Chapter 1261: Chapter 399: Cleveland Is Full of Hope Again?

After all, a championship ring is not a woman, a man won’t always be thinking of getting a new one.

So if Jason Richardson insists on leaving, Roger wouldn’t blame him either.

In the end, he chose to renew his contract, which made Roger feel very gratified and accomplished.

This was another person after Stephen Jackson who would rather give up a higher tactical position and more playing time to stay by Roger’s side.

Yes, Mikhail Prokhorov is very willing to spend money.

But on the other hand, Roger’s personal charisma also played a decisive role.

Previously in Atlanta, the loss of key role players was always a big issue.

Now, this problem is improving because of Roger’s presence.

Keeping Jason Richardson is good news, but the Warriors still lost two players; Nick Van Exel and Derek Anderson, who were traded last season for Allan Houston and Trevor Ariza, both left this summer.

Last season, because Boris Diaw and Matt Barnes performed outstandingly, those two who came from the Trail Blazers together played less than 30 games, the Warriors simply had no place for them, leaving is a very normal choice.

In this way, the legacy Allan Houston left is only the first-round draft pick from the Portland Trail Blazers next year.

But that’s enough because, at present, the value of that draft pick will not be too low.

Wealthy owner Paul Allen is not having a good time now, as Allan Houston, in whom he had high hopes, seemed to lose his motivation after being abandoned by the Warriors and performed completely incomparable to his time with the Warriors.

Another player in whom he had high hopes, Zach Randolph, also performed terribly last season; although he could contribute 19 points and 10 rebounds per game, his efficiency was quite low. As an interior player, his shooting percentage was only 44%, and on defense, he was no different than a wooden stake.

Furthermore, Zach Randolph’s off-court behavior fully inherited the fine traditions of the Portland Jail Blazers, causing the team quite a bit of trouble.

He broke his teammate Reuben Patterson’s orbital bone during practice, and called it “paying tribute to the great Roger.”

He was speeding and was found with weapons and foil-wrapped drugs in his car.

Drunk driving, stealing guns, and other incidents were also happening frequently with the big bear.

The Portland Trail Blazers, managed by Paul Allen, were almost the darkest existence in NBA franchise history, like a team from the ’60s or ’70s, filled with nothing but chaos. The current Trail Blazers are just like their main color, so dark that no light can be seen.

The team is decayed from the inside, and the Trail Blazers almost can’t get equivalent value in exchange for problematic players like Zach Randolph, and due to reckless spending, the team’s salary cap space was locked up early on.

Therefore, it is very likely that the Trail Blazers cannot make any revolutionary changes this summer.

If nothing unexpected happens, the Trail Blazers will still find it difficult to make the playoffs next season. So by this time next year, the Warriors will experience the joy of the lottery draft.

From this perspective, even if Nick Van Exel and Derek Anderson leave, the legacy Allan Houston left is already rich enough.

Currently, the team roster still has two vacancies.

And the first way to fill these two vacancies is this year’s draft.

This year, the Warriors’ first-round target was originally the University of Florida’s David Lee; this senior forward didn’t have outstanding athletic ability or static talent, but he was almost proficient in all the skills for the power forward position.

Unfortunately, the New York Knicks traded up and intercepted him at the 28th pick.

So the Warriors at the 29th pick could only choose Brandon Bass, a favorite undersized hard forward of Roger’s.

In the second round, the Warriors, according to Roger’s plan, selected a high school rookie, the second-ranked high school player in the United States in 2005 after the interior beast Greg Oden, Monta Ellis.

This 191 cm guard, nicknamed “Mississippi Bullet,” has a quite explosive scoring ability, scoring 65 points in a game against Greenwood High School in the first match of the season, which was already astonishing. Later in the season, when the two schools met again, Monta Ellis even more outrageously scored 72 points!

Just when everyone questioned the quality of the opponents like Greenwood High School, Monta Ellis blasted 46 points in a game against the No.1 basketball school in the United States, Oak Hill Academy.

All these brilliant scoring performances took place within one season, effectively silencing everyone.

Logically, such a high school talent should be in high demand after graduation; his best path would be to go to an NCAA elite school and aim for a lottery pick or even a top-three pick the following year.

But Monta Ellis, due to poor grades, decided to enter the draft directly.

This decision, however, brought a streak of bad luck.

In a series of pre-draft workouts, Monta Ellis injured his knee and underwent knee surgery. The knee is a crucial part for a professional player, and pre- and post-surgery, a player can potentially display two completely different levels.

Although the NBA does have miraculous cases like Dwyane Wade, who performed excellently after having his meniscus removed, such individual cases cannot prompt a team to bet on Monta Ellis.