NBA: No. 1 Forward

Chapter 294: Grumpy Cousins

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This summer, the Hornets actually paid a lot to keep Paul. In the summer, they first traded Julian Wright to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Marco Belinelli.

Then on the same day, he participated in a four-team trade with the Pacers, Houston Rockets, and Nets. The New Orleans Hornets traded Darren Collison and James Posey to the Indiana Pacers; Ferris Ariza traded to New Orleans Hornets; Indiana Pacers traded Troyon Murphy to New Jersey Nets; New Jersey Nets traded Courtney Lee to Houston Rockets.

They sent away Darren Collison, who scored 12.4 points and 5.7 assists in his rookie season, just to find Paul Ariza, an outside helper who has both offense and defense.

Then last season's backup center Darius Songela and this year's draft pick Craig Braggins were packaged and traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Willie Green and Jason Smith.

I have to say that the Hornets' deal is really a bargain. Darius Songela, who averaged 7.2 points and 3.1 rebounds per game last season, was directly injured after coming to the 76ers, and then he was reimbursed for the season. It can be said that the 76ers' rookie Craig Braggins performed very well. It can be said that the 76ers' management has once again made a major contribution to the rise of other teams.

You must know that the 76ers' backup shooting guard Willie Green averaged 8.7 points and 2.1 assists per game last season. Coming to the Hornets this season, he is still a powerful addition to the Hornets' bench.

In addition, the management of the Hornets also signed some role players in the free market to supplement the depth of the bench, such as players Joe Alexander, Pops Mensah-Bangsu, Janello Pargo…

Paul has not been very satisfied with the operation of the Hornets since the summer.

Well, it’s normal for Paul not to say anything. Although there are a lot of people signing, what the **** are they? A bunch of people who can’t help themselves. Nero Pargo.

Look at my second brother Zhan and third brother Wei, they have been upgraded to full-level numbers directly, and I am still holding an iron sword to fight monsters and upgrade.

Although the Hornets have David West, an All-Star backup power forward, and Okafor, a capable center, they are indeed not enough compared to the Heat.

In fact, there is no way. Who made the owner of the Hornets, Shinn, not only short of money, but also diagnosed with cancer. Since this spring, the boss of the Hornets, Shinn, has been trying to sell 65% of the team's shares to the small shareholder Huo However, Horst has no intention of taking over, but the negotiations between the two parties did not succeed.

At present, the owner of the Hornets, Sean, is also determined to sell this hot potato in his hands. At present, the high-level NBA league has also intervened. According to ESPN, David Stern wants to use the name of the league. En and the team shares held by Horst.

Stern also has concerns about this. He is worried that Shinn will fail to sell the team and act recklessly, which will affect the stability of the league and the team. So, it's better to spend some money to host the alliance, and when someone wants to buy it back, they can sell it at that time.

Since the city of New Orleans was hit by the hurricane, many people have moved out of the city, and the size of the city's popularity has also dropped sharply, and it will never recover the previous ball market.

So far this season, the Hornets have started with 12 wins and 5 losses, ranking third in the Southwest Division with a winning percentage of 70%. However, the attendance rate of the arena is not ideal. The average audience per game is only 13,865, leaving 3,000 seats in the New Orleans Arena. If the average attendance rate of the 13 home games in the middle cannot reach 14,213 people, the lease contract of the New Orleans Arena will be terminated early by the state government, and the Hornets will face the embarrassing situation of having no arena available.

As the 69-year-old Hornets owner Shinn was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year, therefore, he decided to give up the ownership of the Hornets. But so far, the successor is still unavailable. Horst, a shareholder with 35% of the team's shares, was originally a potential buyer and was very interested in becoming the next owner. However, due to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, his company was caught up in it, and he had no time to take care of acquiring football at this time. team matters.

So this is why, this summer, the Hornets management just made a small deal and signed some leftovers. Now that the Hornets' boss's life is in danger, how could it be possible to estimate the team's championship or reinforcement.

Their reinforcements in the summer are also to stabilize Chris Paul. As long as he is there, the value of the Hornets will not drop. As for trading All-Star players for reinforcements, that is impossible.

In fact, the management of the Hornets has been doing a lot of tricks before. The team owner didn't have much money. In 2006, the Hornets also signed Serbian striker Peja Stojakovic for 5 years and 64 million US dollars.

It stands to reason that there is no big problem with signing first and then changing. Peja Stojakovic averaged 19.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per game in the Indiana Pacers. Peja Stojakovic only had a brilliant performance in the first season, but even the first season has dropped a lot compared to before, and as he gets older, Peja's scoring ability It also dropped dramatically.

It can be said that the Hornets' 5-year 6400 just bought the one-year right to use the peak Peja, and they did make it to the playoffs in this peak season, not only that, they also entered the second round of the playoffs.

At this time, the management of the Hornets felt that they already had the basic strength to compete for the championship, so in the summer of 2008, the New Orleans Hornets offered a four-year $25 million contract to sign 32-year-old James Posey.

But they overestimated the strength of the 32-year-old veteran, and even used James Posey as a standing force. Although James Posey followed the Celtics to win the championship, Posey was more Playing the role of a bench bandit and coming to the Hornets who averaged 28 minutes per game, the Hornets are doomed to overuse the 32-year-old veteran.

But with his current strength, he is not enough to take the position given to him by the Hornets. He was finally eliminated by the Pistons in the first round of the 2009 playoffs. Last season, they didn't even make the playoffs.

This summer, the Hornets sent him and Darren Collison to the Indian Pacers.

In this game, although there was a clear gap in strength between the two teams, the Hornets at home still caused a lot of trouble for the Knicks.

For example, Chris Paul and Cousins ??seem to have a natural incompatibility~www.mtlnovel.com~ He took a fancy to this stupid big man who was easy to bully in the first half, so he frequently used Okafor pick-and-rolls to single-handed Cousins .

Cousins ??was also grumpy due to Chris Paul's small moves and fouls. After grabbing a rebound, he really couldn't stand Paul's small moves, and directly smashed the basketball at Chris Paul's head, and then To punch Paul.

Lian Dao didn't expect that the famous scene of Cousins ??in later generations would happen in advance, so he separated the players from both sides with the referee in time, and Danny Green, who was closest to Cousins, hurried forward and hugged Cousins, but the irritable Cousins ??also wanted to break free from Danny Green's shackles and stepped forward to **** Chris Paul with a big fist.

"DeMarcus, calm down!" Lian Dao yelled at Cousins.

When Cousins ??heard Lian Dao's roar, he stopped struggling and turned to the bench.

However, Lian Dao came to Chris Paul and whispered in a low voice: "Chris, although this is the Smoothie King Center, your little tricks are a bit too much. If you continue like this, I don't mind using 'little tricks' to let you You walk out of the court sideways, you know, I do what I say!"

When Lian Dao said the trick, he deliberately emphasized his tone.

Lian Dao's words also changed the face of Chris Paul, who had just shown a painful expression to the referee. He understood Lian Dao's warning, and he also knew that Lian Dao was a ruthless character. He could send three NBA players to the hospital in one season, and he also Let all the referees find no intentional behavior. This kind of foul is the highest level and most vicious.

Of course, this kind of person is also the last thing he wants to offend.

Immediately after Chris Paul snorted coldly, Lian Dao also smiled and walked to the bench.