In fact, in the summer of 2018, there were many opportunities to sign players through trade.
George is far from the only choice.
It won't take a few days for the Spurs' Kawhi Leonard to have a disagreement and request a trade. He was traded to the Denver Nuggets on July 19. The Denver Nuggets, who got Leonard, made it all the way through the new season.
Winning the championship in the 18-19 season directly made Leonard a god. Without a regular season MVP, his reputation once exceeded that of James, Curry, Durant and other players, and he briefly became the number one player in the league.
Compared with personal ability, Leonard is obviously better than Jimmy Butler.
But between the two, Wang Feng still prefers Butler.
The reason is simple. First of all, it is cheaper to get Butler's chips than to get Leonard.
In order to acquire Leonard, the Toronto Raptors paid All-Star player DeRozan and a protected first-round pick.
DeRozan is a player who can consistently contribute 20+ points all year round. If they want to surpass him in terms of trade value, the Lakers must at least pay the chips of Ball + Ingram.
In comparison, Jimmy Butler is definitely cheaper. After all, Butler at this stage can only be compared with DeRozan, or even slightly lower, and far inferior to FMVP Leonard.
Of course, Wang Feng is not only thinking about the amount of chips the Lakers have to pay.
Leaving aside the fact that Leonard also wants to fight for the top spot, and that he will probably fight with Wang Feng when he comes to the Lakers, looking at Leonard's career after leaving the Spurs, he is completely like a glass man, playing and taking breaks.
The season in which he played the most was 60 regular season games with the Menglong, and it was even worse when he came to the Clippers.
What Wang Feng wants is a qualified second boss with outstanding strength, not a thorn in the side who may compete with him for the boss at any time, and who will die due to injury every now and then.
In this horizontal comparison, although Jimmy Butler is not as good as Leonard in terms of strength, he is a better choice.
Looking at Butler's subsequent performance this year, it can be said to be hard and ruthless.
In recent years, including the 2020-21 season, the only time the Timberwolves have entered the playoffs was in the 17-18 season led by Butler.
There was a famous meme in the league at that time, which was Butler's famous remarks.
"Who is the most talented one on the team? It's Towns! Who is the most physically gifted one on the team? It's Wiggins, but who is the hardest working one on the team? It's me!"
This summer, the Timberwolves will reject Butler's request to renew his contract with the maximum salary in advance, giving priority to Towns and Wiggins. This dismissive attitude angered Butler, who made the latter take the initiative to apply to leave the team.
A few days before being traded, in a team training match, Butler led the third team to completely beat the Timberwolves' first and second team, shouting at the general manager that you can't win without me, which made the Timberwolves disgraced.
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After being traded to the 76ers, Butler helped the 76ers compete with Leonard in the conference semifinals in 7 bloody games, but was eventually defeated by Leonard with a buzzer beater. That season, the Rams defeated the Rams with two 4:2 wins.
After eliminating the Bucks and Warriors to finally win the championship, the most difficult series in the entire playoffs was the conference semifinals with the 76ers.
Butler later left the team and joined the Heat, and reached the Finals that season, losing to the Lakers teamed by James and Davis and finishing second.
In the 2022 playoffs before Wang Feng crossed over, Butler's Heat met the 76ers in the conference semifinals. Facing the 76ers with the combination of Embiid + Harden, Butler struck hard and led the team 4:2.
Eliminating the 76ers, and venting after the game, he shouted, "What? Choose Harris instead of me?"
It can be said that Butler has spent his entire career being looked down upon. Neither the Bulls, Timberwolves, 76ers, nor the entire league have really taken him seriously, but Butler's strength is definitely worthy of the title of top striker.
Based on his attendance and performance in the next four years, Wang Feng feels that Butler has a higher priority than George and is definitely the most suitable candidate for the second job.
The only troublesome thing is that the conflict between Butler and the Timberwolves has not yet been triggered. I am afraid that the Timberwolves will not accept a direct request for a trade.
Referring to the situation in another time and space, Butler's trade application should have been submitted around November after the start of the 18-19 regular season. By then, about 10 games had already been played in the regular season.
It is basically impossible to get Butler when the free market opens in the summer. Considering the possibility of the butterfly effect, the Lakers will be in trouble if they do nothing in the free market and fail to trade for Butler.
"..."
"Although I don't quite understand why the second choice must be Jimmy Butler, it is indeed the team's top priority to fully recruit Paul George in the summer."
Wang Feng attaches great importance to Butler, but the rest of the Lakers are obviously more interested in George, whom Wang Feng wrote as his first choice.
But Wang Feng knew that George would most likely not choose the Lakers. After all, the Lakers signed James in another time and space, but failed to attract George to join.
…
In Wang Feng's view, this meeting felt a bit like taking off your pants and farting. After a heated discussion, the management did not argue about the reasons. In the end, they only decided on a strategic policy to pursue George with all their strength.
Rather than discussing the actual direction of the team's development, the meeting was more like a political power struggle, such as the power game between Jenny Buss and Jim Buss.
Wang Feng is not interested in the troubles in the Buss family. Anyway, just don't let James or Leonard compete with him for the boss position.
As long as Johnson operates according to his signing list in the summer, even if top stars such as George and Butler fail to sign, as long as the role players are in place, the Lakers' strength will definitely not be too bad. After all, Wang Feng next season will be stronger than
Stronger now!
This confidence comes from the system's season evaluation and reward distribution after the playoffs.
As the Lakers were eliminated by the Warriors in the Western Conference semifinals, the system has already begun the season evaluation.
"Player Wang Feng completed all games in the NBA 2017-18 season, with the final best result, the Western Conference semifinals! Now start counting personal season data!"
"Played in a total of 11 games in the playoffs, averaging 39 points, 11 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 3.1 steals per game!"
"Played in a total of 82 games during the regular season, averaging 36.3 points, 10.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.6 steals per game!"
"Based on the comprehensive evaluation of the players' performance this season, player Wang Feng's final evaluation score is...S-!"
This is the first time Wang Feng has seen an S-level rating!
As he guessed, the system does not completely refer to the settings in the 2K game. Just like the scoring mechanism, the highest score in 2K is A+, but this is obviously not the case in the system.
Since there is S-, there must be S, S+ or even SS!