Chapter 13 Initial Negotiations and Finding a Coach
Soon, Shen Fei, who was sitting in the rocket office, received a call from Frank.
"Hey, this is Frank, the general manager of the Clippers."
"You called me earlier and said you were interested in Griffin from our team. This time you called me just to ask what your trading plan is."
Frank said straight to the point.
His tone was so frank, as if he wasn't the one who hung up the phone directly.
"We are willing to provide the team's strongest player, Kevin Martin, as well as future draft picks."
Shen Fei didn't dwell on it and said calmly.
Martin is not the most valuable bargaining chip in the Rockets, but as the two sides have just come to the negotiation table, Shen Fei will not throw out all the chips at once.
"What? You're going to trade Kevin Martin for our Griffin?!"
Frank felt insulted and almost hung up the phone.
"Don't worry. Griffin is a player I admire very much, but we have certain concerns about his health."
"But we have the most sincere sincerity in this transaction."
Shen Fei quickly persuaded.
He was also afraid of lowering the price too harshly and irritating the other party.
"Let me put it this way, if you want to trade our Griffin, at least you must have Aaron Brooks in your chips."
Frank said seriously.
When Shen Fei heard this, he felt so happy that he almost laughed out loud.
Isn't Brooks the one he wants to make the most of?
In Shen Fei's view, Kevin Martin's value is far higher than Brooks.
In the original time and space, Little Black Bean would have suffered a significant setback this season.
In a year and a half, he will be eliminated by the NBA and go to China to pan for gold.
In other words, if he can't take action this season, Brooks' value will return to zero.
By then, not to mention Griffin, you won't even be able to get a second-round pick.
But Frank doesn’t know that!
In his eyes, Brooks just won the Most Improved Player award last year and was already averaging nearly 20 points per game.
In addition, Xiao Heidou is still very young and has a good chance of growing to the All-Star level in the future.
Currently, the Clippers still have veteran All-Star guard Baron Davis.
He has rich experience and has fought tough battles. He once led the Golden State Warriors to achieve the "Black Eight" miracle and defeated the Dallas Mavericks, which ranked first in the Western Conference that year.
Frank believes that with Davis as Brooks' mentor, he will be able to thrive and become an excellent core point guard.
As for Kevin Martin, he didn't particularly like it.
Because the Clippers also have a potential rookie-Eric Gordon.
This shooting guard with outstanding running and jumping ability is the current outside core of the Clippers.
Once Kevin Martin arrives, he will inevitably seize some of the ball rights, which is detrimental to the team's plan to cultivate Gordon.
"Let's do it, Manager Frank. The summer league will start soon. How about we watch Griffin's game live and discuss the details of the deal? What do you think?"
Shen Fei suggested.
This plan was something he came up with on the spur of the moment in the past two days.
The reason is simple. NBA officials have just announced the summer league schedule.
The Rockets' first opponent is the Los Angeles Clippers.
Shen Fei plans to let PJ Tucker serve as the team's starting power forward and directly compete with Griffin.
This is Griffin's first game since returning from injury.
Shen Fei didn't know what his condition was.
But what Asian young people can be sure of is that the current Griffin is definitely not comparable to the "Griffin" in the regular season.
Although Tucker is unknown, his defensive ability is trustworthy.
Shen Fei believed that once the two faced off, it would be difficult for Griffin to take advantage.
By then, Tucker's aggressive defense will also make Griffin look more embarrassed.
As a result, Griffin's trading value may fall to the bottom in a short period of time.
People will not carefully observe Cutak's defensive level, they will only think that Griffin is nothing more than that.
Moreover, when Shen Fei and Frank face each other, he can use [Voice of Bewitching].
Then the possibility of a deal being concluded will be greatly increased!
Frank very much agreed with Shen Fei's proposal.
To be honest, if he was asked to make a deal without Griffin playing a game, Frank's heart was pounding.
If Griffin performs well in the future, he will become the Clippers' eternal sinner!
[This first summer league game should be regarded as a product inspection.]
Frank thought to himself.
If Griffin performs very well, will he immediately regret it and terminate the deal?
If Griffin messes up, it's not too late to discuss the details of the deal.
After thinking about this, Frank said: "No problem, we will see you then!"
............
After hanging up the phone, Shen Fei already had a rough plan in mind.
However, now he still has one urgent matter to deal with - finding a new head coach for the Rockets.
Shen Fei has thought a lot about the choice of coach during this period.
As a time traveler, he has witnessed the rise of warriors.
When the small ball era arrived, other teams in the league did not adapt.
The Warriors have reached the Finals for five consecutive years.
In the process, only Harden, the Rockets led by Paul, James, and the Cavaliers led by Irving can truly compete with them.
Although Leonard's Raptors defeated the Warriors in the finals, the "Cosmic Warriors" that year were full of injuries, and Shen Fei felt that the reference was of little significance.
Therefore, Shen Fei's idea is very simple - stand on the shoulders of giants, copy the Warriors' successful ideas, and try to do better than them!
The current Rockets lineup has not yet been formed, but the two cores have been determined, namely Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady.
If Yao can develop a good three-point shooting during this period, then the team may succeed in developing towards small ball.
After all, even the Warriors always have big centers like Bogut, McGee, and Pachulia in the paint.
Their shooting level is far inferior to Yao Ming!
Based on the above two points, a name appeared in Shen Fei's mind - Mark Jackson!
Everyone knows that Steve Kerr had never coached an NBA game before taking over the Warriors.
But as a rookie coach, he took the Golden State Warriors from the first round of the playoffs to a championship in his first year.
Since Kerr took office, the Warriors have not missed a Finals.
He led the Warriors to three championships in five years and a record-breaking 73 regular season wins.
But Warriors fans know it very well.
The founder of "Cosmic Brave" is Cole's predecessor-Mark Jackson!
Judging from the results, the best result he achieved in his three years with the Warriors was just reaching the Western Conference semifinals.
But it is undeniable that Mark Jackson brought defensive discipline and winning culture to the young Warriors...
He completely changed the Warriors' ethos.
During his coaching, Curry, Klay and others grew from rookies to superstars step by step!
What Shen Fei values most about Mark Jackson is his ability to build the team's defense and cultivate potential players.
"If we can hire Jackson, he will be responsible for the team's defense from now on, and I will take care of the team's offense."
Shen Fei murmured to himself.
As soon as he thought about this, he immediately asked his assistant to find Mark Jackson's phone number and dial it.