noveldrama
Chapter 873 873 538 Tide Play_4
Chapter 873 873 538 Tide Play_4
?Chapter 873: Chapter 538 Tide Play_4 Chapter 873: Chapter 538 Tide Play_4 “Clay Bennett should perhaps consider taking the keys away from Sam Presti,” the reporters at the Seattle Times had had enough.
Facing the external criticism, Presti had nothing to say.
He had staked his reputation on backing Yu Fei mainly because Yu Fei indeed had certain flair in the drafts.
Thus, he believed that these two could definitely make a contribution.
One day later, the 2011 NBA Draft began under the collective scorn of the industry.
Due to too many mid-draft withdrawals, even the lottery picks seemed to lack talent.
As the Wizards had promised, North Carolina’s black shadow Harrison Barnes was selected as the first overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.
Subsequently, the Cavaliers selected the draft’s safest bet—Derrick Williams from the University of Southern California.
The Bucks, intending to trade their draft pick, chose Tristan Thompson as their power forward to fill the void of an impending Pau Gasol departure.
The first four teams made choices that they deemed correct.
The draft henceforth descended into chaos.
NBA teams used a month to confirm this draft’s T1 level.
There were two players at this level, Barnes and Williams, who indeed were selected in the first two picks.
Even for T1, the NBA’s expectation was only from a stable starter to a potential All-Star.
As for the draft’s T2, they were believed to possess the qualities between sixth man and main player on the team.
There were only six who reached this level.
From this, it could be seen just how unfavorably this draft was viewed.
Given such a severely underestimated outlook, teams were very keen on trading their draft rights.
This was an opportunity for small-market power teams facing significant re-signing pressure and frightened by the luxury tax.
The Spurs made a move again.
Last year’s Paul George hadn’t had time to be evaluated, and now, they had traded Goran Dragic and a 2013 first-round pick to the Pistons for the eighth pick, choosing Kemba Walker from the University of Connecticut.
This was an act of desperation from the Spurs; Dragic had grown into a starting point guard averaging 10 points and 5 assists, but his contract season was approaching. At the same time, the Spurs needed to re-sign Duncan and Ginobili and didn’t want to carry three large contracts simultaneously.
That was the original intent of the trade, a small-market team’s passive move to balance their finances, which turned out to be a bad move for a good reason.
After that, the player Yu Fei was most concerned about, Kawhi Leonard, was chosen by the Warriors as the tenth pick in the first round.
Outside the lottery, Jimmy Butler, a hidden gem, was selected by the Miami Heat with the 20th pick in the first round.
When it came to the SuperSonics’ turn, Presti broke through the chaos and chose the most handsome player in the draft—Chandler Parsons, who would also be the most handsome active NBA player.
After this selection, the SuperSonics’ draft day work came to an end.
Presti hoped his choice was the right one.
Time would be the judge of that.
However, Yu Fei had already sent a congratulatory text.
“Outstanding work as always, I like this pick!”
A short sentence instantly put Presti’s mind at ease.
He texted back to Yu Fei: “Frye, it’s time for us to talk about your contract extension.”
“Day after tomorrow,” Yu Fei responded, “I’ll make a trip back to Seattle then.”
A busy off-season was about to begin, and Presti was excited after returning from a year-long break.
The worst thing about the lockout was that it had frozen all personnel moves, but because of this, what should have been two separate off-seasons somehow fortuitously collided into one.
If this year’s draft was second only to the underwhelming year of 2000, then this year’s off-season would be as grand as the summer of 2009.
Led by Dwight Howard, Duncan, Yao Ming, Pau Gasol, Nowitzki…the league’s top big men seemed to have coordinated to all become unrestricted free agents this summer.