At the end of the draft, Richard asked Myers to inform the four rookies that he would report to Charlotte half a month later, and then he would return to Charlotte.

Charlotte is about to hold the retirement ceremony of Mourning and Payton, and Richard is naturally going to attend.

Although Mourning and Payton are not Richard's West Lafayette players, Richard was familiar with these two players in his previous life, and now he is embarrassed to see the two retire.

Both of these players entered the league in the 90s, and they are both old enough to retire, and Richard knows that in a few years, his Silafayette players will also start to retire.

At that time, watching the retirement of the Silafayette players he single-handedly selected, Richard didn't know how he would feel.

……

At the retirement ceremony of Mourning and Payton, the two solemnly thanked Richard and the pirate generals for giving them a taste of the championship.

Jordan is an anxious child, in fact, when the playoffs started, he had already begun to customize the championship ring, but he did not inscribe the year on the ring at that time......

The reason for this is naturally to prevent the Pirates from not winning the championship this year, and if they don't engrave the year, these rings can be kept for next year.

Luckily, Jordan's preparation came in handy, and tonight Mourning and Payton got their championship rings.

Looking at the tearful appearance of the two veterans, Richard was sincerely happy for them.

……

After the retirement ceremony, Richard returned to his office, and in three days he will take Tiana and the children to the East Coast for a vacation, and now take advantage of the last three days to get all the business done.

……

In this draft, Richard bought four rookies, but the number of rookies on the team will not grow much, first of all, two veterans of the team left, and secondly, the rookie players who joined the Buccaneers in '04, and by the end of next season, they will become free agents, and Richard must deal with these players before becoming free agents.

Whether to renew or sell the contract is up to Richard.

In the '04 draft, Richard drafted three players, namely Iguodala, Vallejo and Ariza.

All three were on four-year contracts with a team option for the final year.

That is, Richard will need to decide whether to exercise the team option or not.

Ariza was already sold by Richard in the previous deal, so what Richard needs to settle at the moment is the contracts of Iguodala and Vallejo.

Now Richard has three options in front of him.

The first is to exercise the duo's team option and wait until next season to let them go or give them high-salary contracts.

The high-salary contract Richard is not ready to give these two people, the team will be able to sign three maximum salaries after the sky, Richard does not want to rashly give a high salary to limit the team's future ceiling.

And if these two don't give Richard a big contract, other teams will definitely come up with a big contract and wait to sign them.

Iguodala is certainly a maximum salary, Vallejo is not qualified for a maximum salary, but a contract with a salary of several million to nearly $10 million a year is certainly indispensable.

So if this plan is implemented, Richard may have to let these two players go by then.

The second option is not to exercise the team option and renew their contract now......

This plan is definitely not working, Richard can't give too high a contract, and the two are unlikely to renew their contracts.

Vallejo's Richard didn't know, Iguodala would definitely not let himself suffer anyway......

The third option is Richard's most inclined antipathy, which is to trade the two men in exchange for chips.

Iguodala is a new DPOY and a key member of the championship squad, and selling him could affect the team's strength.

But in Richard's view, the impact is not very big, and just as Iguodala is gone, Mambaroi can play the starting position.

In terms of defense, Roy is not as good as Iguodala, but because of the mad dog's lingering props, the gap is not as big as imagined.

In terms of offense, Iguodala is no match for Roy.

Moreover, if Iguodala is traded, Richard is not unable to strengthen the outside lineup, at least he has a good target now.

Iguodala's trade value is quite large, so big that it makes the teams salivate.

The third-year player won the DPOY and contributed to the championship, and the future is definitely worth looking forward to.

Richard knew that Iguodala's floor was indeed high, but it was not as surprising as other teams had guessed.

……

Iguodala and Vallejo in 04 have already been put on the trade agenda by Richard.

As for the players who joined the team in '05, Richard is definitely not in a hurry now, and will wait until next season's offseason to slowly figure it out.

However, although Richard had the idea of trading Iguodala and Vallejo, Richard was not ready to publicize it, because he had already thought about the trade target.

……

Miami Beach, the sun is shining, and there are countless bikini beauties walking back and forth on the beach.

"Li, the negotiation location you made up for is really special." Riley said to Richard speechlessly.

The place where Richard and Riley agreed to negotiate was on this beach.

"Work and life are fine, Riley."

"Let's talk about your offers other than Oden and Milicic, I'm mainly here for vacation this time, not to talk to you about a deal." Richard said with a smile.

"Iguodala, we want Iguodala plus Valejo, get them Shaq and it's yours." This time, Pat Riley didn't open his mouth to ask for any first-round pick, he knew that Richard couldn't give it.

Richard smiled and shook his head, "I feel like Iguodala alone is a loss for Shaq, let alone Valejo." ”

"So, you send Shaq away to heat up next year's first-round pick, and we'll sign first and then trade for Iguodala."

Hearing Richard's offer, Pat Riley didn't shout that it was impossible this time, he came this time to quickly negotiate a result with the pirate team to prevent long nights.

"Shakga first-round pick, for Iguodala plus Valejo."

"No, Shakga's first-round pick can only be exchanged for Iguodala plus Chuck Hayes."

"Shaq plus a second-round pick for Iguodala plus Hayes."

"Deal, happy cooperation."

And just like that, in Miami Beach, Richard and Pat Riley made a deal for one of the top 50 stars of all time.

Iguodala's point, Richard himself has a trading plan, and now as a trading subject in exchange for O'Neal, it can be regarded as playing a valuable role.

As for Hayes, Richard really has no position to develop this player, O'Neal, Oden and Marc Gasol are about to join, plus the original Milicic, where is there a place for Hayes.

Four interior players are considered the standard configuration of a team, and if there are more, it will basically be the guardian of the water cooler, and there will be no playing time, leaving Hayes can only guard the water cooler, and Richard might as well take it out and trade it with the Heat.

With a second-round pick and O'Neal, Richard is quite happy with the deal.

In the 08 draft, there are still good seedlings in the second round, and this second-round pick can play a good value at that time.

As for O'Neill, Richard is even more looking forward to it.

Needless to say, how strong O'Neal is, even if he is late now, he is one of the top centers in the league.

Richard can keep O'Neal healthy, and there are not many centers in the league who can be better than him.

The most important thing is that Richard can improve O'Neal's free throws!

That's all that matters!

In recent years, O'Neal's free throws have become more and more finished, and he was able to maintain a stable fifty percent of the shots before, and even in the 02-03 season, O'Neal hit an unprecedented 62% free throw shooting rate.

But since this peak free-throw season has passed, O'Neal's free throws have never exceeded 50 percent, and they are all more than 40 percent......

In the season that just ended, O'Neal's free throws were even only 42%!

And after it is in the hands of Richard, Richard only needs a little famous point to make O'Neal's free throws get a qualitative improvement!

O'Neal, who has a stable free throw, even if it is an elderly O'Neal, is definitely a terrifying existence.

This is one of the reasons why Richard is confident that he will dominate the NBA next season!

On the day the deal was made, Richard called Myers to inform him of the trade and to contact the Heat at any time.

Early the next morning, the pirates made an official announcement.

First, the team option not to exercise Iguodala's rookie contract, and then signed Iguodala to a five-year, $75 million max contract......

The most exciting thing is that the Buccaneers made a deal with the Heat, sending Iguodala and Hayes in exchange for the Heat's O'Neal and a second-round pick.

The entire alliance shook, and everyone stared at the news in amazement, completely unsure of what to say.

The Heat peddled O'Neal, which is well known to passers-by, but even if they wanted to break their heads, they never expected that O'Neal's next home would be the Pirates!