The championship is won and the season is over, but Deng Fang is even busier!
Players can go on vacation happily, but Deng Fang can't!
Why?
Because it’s almost time for the draft and free agency!
Shortly after the finals every year, the draft will be held.
The draft is a very important thing for every team.
For a weak team, drafting a good rookie is the fastest way to rebuild.
In order to ensure that the strength of each team is not too different and to be more balanced, the league will give some compensation to the weak teams.
And the most important compensation is the draft!
The worse your record is, the better you can pick the top rookies!
Generally speaking, the higher up a rookie is, the more powerful he is.
Everyone is not stupid, they are rushing to get the rookies, and the development prospects of the rookies that more people are optimistic about will definitely be better.
Although there are rookies at the lower end who have become famous, and even second-round picks have become successful, generally speaking, the higher the pick, the more powerful they are.
Drafting is important for weak teams, and the same is true for strong teams.
Strong teams generally have relatively balanced lineups and reasonable configurations.
The reason why a strong team is called a strong team is because there are reliable and capable players in every position.
Of course, the most important thing is to have stars!
It’s better not to be one!
But this means that the team's salary space is very limited.
Not to mention the stars, they usually get the maximum salary!
One star is worth more than 20 million, how about two?
The worth of capable players will not be low!
A player with a low value cannot be called a capable player!
With stars and a group of capable players, the salary space of strong teams is generally very tight.
Exceeding the salary cap is normal, and paying luxury tax is normal!
The most famous saying in the NBA is: "Champions are built with money!"
But when your total salary is too high, there are many restrictions on your operations.
The first is that you pay too much luxury tax.
The NBA is a business league. The owners set up the team to make money, not to do charity!
You can pay luxury tax for the championship, but no one can bear too much luxury tax!
The NBA's luxury tax doubles as your salary increases!
The doubling of the luxury tax is a huge pressure on the boss.
Everyone wants the championship, but the problem is that competing for the championship is always uncertain!
Although you definitely can't win the championship without spending money, there are also many people who can't win the championship with money!
On the one hand, there is a lot of money that is certain to be spent, and on the other hand, there is an uncertain championship.
No one can spend unlimited amounts of money on their team roster!
No matter how wealthy a boss is, he would never do such a stupid thing!
In addition, there is another reason, that is, the league has various restrictions on teams that exceed the salary cap.
To the boss, everyone comes together to make money.
Your family spends a lot of money and trades a large number of star players. You are the only one in the family, and the one who suffers the most is the entire league!
In the final analysis, if you want the league competition to be more exciting, it must be based on the fact that the strength of each team is not much different!
You can be strong, but not too strong!
How can we limit strong teams?
That is to restrict you with various terms, not allowing you to make reinforcements at will, not giving you the opportunity to trade!
The draft gives you players ranked lower than the salary cap. Teams that exceed the salary cap cannot trade them casually, let alone sign free agents casually!
In short, the stronger the team, the greater the restrictions!
For strong teams, the draft is the only unrestricted method of reinforcement.
The salary for rookies is low, but if you are lucky, your abilities may be outstanding!
A capable player is just a child labor contract. Wouldn't it be a pleasure to use such a player for a few years?!
Of course, the prerequisite for achieving this effect is that you have to select a capable plug-and-play player!
But this is difficult for most teams competing for the championship.
Why?
Because it is difficult for you to choose such suitable players!
Some players are very strong and have great potential, but they are not the best choices.
For example, Kobe's performance in his rookie season was not very good, and Durant's shooting percentage in his rookie season was very low. Such players have great potential, but they all need a lot of ball rights to continuously polish.
And a winning team often can't wait.
Teams that win championships often have a definite core, and what they need are often plug-and-play role players.
To be precise, he defends well and has three points!
If you defend well, you won't be targeted. If you have three points, you can open up space for your teammates.
Such role players are actually more useful.
However, such rookies are very rare and hard to come across.
In short, whether it is a star embryo with huge potential or a capable player who can plug and play, it is still out of reach for strong teams.
For strong teams, especially teams competing for the championship, the draft is generally a spectacle.
This is especially true for the defending champion!
You have won the championship, so your ranking must be relatively high. Not to mention first in the league, you must also be in the top three or five, right?
There are teams at the bottom of the rankings that win the championship, but they are very few, and there are often special reasons.
The lowest ranked championship winning team in history is the 1995 Rockets.
The Rockets in 1995 were not expected to win the championship at all because they had a very difficult regular season that year.
As the defending champion, the Rockets in 1995 aimed to win two consecutive championships, but due to injuries, the team's record has been tepid, even when they introduced "Glider" Drexler in the middle of the season.
At the end of the regular season, the Rockets ranked sixth in the Western Conference with 47 wins and 35 losses. At that time, many people did not believe that the Rockets could get past the first round, let alone win the championship.
But the big dream of the playoffs was too unsolvable. They defeated the Jazz in the first round, the Suns in the second round, and eliminated the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals.
You know, these games are all defeats - the Jazz, who are second with 60 wins, the Suns, who are 59 wins, the Spurs, who have new MVP David Robinson with 62 wins, and the Orlando Magic, who are first in the Eastern Conference with 57 wins.
Every game is about defeating the superior, every game is underestimated, and then surprises everyone.
At that time, the four popular centers in the league were Olajuwon, David Robinson, O'Neal, and Ewing.
Olajuwon took care of Robinson and O'Neal in succession on the way to the championship. In addition, he eliminated Ewing in the 1994 Finals. He took care of all three centers for two consecutive years.
The Rockets in 1995 were the only team in the bottom half to win the championship. They were on the verge of elimination many times, but they eventually achieved a reversal.
Apart from this, there is no winning team ranked lower than the top four!
According to league rules, the top-ranked team will be drafted later.
The league's top teams' draft picks will be ranked in the mid-twenties!
The more than 20 rookies are just buying lottery tickets, it only depends on luck!
Although the draft also depends on luck for the top-ranked teams, the probability of the first few rookies becoming talents is still much higher.
Therefore, there is talk of parallel import No. 1 pick, but there is no such thing as parallel import No. 20 pick or No. 30 pick!
