, the team's highest-paid player, the Celtics' salary became super healthy!
1998-1999 season:
Han Yi: $3.5 million! Tracy McGrady: $1.7 million! Ben Wallace: $500,000! Stephen Jackson: $440,000.
Walter McCarty: $860,000! Manu Ginobili: $400,000! Brad Miller: $330,000.
Dana Barros: $3.6 million, Tyreon Knight: $2.8 million. Dell Curry: $2.4 million.
Currently, the Celtics have 10 people under contract, with a total salary of $16.53 million.
What a concept, the total salary of all the people is just a little more than Shaquille O'Neal, who earns $15.5 million this year.
Patrick Ewing's salary this year is $18.5 million, and his contract alone exceeds Han Yi's entire team!
And the salary cap for this season is $30 million!
The current total salary of the Celtics is just a little more than half of the salary cap. There is nothing else to say, just rich!
In terms of tradable chips, we Celtics really can't come up with any chips, but we are really rich!
"Joe!" Auerbach raised his red wine glass in his private estate and said to Joe Dumars, who looked alert, with a smile:
"You know even if I don't tell you that at your age, it is impossible for you to accompany the Pistons to the top again. You are already 36 years old. Although you were in good shape last season, you are still too old."
"What do you mean?" Joe Dumars said puzzledly: "Everyone knows that I am very old, you don't need to tell me, and no matter how old I am, I am much younger than you, who is buried up to your neck in the dirt."
Du
There was a sting in Maas's words, but Auerbach didn't care at all and continued:
"I heard that the new contract offered by the Pistons is 1 million US dollars a year. For you, the absolute leader of the Pistons, this price is not sincere at all!"
"What do you care?" Joe Dumars said: "We are not close enough to sit here and talk about these things!"
"How can it be irrelevant? 5 million for two years, our Celtics team sincerely invites you to join and become the new brain of our Celtics!"
"You should know that I will not leave the Pistons. In the early years, more than one team wanted to invite me to join with a high salary, but I rejected them one by one."
"I don't like to beat around the bush. Your average annual salary in your career is less than 2 million a year. The past three years are the peak of your career salary, which is only 12 million in three years. Our Celtics can give you a maximum of 8 million in three years. For a 36-year-old veteran, it is already full of sincerity. "Full."
"Humph!" Joe Dumars sneered: "You know, I play basketball not just for money."
"Yes," Auerbach laughed: "We spent a lot of money to invite you, not for money, inviting you here, there is only one purpose, that is to win the championship!"
"We Celtics want to win at least one championship in the last three years of your career!"
"The last championship?" Joe Dumars laughed: "What a big tone, your Celtics' glory was in the 1980s, not now."
"Same here, aren't you the Pistons who are beaten by the Chicago Bulls every day?" Auerbach no longer gave in at this time, and said in a very affirmative tone:
"I am sure there is a reason for our championship, that is Han Yi!"
Joe Dumars frowned: "Han Yi, right..."
...
Two days later, the newspaper headline said that the Celtics had dug up Joe Thomas, the team totem of the Detroit Pistons, for 8 million in 3 years!
The NBA world was in an uproar!
The last member of the Detroit Pistons' Bad Boys actually chose to leave Detroit?
This guy is indeed an outlier among the Bad Boys!
When the Heat's head coach Pat Riley heard the news, he was stunned and slumped in his chair:
"It's bad, the Celtics have an organizational brain this time, and they will become the scourge of the East this season!"
When Han Yi saw this news, he sighed:
"Dumars is confused, this time your one-man-one-city award is gone!"