On June 23, the NBA expansion draft went smoothly.

The Knicks lost two players in this expansion draft.

The Charlotte Hornets overjoyed to select Dell Ellis, who was not on the protected list.

Due to the agreement reached between the two parties, the Miami Heat gave up John Salley and instead selected veteran Michael Cooper.

And, they are all preferred.

It can be said that Ellis and Cooper are the top picks in the expansion draft.

The two chosen people have different feelings.

Ellis was very sad. Although he only spent four seasons in New York, they were the four most important seasons of his career.

Louie allowed him to find his edge in the league, and he rewarded the Knicks with a great performance that would go down in history in the 1988 Eastern Conference Finals.

He's willing to come off the bench, knows the system, and is probably one of the smartest players on the team...

It was a difficult decision to give up on him, but Louis could not regard Ellis' sacrifice as normal.

This is unfair to him. He has the ability to be the core of other teams and get a big contract. He would rather play on the bench this season than stay to help the Knicks win the first championship in the Louis era. This has made Louis grateful to him. Now

, he sent Ellis to a team with nothing.

There, he can perform as he pleases, and as long as he doesn't cause trouble off the court, he will definitely achieve great results.

Still, Ellis appears heartbroken.

At the press conference leaving New York, he cried extremely sadly.

"I know I let everyone down..."

"No matter where I go, New York is my home."

Ellis's cry was so touching that some media could not help but criticize Louis for letting Ellis go.

Ellis' troubles off the court caused him to lose popularity, but his performance in turning the tide against the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals won him back the hearts of fans.

When he left, the fans were as sad as he was.

Louis paid no attention to these rumors.

He took Lorraine to Ellis's "final party" and explained to Ellis why he was not on the protection list.

He made it clear to Ellis that it wasn't because he wasn't good enough that he left.

Although these explanations did not make Ellis feel better, Louis did untie his knot.

After bidding farewell to Alice, Louis' focus returned to work again.

After the expansion draft, comes the draft.

But before the draft, there is the fight of the century between Tyson and Spinks.

Interestingly, the boxing match between these two people took place on the eve of the draft.

So Louis hopes to get the behind-the-scenes work done as soon as possible so that he can watch the game with a completely relaxed mood.

On June 24, Phil Jackson officially announced that he would join Chicago and become the chief assistant coach under Doug Collins.

This has several implications.

Jackson and Jordan are not together after all, and the "Zen Master" of this world may never be the person he knew.

It was also on this day that Louis convened a meeting with scouts at the Blue Palace to summarize recent trade rumors.

This may not be the year of the free market, but it is definitely the year of the trading market.

The draft hasn't even started yet, but trade rumors are already flying everywhere.

With no hope in sight, the Dallas Mavericks decided to disband the team.

They wanted to move Mark Aguirre, the 1981 No. 1 pick.

The Pistons are also making big moves. They know that the direction of their team building is biased and they want to adjust back. Therefore, they are selling Adrian Dantley, Moses Malone and Robert Parish all over the world.

They went from "only insiders" to "no insiders."

Louis couldn't see if this was the right way to go.

Anyway, the Knicks' success is inseparable from the inside.

The Bulls also began touting Joe Barry Carroll.

The Pacers decided that Wayman Tisdale was not the man to lead the team's revival and decided to send him and Herb Williams away.

The Bucks also put Terry Cummings on the shelf.

The Sixers are fed up with repeated injuries to Sam Bowie.

"The basic situation is roughly like this." Zhao Yuanzheng introduced, "Some teams are preparing to rebuild, and some teams want to form a better team. If done properly, one or two strong teams will emerge this offseason."

Louie asked: "How are things going in Chicago?"

Elgin Baylor tells what he knows: "My friends said they were interested in trading for Robert Parish."

"How can they have any leverage?"

"They may use Joe Barry Carroll as their main bargaining chip..."

Louis shook his head directly.

How sick is the Pistons front office to think of swapping Malone or Parish for Carroll?

No, it is impossible to become ill in any way.

Unless the Bulls go crazy and offer 3 first-round picks and 3 first-round pick swaps.

If this happens, the Pistons will reluctantly accept it even if they hate Carroll.

"What's going on in Portland?" Louis asked.

Tomjanovich replied: "I'm sure they will make a deal, but there haven't been any rumors yet, which is really strange."

The team that owns Danny Manning's draft pick this year is not the Los Angeles Clippers in the original timeline.

The Indiana Pacers hold the No. 1 pick, the Cleveland Cavaliers hold the second pick, the Clippers hold the third pick, the fourth pick belongs to Don Nelson's Golden State Warriors, the fifth pick goes to the San Antonio Spurs, whose performance is not ideal, and the fourth pick belongs to the San Antonio Spurs, whose performance is not ideal.

The sixth pick is the New Jersey Nets, the seventh pick is the Knicks, and the next two picks are the Hornets and Heat.

This is the basic situation in the lottery area.

One day later, the first team to take action was the Portland Trail Blazers.

Just like Tomjanovich said, they will definitely take action.

They reached out to Don Nelson for their fourth pick in the first round.

There are various signs that the Warriors will use the fourth pick to acquire Mitch Richmond.

Will there be variables?

Louis believed there was no way Nelson would accept scraps from Portland.

He noticed that the Bulls' Jerry Krause was eager to trade with the two new teams that had just joined the league.

His target is of course the draft pick in their hands.

Preventing the Bulls from reinforcing is Louis' main goal.

Because the Bulls still have draft rights in their hands in the future, and the relationship between him and Krause is not very good, if he does not do anything to benefit his enemies, he will be struck by lightning.

So he called the Hornets' general manager first.

When it was learned that the other side was determined not to trade the first-round pick, the only one left to worry about was Lewis Shafir.

If Krause brings out Carroll to seduce him, maybe this guy who likes to be free will really trade the ninth pick in the first round for a quasi-All-Star center.

When Louis called Shafir, the other party was not enthusiastic.

"Coach Lu, I am inclined to keep the draft pick." Shafir said, "Besides, I don't see the benefit of exchanging draft picks with you. I don't think the ninth pick in the first round will be exchanged for the eleventh pick in the first round.

Bit is a good idea.”

"Well, if you are willing to keep the draft rights, of course I will wish you to choose the player of your choice." Louis said, and suddenly said, "But,"

But what? Shafir felt like he was being led by Louis.

"If, and I mean if. If the Bulls made a very attractive offer to get the ninth pick, Lewis, I would welcome a call into my office with open arms. I would be more than happy to bid."

Shafir got a lot of information from Louis' words.

Louis didn't really want the ninth pick, he just didn't want the Bulls to get the ninth pick.

He had issues with the Bulls.

"What if another team makes a favorable offer?"

"Well... in addition to Chicago, I also like competing with New Jersey. I have a 'very good' personal relationship with the general managers of both places. We are always competing, so there are two places.

You are welcome to tell me the quotation. As for other places, no need, we are not familiar with it."

Shafir increasingly felt that Louis was a ruthless character. Judging from his tone, he was not interested in the ninth pick.
To be continued...