Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters-Chapter 1019 - 587 Frye Says Hes Not Here_3

Chapter 1019: Chapter 587 Frye Says He’s Not Here_3 Chapter 1019: Chapter 587 Frye Says He’s Not Here_3 If Yao Ming really enters the free agent market, he would have a 70% chance of convincing the other party to join the Clippers, but even so, preparatory work needs to be done.

One should not overlook the details just because of good relations.

Trem’s phone call made Yu Fei have to take it seriously.

Does the Warriors Team still want Griffin?

Actually, after this season ended, Yu Fei’s evaluation of Griffin was positive, giving him at least 85 out of 100.

He may not be the best, but looking around the League, there are few better than him.

That’s easy to say, but Antetokounmpo is already on the team and he is eventually going to move inside. If Jokić is selected at the draft meeting in a few days and Yao Ming is persuaded to join the Clippers during the off-season, then Griffin won’t be as important to the Clippers.

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Griffin had just played a season worthy of the All-NBA Team. If not for the abstract allocation of All-NBA slots, he should have been named to one.

Even though he didn’t perform well against the Spurs, this was when his trade value was at its highest.

On the other hand, the Warriors’ main bargaining chip for the trade, Klay Thompson, performed poorly in the series against the Clippers.

The rebuilding core of the Warriors is Leonard and Lillard; Thompson’s value lies in providing spacing on the perimeter, but he failed to do so in this year’s semifinals. Therefore, the Warriors Team concluded that the inside advantage was more important.

Yu Fei knew Thompson’s worth. If all the planned reinforcements came through, and Griffin was traded for Thompson, then the Clippers’ goal of winning the championship the next season would no longer be just talk.

“A trade is possible, but Blake must be informed before any trade,” Yu Fei decided rationally. “However, we should receive more in return because Blake is more valuable now.”

Yu Fei’s attitude was decisive in the outlook of the trade.

Hearing what Yu Fei said, Trem knew what to do.

In the subsequent negotiations, apart from the Warriors Team’s original offer, Trem also demanded that they give up this year’s first-round 27th pick and a future draft right.

The Warriors Team trembled at this highway robbery-like price increase, unable to decide momentarily.

They didn’t walk away from the table, but they didn’t relent either, creating a delicate situation.

Trade rumors persisted up until the draft day.

So much so that right before the draft meeting started, experts were discussing the possibility of trading Griffin.

Then came this year’s draft meeting.

Due to changes in the timeline, this year’s lottery zone teams were greatly different from the main timeline.

The Toronto Raptors won the first pick.

Since Chris Bosh had left, they had been in a rebuilding phase, and now Canadian basketball was experiencing a talent surge, producing a super talent like Wiggins. Then somehow, they ended up drawing the first pick.

Adam Silver awkwardly repeated David Stern’s famous line: “Basketball is back in Toronto.”

Stern had said this during the infamous 1985 draft lottery, when the New York Knicks won the first pick. That draw was widely believed to be rigged by the league. Now, Silver’s repetition of the line seemed to carry a certain implication.

The second pick went to the Chicago Bulls.

Fate is indeed mysterious.

The Toronto Raptors drew the first pick, and coincidentally, the top prospect of this draft happened to be Canadian.

Chicago then landed the second draft pick, and one of this draft’s “Big Three,” Jabari Parker, was a Chicago native.

The NBA, a place where miracles always happen. It always manages to send those uniquely talented players to the right teams.

The Kings Team got the third pick.

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Following were the Pacers, 76ers, Pistons, Bobcats, Celtics, Pelicans, Nuggets, Suns, Jazz, and Magic.

The draft process was uneventful, as the Canadian prodigy went to Toronto, Chicago’s Son 2.0 went to Chicago, and Embiid went to the Kings.

The Pacers used the fourth pick to select the Australian prodigy Dante Exum, the 76ers chose Julius Randle with the fifth pick, the Pistons picked Aaron Gordon with the sixth pick, and the Bobcats team selected Noah Vonleh with the seventh pick…

This year’s draft seemed exceedingly dull, with no team in the lottery making a surprising choice.

When the Lakers Team selected Zach LaVine with the 15th overall pick, ESPN’s Lakers critic Bill Simmons couldn’t help but mock, “Unless Kobe is applying for a trade, I really don’t know why they would pick a rookie who plays the same position as him.”

While they were discussing the Lakers Team’s choice, a sudden trade disrupted the entire draft day.

Bill Simmons’s partner, Jalen Rose, exclaimed in surprise, “A big trade just happened—I can only say, this day has finally come!”

“The Clippers sent Blake Griffin to Golden State, getting back Tyreke Evans, Klay Thompson, and this year’s first-round 27th pick plus future draft rights!”

Upon hearing this news, Bill Simmons said, “Frye is becoming more and more like number 23 from the D.C. era.”

Soon after, all the details of the trade were revealed, and the Clippers also additionally received the 2016 first-round draft pick and the right to swap first-round picks in 2018.

The moment the trade was finalized, the Clippers immediately topped the news headlines.

But for them, the work wasn’t over yet.

Not until the draft reached the end of the first round and Jokić was still available did they confidently use the Warriors Team’s 27th pick to select him.

As for the 28th pick of the first round, the Clippers chose Jokić’s Serbian compatriot Bogdan Bogdanović.

“Cursed! The curse returns!” Bill Simmons exclaimed, “Donald Sterling’s ghost is still around, he’s everywhere, possessing every person in the Clippers! Only a Clippers under Sterling would make such a decision! They must be crazy!”

Within half an hour, Clippers’ general manager Arne Trem was lambasted by angry Yu Fei fans and Clippers fans on social media’s trending lists.

At least ostensibly, he truly deserved the blame.

He had sent away the league’s top power forward, in exchange for an overpriced ball-handling wing whose functions overlapped with Yu Fei’s, and a 3D player who had completely misfired against the Clippers in this year’s semifinals. As for future draft rights, what use were they? When you have the GOAT, you should aim to win now!

Then, he used two first-round picks to select a Serbian big man who was projected in the latest mock drafts to go in the middle of the second round, and a Serbian guard who had already re-signed with his home team and didn’t plan to join the NBA for the next two years.

“I’m not being alarmist, this is a fact—Arne Trem murdered the Clippers’ future in half an hour!”

In this moment of “murdering” the Clippers’ future, the planner and initiator was sunbathing in Miami, holding his fiancée and smugly saying, “Let Arne suffer a bit; next year, when we win the championship, I’ll let him stand in the centerpiece.”

His fiancée picked up the phone and saw Trem’s call coming through.

“Frye, your general manager is calling.”

“Just say I’m not here.”

So, the GOAT’s fiancée answered the phone and mischievously said, “Frye says he’s not here.”