Jordan: I thought he was there to help me!

Chapter 638 The Knicks' new season roster is confirmed! The Pistons are...

89: 70!

If the Greek team is a perfectly functioning program without any bugs or loopholes, then Lin Tian is a barbarian wielding a giant hammer.

A barrage of "bang! bang! bang!" smashed your computer to pieces. No matter how perfectly it was running, no one could escape the program and deal with Lin Tian's physical destruction. So what could you do?

In basketball, sometimes the most illogical playing style is the most logical solution!

That night, Lin Tian exploded for 44 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists, single-handedly dismantling the entire Greek defense. He then went up against Greece's two star guards, Papaloukas and Svanoris, and completely outplayed them.

A dominant performance!

Under Lin Tian's leadership, the Chinese team won their fourth consecutive world championship!

Two Olympic gold medals, two World Championship titles.

After four consecutive world championships, no one has any excuse or reason to question the Chinese team anymore.

They are the strongest basketball team in the world today!

They are the behemoths and super dragons of the world basketball scene today!

Want a gold medal? Then come and give it a try!

What makes the Hebei China Fortune team truly unquestionable this year is that they encountered various difficulties during their previous three championship wins.

Sometimes it's the American team, sometimes it's another team; they're always pushed to the brink and then barely manage to win despite immense hardship.

Some say it was just good luck, while others say it was just because they scored one or two more goals.

But this year, everyone is speechless!

This year, no team has really caused Hebei China Fortune any real trouble!

In their 5 group stage and 4 knockout stage matches, the Chinese team won by an average of 39.6 points. Even in the final and semi-final, they won by more than 20 points!

Some of these matches, such as the 70-point thrashing of Angola and the 55-point victory over Italy, were completely one-sided and broke various records.

This year, no one can rival the Chinese team, not a single one!

They are the kings who stand above all others and are far ahead of all other teams!

As for what would happen to them if they didn't have Lin Tian?

Lin Tian exclaimed: Why do you have to remove "I" from my name?! Shameless!

Filled with the glory of four championships and overflowing with excitement, Lin Tian led the entire Chinese team and quietly infiltrated the Kabukicho district of Tokyo.

Now that we've won, it's time to teach the brothers a lesson!

Then?

Then Yao Ming was the first to run away.

"Ye Zi is still at the hotel."

Then, he and a few of his old buddies from the Bayi team also ran away.

Then Zhu Fangyu, Chen Jianghua, and Wang Shipeng also ran away.

"They messaged me saying that if I didn't leave, we'd be in trouble. Bro, I feel bad about not fitting in."

In the end, only Lin Tian sat down; the rest of the people ran away.

"A bunch of spineless cowards, pretending to be innocent and pure like me. Anyone who didn't know better would think these guys never drink or go out."

Lin Tian didn't care about any of that. After two months of competition, couldn't he at least enjoy himself a bit?

You must enjoy it!

As for how Lin Tian enjoyed himself, and how happy he was spending the night alone?

It cannot be spoken of!

Because the author has never been to Japan to explore its culture and has never experienced the most authentic Japanese atmosphere.

Another day, another day after I go there, I will definitely make up for this happy moment.

……

In early September, after spending a few days in Beijing with his father and grandfather, Lin Tian finally boarded a plane to New York.

The new season's training camp is about to begin!

As the defending champions, the Knicks face a huge challenge!

They have a lot of work to do, including readjusting their teamwork and seeing if everyone has trained hard and improved their skills during the offseason.

The good news is that the Knicks didn't lose any key rotation players or bring in any big names during the offseason. They've maintained their form from last season, made minor adjustments, and are trying to defend their title with their current roster!

This is actually a normal thing.

Which team would bother adjusting its roster after securing the top seed in the league and achieving a 16-game playoff winning streak?

Maintaining the status quo as much as possible is the best way to strengthen the system!

As for the biggest change in the Knicks this year, it's that Mourning left.

The veteran, who finally achieved his goal, chose to retire gracefully and left New York.

Although he hasn't announced his retirement yet, everyone knows that this guy is just waiting for the season to start so he can sign a one-day contract or something with the Heat and eventually retire as a Heat player.

This guy and Riley are quite a pair of master and apprentice with a story.

In terms of new players, in addition to drafting Shannon Brown, a high-flying player, the team also brought in a former top star.

Grant Hill!

This guy's super long contract with the Magic has finally expired. Although he's quite nostalgic and said he's gotten used to life with the Magic, he's willing to sign a smaller contract to retire here and mentor others.

Given Hill's performance last season, signing another mid-level contract would be absolutely no problem for him.

Of course, this is without looking at his injury history. If you include his injury history, then he can only get the basic salary.

After all, he was injured again last season and only played about 20 games in total.

In all his years with the Magic, he only had one healthy season, and that was the lottery season when he was leading the team alone after all the big names had left.

His magic career was truly a complete disaster.

The Magic's management seems to think so too.

Why did Hill stay with the team for so many years, constantly plagued by injuries and never playing properly? He also caused several of the team's star players to leave for various reasons, turning the team's ambitious team-building efforts into a joke.

So, the management said: It's all your fault. You and Orlando are incompatible in terms of birth charts, feng shui, zodiac signs, and blood types.

In short, they would rather let Hill run around naked than give him a contract slightly above the minimum salary.

Hill, who had been kicked out of the team, had even considered retiring, but then he remembered Lin Tian's suggestion that he could come to the Knicks.

Then, without considering whether Lin Tian was just saying it casually or really needed him, he directly had his agent contact Walsh to express his desire to join the company.

Although Hill only played 21 games last season, he still averaged 15 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists per game. The season before that, which was Hill's only healthy season with the Magic, he was able to contribute about 20 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists per game!

Even though Hill is already old and has been sidelined for a year due to a knee injury, he certainly won't be able to return to his peak condition even though he's almost 35.

But clearly, as long as this guy can stay healthy next season, or even not for the entire season, and can play 40 regular season games plus playoff games, Walsh's signing will be a huge win!

If they can't play 40 games, playing 30 is still okay. If they can't play 30 games, then the Knicks won't lose out.

After all, which team doesn't need a 15th man to fill out their roster?

Regardless of Hill's condition or health next season, these changes are minor for the Knicks. They have largely maintained 90% of their championship-winning roster!

Center forwards: Mehmet Okur, Nazir Muhammad

Power Forwards: Amar'e Stoudemire, Josh Smith, Michael Swettney

Small Forwards: Carmelo Anthony, Gerald Wallace, Trevor Ariza

Shooting Guards: Allan Houston, Matt Barnes, Grant Hill, Shannon Brown

Point guards: Lin Tian, ​​Charlie Ward, Nate Robinson

This roster clearly shows that the Knicks lack interior players! Especially at the center position, the team only has Okur as a reliable player.

But Walsh really didn't add a single center during the offseason; instead, he signed Hill and Brown.

The team already has enough players at positions 2 and 3 to play a game of mahjong, yet this guy still brought in two more swingmen at positions 2 and 3.

All I can say is that Walsh has a really big heart!

God knows what this guy has been doing these past few months.

However, Lin Tian wasn't dissatisfied with the team's current roster; he just thought it was fun.

This is just like Jiang Ziya fishing – only those who are willing will take the bait!

That's the Knicks, that's Dolan. If he were anywhere else, he'd probably fire Walsh, a general manager who takes the money but doesn't do his job, in no time.

With the team's annual salary of 9000 million and luxury tax of 6000 million, he can rest easy without strengthening the team or cutting expenses.

Even Lin Tian couldn't help but wonder: Could this kid be Dolan's gigolo?

The Knicks really didn't make any moves during the offseason, but that doesn't mean other teams didn't!

This offseason saw several trades that were enough to reshape the league and startle many fans and management!

The alliance's structure has once again undergone a massive upheaval and change.

First, the Pistons broke up!

They failed to reach a contract extension agreement with Larry Brown, who resigned in anger and then joined Charlotte to team up with Jordan, becoming the second head coach in Bobcats history!

However, if it were just Larry Brown leaving, the Pistons would hardly be considered to have fallen apart. As long as the players are still there, finding a defensive-minded head coach wouldn't be too difficult.

The difficulty lies in the fact that Ben's contract has also expired! This sentimental guy doesn't really want to test the waters in the free market; he doesn't want to inquire about prices everywhere to determine his worth.

He went directly to the Pistons' management, Joe Dumars, hoping Dumars could give him a suitable offer. He wanted to gain respect and finish his career with the Pistons.

No one knows what the two talked about in the office, nor how much they discussed the contract.

But one thing is certain: when Ben Affleck pushed open the office door two hours later, his eyes were red, and so were Dumas's.

Then that very night, Ben Wallace invited several of the team's closest friends to his home.

Rasheed, Billups, Hamilton, Artest, Wells...

A group of grown men drank an unknown amount of alcohol at Ben's house, but everyone was absolutely drunk.

"We'll be together again! The Detroit Men will never disband!"

Youth may fade, but feelings will never end!

"Damn it, those bastards in management dare to touch my brothers? Don't they know my brothers are my wings? I'm going to tear their entire paradise down!"

"We must reunite! We must get together and drink again!"

"From now on, we'll have a get-together every off-season, no one can be missing, and no one can skip it!"

"Run forward, for ideals and pride..."

Yeah, they can't sing that.

"My dreams always seem so far away, should I give up...?"

Oh... they don't know that either.

Anyway, they started singing.

The reason for using these two songs as examples is that Lin Tian couldn't understand what they were singing, but he figured they must have similar themes and lyrics.

As for why Lin Tian knew about this?

Lin Tian said: I don't fucking want to know either!

God knows why those bastards got drunk and called him, then cried, yelled, and sang with Lin Tian on the phone.

Lin Da Guanren said: I felt your friendship, but I also suffered a critical hit of 10,000 points.

It sounds awful! And it's so noisy.

However, Lin Tian didn't hang up. Who knows how many more calls these people would make if he did?

Anyway, Lin Tian hid his phone in the blanket, hid the blanket in the closet, and then closed the closet door tightly.

After all, the World Championships hadn't even started when they made the call! It was back in July, when Lin Tian and the Chinese team were training in Europe.

Anyway, no matter how reluctant these people were to part ways, the next morning, Ben released the news that he was testing the waters in the free market and seeking a big contract.

A player of his caliber, a top-tier blue-collar worker and best defensive player, is absolutely a hot commodity on the free agent market!

After all, he doesn't occupy any ball possession, hardly affects any team's offensive system, and can single-handedly support an entire defensive system.

More importantly, Ben Wallace has proven himself to be the perfect piece of the championship puzzle!

He has won championships in Indiana and Detroit!

You could even say that every championship after 00 was shared between him and Lin Tian!

In short, the market for this product is quite good!

Of course, although many people asked, there weren't many teams that actually offered Ben Wallace a contract that satisfied him.

Ultimately, while Ben Wallace is impressive, his role is too versatile. He's a pure defensive player, and giving him too much means the team has to invest less in offense.

During the offseason, Ben Wallace met with 7-8 teams. After repeated bargaining and negotiations, he finally decided to join Chicago!

The Bulls offered him a four-year, $60 million max contract! They were the only team on the market willing to give Ben Wallace that amount!

Firstly, the Bulls felt their roster was almost complete, with players like Gordon and Luol Deng developing rapidly. After several years of dormancy and failures, it was about time for the team to achieve results.

That's why they offered such a big contract to bring Ben Wallace into their fold! It's not just because of Wallace's defense, but also because they value his experience and hope he can mentor and help the Bulls' young players grow quickly!

And the Pistons lost more than just Ben Wallace this offseason!

Less than a week after Ben Wallace officially announced his free agency move to the Bulls, Dumars announced another trade.

He traded Chauncey Billups, the team's previous year's championship MVP, to the remote Denver Highlands in exchange for Andre Miller, a solid point guard, and two future draft picks.

This trade is a huge loss for the Pistons, a self-inflicted wound. After all, considering the Nuggets' current roster and player ages, whether it's Billups in his prime or the young Milicic and Nene, this team has a very promising future.

Their two draft picks are really not worth much.

The Pistons' initial decision to make such a losing deal was truly baffling, with many Pistons fans even verbally abusing Dumars, calling him an idiot and a bastard.

The person who helped Dumas out of the predicament was Billups.

At his press conference announcing his joining the Nuggets, Billups stated that he had requested to leave because the team's decision to let go of Ben Wallace and Jaylen Brown had deeply hurt him and made him unwilling to stay in Detroit any longer.

As for joining the Nuggets, it was Billups' own request. He wanted to return to his hometown, to where his dream began! As a graduate of the University of Colorado and the most famous player from that school, Billups can be considered to have returned home in glory.

More importantly, several teams could actually offer the Pistons better deals. Billups also told Dumars that although he wanted to go to the Nuggets, he wouldn't stop Dumars, and that where he ended up was up to fate.

In the end, Dumars chose loyalty and accepted the Pistons' offer, which was significantly below market value, sending Billups to where he wanted to go most.

With this upgrade, the Nuggets' roster has become significantly stronger! Next year's Western Conference is destined to be even more brutal! (End of Chapter)