The Fifth Point Guard

Maybe this offseason is too busy.

The Athens Olympics, Adidas' Drew tour, various advertising endorsements plus an in-house training camp at his home.

Shentong really had no time to be distracted, so when he came to Cleveland to report on the team's date, he was surprised to find that the entire league had undergone earth-shaking changes.

Some are consistent with the previous time and space, and some are different from the previous time and space.

After all, in parallel time and space, things may not develop exactly the same.

On June 25, the 2004 NBA Draft was held at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York, USA.

High school center Dwight Howard became the No. 1 pick this year.

Fortunately, it was the Orlando Magic that drafted him, not the Washington Wizards.

Otherwise, it's impossible to say whether Howard will become a World of Warcraft or a second-hand player.

As for Howard's character, if he fell into Jordan's hands, he would be useless in a matter of minutes.

However, it's hard to say.

After all, Howard is known as the "Miracle Son."

You know, before Howard's mother Shelly gave birth to him, she had already miscarried 7 children.

So when Howard survived, his parents called him the "Miracle Son."

Moreover, Howard's idol is Michael Jordan.

He has collected Jordan's shoes and jerseys since he was a child, and imitated his airborne moves.

Therefore, maybe when Jordan coaches Howard, he will completely change his personality?

Just like Dude, who originally loved to smile, he stopped smiling after being called for a smile foul by Crawford.

There are some things that no one can say for sure.

With the second pick, the Charlotte Bobcats selected University of Connecticut junior Emeka Okafor.

As the team's starting center, he led the team to the NCAA national finals.

In the finals, they defeated Georgia Tech 82-73 and successfully won the cup.

In that game, Okafor scored 24 points, 15 rebounds and 2 blocks, and won the MOP of the 2003-04 NCAA Final Four.

The Chicago Bulls selected 1.91-meter-tall shooting guard Ben Gordon with the third pick.

Gordon is Okafor's teammate.

It was the two of them who joined forces to bring UConn to the championship.

Given the Bulls' desire for a shooting guard, they passed over Shaun Livingston, who is known as a talented point guard, and chose Gordon.

This year is recognized as a weak year for the draft.

But there are still many outstanding players appearing in this draft.

Devin Harris, Luol Deng, Andre Iguodala, Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, JR Smith, Delonte West, etc.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, with the 26th pick in the first round, selected an inside player from Brazil, Anderson Varejao, who can serve at the fourth and fifth positions.

This player was a professional basketball player in Brazil before participating in the draft, playing for the Spanish basketball giant Barcelona.

Maybe it's because of the team he plays for. Even though he plays basketball, he is also very good at diving.

Shentong's trip to Brazil made the Cavaliers set their sights on South America and discovered Varejao.

They decided to take a gamble with the 26th pick and signed Varejao to a three-year rookie contract worth $2.06 million soon after the draft.

Speaking of which, the Charlotte Bobcats with the second pick have never appeared in the league before.

In fact, he is a new player in the NBA this season.

After the Charlotte Hornets left Charlotte and moved to New Orleans, becoming the New Orleans Hornets, the NBA promised the city of Charlotte the right to form a new team to participate in the 2004-05 NBA season.

The new team was named the Charlotte Bobcats.

The Bobcats held the team's expansion draft on June 22, 2004, selecting veterans such as Peja Drobniak who have played in the league for many years and talented young players such as Sacramento Kings forward Gerald Wallace. people. They also completed a trade with the Los Angeles Clippers and received the second pick in the first round of 2004, selecting center Emeka Okafor who led the University of Connecticut to the NCAA championship.

Due to the addition of the Bobcats, the total number of teams in the league increased to 30, so the league divided all teams into 6 divisions, with three divisions in the Eastern and Western Conferences.

Since then, the New Orleans Hornets have been reclassified from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference.

New Orleans Hornets: It's so hard for me.

This also indirectly caused a certain guard not to touch the floor of the Western Conference Finals for a long time in the future.

After the draft, various teams in the league began trading and signing.

On the first day of the transfer market on July 15, the Cavaliers lost a major player.

Carlos Boozer did not accept the six-year, $40 million contract verbally agreed with the Cavaliers, and instead signed a six-year, $68 million contract with the Utah Jazz.

Faced with doubts and controversy, Boozer did not choose to remain silent and took the initiative to speak to the media.

"I called the Cavaliers management and said, 'There are four teams willing to give me a $70 million contract.' I was a second-round pick making $500,000 a year. . This will change my whole life. I'm not going to just sit around and say, 'I want bread, but I'd rather take the money from the knight.' So I told them, 'In order to stay. Stop me, can you do something big?'"

In the end, the Cavaliers failed to keep Boozer.

Just when Boozer's "rebellion" incident intensified, Shaquille O'Neal "saved" him.

A more significant transaction immediately diverted everyone's attention.

The Los Angeles Lakers traded center O'Neal to the Miami Heat.

They traded a Shark for three players and a draft pick.

Versatile forward Lamar Odom, ready wing Caron Butler, center Grant and a future first-round draft pick.

In fact, during F4 last season, the Lakers locker room was already torn apart.

Malone and Payton were unwilling to wade into this muddy water and chose to retire immediately after the season.

Faced with the choice between Kobe and O'Neal, the Lakers placed their bets on the younger Kobe.

According to some experts, this offseason, Kobe has been training and joined STO's training camp, while O'Neal has been having fun throughout the holidays. Anyone in this situation will tend to work harder at Kobe.

Sharks traveling eastward is also believed by many to change the landscape of the entire league.

The combination of O'Neal and Wade is highly anticipated by Heat fans.

The day after news of Shark's departure broke, the Lakers signed a huge seven-year, $136 million contract with Kobe.

On the third day, they signed the Kings free agent center Divac to fill O'Neal's vacancy.

The Cleveland Cavaliers later made a trade.

They made a deal with the Orlando Magic in exchange for Tony Barty, who didn't perform as expected, and a future second-round pick, in exchange for Drew Gooden and Stephen Hunter.