Zhang Yang received the news, and after hanging up the phone, his desire to sleep vanished. He turned his computer back on, and Yao Ming and Zhu Fangyu joined in. Even at midnight, dostic sports websites quickly reposted the trade details.
The Mavericks and Pistons made two trades.
The first was a player trade, sending out Harris and Diop, bringing Van Horn out of retirent with a one-year mid-level contract, and acquiring Billups while taking on the Pistons’ multi-year mid-level contract given to Juan Dixon last sumr.
Harris, in the last year of his rookie contract last season, played 70 gas, averaging 15.4 points and 6.5 assists. He reached a 5-year, 48 million renewal with the Mavericks during All-Star weekend, rated as the league’s second-best speed-scoring point guard.
Sagana Diop, who can’t last more than ten minutes a ga, is not an excellent center. But this year his value skyrocketed, not because he played particularly well last season, averaging 2.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in 15 minutes per ga, just a backup center level. It’s because of Yao Ming... his 213 cm and 136 kg fra makes him one of only two players in the league who can really hold off Yao Ming, the other being O’Neal. Yao’s championship win greatly increased Diop’s value, turning him into a pri trade asset. It’s almost like Muhammad’s market value; a late first-round draft pick might not even be enough to get him.
Billups, who played 78 gas last season, averaged 17.9 points and 6.8 assists. He extended his contract early last year, with the new contract being 5 years for 60 million, similar in starting salary to the combined salaries of Harris’s new contract and Diop’s salary.
Juan Dixon averaged 12 points, 3 rebounds, and 5 assists in the 06-07 season, considered an important rotation addition by the Pistons. But after getting the long contract, he slumped, averaging 6 points and 1.8 assists last season. During the playoffs against the Bulls, he averaged 2 points and 0.5 assists in 10 minutes per ga. Blaming the loss on a role player is unfair, but his performance was truly painful to watch.
In the East Final last season, whenever Yao saw Juan Dixon co on, he knew they were about to gain an advantage.
But pulling Van Horn, who had been retired for two years, out for a one-year contract, in exchange for Juan Dixon’s remaining three-year rubbish mid-level contract, helping the Pistons pay the next two years’ salary to balance player value, this operation certainly dazzled Yao Ming.
Another trade, the Mavericks used one future first-round pick and one future second-round pick, two draft picks, to get the Pistons’ head coach Philip Saunders.
This operation has happened several tis in recent years. The Magic Team’s head coach Van Gundy was also bought back with draft picks; Yao Ming’s old team’s forr head coach Van Gundy was, too, obtained by the Rockets with draft picks.
Josh Howard not being a trade piece surprised Zhang Yang. He thought that if the Mavericks were going to trade, they would definitely trade Josh Howard first.
But upon closer analysis, trading Josh Howard is not the best option.
Josh Howard hasn’t experienced any major injuries yet, possessing an all-star borderline level of ability. With a long contract at hand, no team would be willing to sell him cheap.
Moreover, they gained a core point guard, making Harris redundant. The young general has arranged the sixth man role well, and Harris cannot accept being a backup, so a point guard swap is most suitable.
And most importantly, with a new coach coming in, aiming for a championship, he needs a complete roster to decide whether to adjust the forward line. Regardless, players of Josh Howard’s caliber won’t have trouble selling.
Dostically it was already late at night. In this era, not many people stay up to browse news on their computers at night, so the portal sites and forums had little discussion. It was troubleso to browse foreign websites, and being in the Olympic Village, there might be supervision. Zhang Yang didn’t want to cause trouble and didn’t bother, so after checking several dia reports, he closed the computer again.
Watching Zhang Yang walk towards the bed, Yao Ming asked, "Yangyang, can you still sleep?"
Zhang Yang replied puzzled, "Why wouldn’t I be able to?"
Yao Ming: "The Mavericks are about to rise! Their roster was already extrely luxurious, possibly the most star-filled and deep team in the entire league. Now they’ve replaced Harris with a top-three in the league court-controlling point guard, and they’ve also replaced the head coach with Saunders—Philip Saunders—you should know how great he is..."
Before Zhang Yang could reply, Zhu Fangyu interjected, "Big Yao, what does this have to do with you?"
Zhang Yang chid in, "Yeah, what does this have to do with us?"
"The Mavericks are going to rise again! They will beco championship contenders in the coming years! Aren’t you worried?" Yao Ming’s normally deep voice almost broke pitch at this mont.
Zhang Yang: "Uh... the ones who should be worried are Kobe and Duncan, right?"
Zhu Fangyu added, "Exactly, you guys are in the East, and the Mavericks are in the West. No matter how strong they beco, you don’t have to worry about it; those two should be the ones having headaches. I think you two should be happy."
Zhang Yang: "Exactly, this is sothing to be happy about. The only sad thing is that with Billups and Saunders gone, the Pistons might tank and rebuild. The Pistons Five officially becos part of basketball history. But breaking up and rebuilding after reaching the East Final is a pretty dignified conclusion."
Yao Ming: "Yeah, when I first entered the NBA, the Pistons were just rising. In my 6 years in the NBA, they’ve reached the East Final every year and entered the Finals twice, winning one championship. In those 6 years, even the Lakers and Spurs didn’t shine as brightly as the Pistons..."
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