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Chapter 586 - 254. Xia Village finally has newcomers!

Chapter 586: 254. Xia Village finally has newcomers!

From a strength perspective, championship-contending teams didn’t regard the Bobcats as the strongest competitors for the upcoming season’s championship.

The summer buzz universally suggested that the Chicago Bulls and the Lakers were on the rise and would become the strongest in their respective conferences.

The Pistons, having retained their main lineup and drafted two older, instantly impactful rookies in Noah and Dudley, were viewed as the second strongest in the East.

In the West, the competition for second place involved more teams, with the Jazz, Mavericks, Spurs, and Suns all vying for that spot.

Among them, the Jazz were the most favored, having snagged Korver, kept Matt Haplin in competition with the Bobcats, and with Deron, Kirilenko, Boozer, and Okur having all grown another year.

The only real loss of strength for the Jazz this summer—was being played by Fisher.

Fisher said he needed to accompany his child back to California for treatment and requested that the Jazz buy out his contract, which was originally signed with the Warriors in ’04: 6 years, $37 million, with 3 years and a total of $18.5 million remaining. He was willing to give up most of his salary.

The Jazz, thinking of Fisher as a loving father, agreed to his request and bought out his contract for $6.67 million... Two days later, Fisher announced his signing with the Lakers for 3 years $15 million.

This meant that Fisher was set to draw $5 million a year from the Lakers and an additional $2.22 million a year from the Jazz, successfully returning to his original team without any loss to his former team and even earning an extra million dollars a year in salary.

Utah media went crazy criticizing Fisher at the time, while also calling the Jazz management fools. Although Zhang Yang had anticipated this, he still couldn’t figure out the logic behind the Jazz management’s decision when he saw the news.

The initial reason Boozer joined the Jazz was because of Salt Lake City’s advanced medical facilities, right? The Jazz management really bought Fisher’s excuse?

It was too easy to speculate that Fisher wanted to return to the Lakers, even though he was going back to a backup role, just like with the Jazz, behind a third-year Deron, and he’d have to endure that "haunted" place in Salt Lake City.

The happiest about this situation had to be the Cavaliers fans—it was karma!

On the Bobcats’ end, despite being the reigning champions, the major media outlets generally ranked their strength outside the top five and believed their most likely regular-season finish would be third in the East. They might even face challenges from the Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors in the rankings.

After all, they had lost Gerald Wallace, and even if Felton, Zhang Yang, Rondo, and Okafor had all improved over the year, it would be very difficult to compensate for the loss of Gerald Wallace.

Gerald Wallace was not only a crucial offensive player but also the link in both the interior and perimeter defense for the Bobcats. The loss of his strength was too great.

From a power standpoint, the Bobcats had nothing to do with being the ’public enemy’, but the 19-year-old Zhang Yang...

Teams with their eyes on the championship didn’t want to see the Bobcats strengthen their forward line through trades or signings, especially with the likes of Joe Smith and Matt Haplin, who could defend both inside and outside.

If the Bobcats managed to fix their defensive gaps in the forward positions, who knew what crazy performance "bad boy" Jack could lead the team to in the playoffs—the Bobcats’ performance last postseason was too astonishing.

After the Mavericks and Suns were successively eliminated, everyone assumed the Spurs had the championship in the bag, but then the Warriors pulled off an upset against the Mavericks, the Suns got unexpectedly taken out by the Spurs, and in the end, it was all for the sake of dressing the Bobcats.

Bolstered by youth, the Bobcats almost certainly wouldn’t have beaten those two unexpectedly ousted teams, meaning not only did they perform beyond expectations, but their luck was also incredibly good.

Zhang Yang felt rather disheartened seeing the free agency market like this.

But he thought that owner Jordan also bore some responsibility—Jazz throwing out an average $6 million to snatch Korver, and a $7 million retention of Matt Haplin, it was hard to tell if it was because the competition was Jordan’s team.

Fortunately, he had commissioned a clever chess move in advance...

Time came to September 10th, Nash’s lease for the vacation villa had expired, and the learning journey of Zhang Yang and his party was also coming to an end.

Both sides were reluctant to part.

Zhang Yang, Felton, Rondo, and Alan Anderson had all learned a lot of game experience and practical details from Nash—something even trainers like Grove couldn’t provide.

Nash was also reluctant to let go; he had done his utmost to coach the four youngsters, but a mere ten days was not enough to imprint enough of his approach onto Felton’s and Rondo’s gameplay... *cough*, he was simply sad to part with several young talents. Training with them made him feel younger.

But the new season was drawing closer, and they all had to return to their own teams to prepare for it.

Both teams were facing tough situations in the new season.

The Suns, having lost three starters, with Jalen Rose retiring, Kurt Thomas poached by Supersonics for 3 years $24 million, and James Jones traded to the Knicks and then sent to the Trail Blazers...

And in the West, there was the addition of the titanic Lakers.

The Bobcats lost Gerald Wallace, and the East saw the rise of another juggernaut team—the Chicago Bulls.

This added affinity Nash had for the Bobcats’ youngsters was due to their shared misfortune.

At noon, after a farewell lunch, the group of seven arrived at the airport.

Lola and Bella each clung to one of Zhang Yang’s legs, reluctant to part, as Nash forcibly took his two daughters away—who were clinging shamelessly—reminding them that their dad was also a big shot in the basketball world!