Chapter 468: Chapter 403: Don’t Want to Be Wade’s Backup
"With the 24th pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, the Dallas Mavericks select Josh Howard."
On the television, Stern announced the 24th pick with a smile.
"Fuck!"
Inside the room, Brian furiously kicked a nearby chair, sending it flying.
After a long discussion, they had finally decided to use their own first-round pick on Josh Howard.
In Brian’s words, they were trusting Chen Yu’s prediction.
But they hadn’t expected the Mavericks to snipe him.
"Then we’ll have to pick Kendrick Perkins, assuming we can even get him," Skiles said from across the room, rubbing his temples in frustration.
The result of their discussion was that Josh Howard was their first choice, and Kendrick Perkins was their second.
Brian turned his head, shooting a resentful look at Chen Yu through the camera.
"Chen, you ranked Josh Howard too high."
Brian felt that if it weren’t for Chen Yu’s potential rankings, a player of Josh Howard’s age and draft stock would have definitely fallen to the late first round, or even the second.
Chen Yu picked up his water glass and raised it to him from across the screen.
With the 25th pick, the Lakers selected power forward Brian Cook.
It was almost the Suns’ turn.
Just then, Brian’s phone rang.
He snatched it up, and his spirits lifted instantly when he saw the caller ID.
It wasn’t Jerry West having a change of heart, but Bob Bass, the general manager of the Hornets.
"Mr. Bass, what are your thoughts?" Brian asked with a broad smile.
As the first head coach of the Nuggets, the man was a league legend. Given his age, Brian didn’t dare to be too presumptuous.
Besides, after being played by West, Brian had come to a clear realization: other teams in the league didn’t like dealing with him. If he wanted to complete a trade, he really had to plaster on a smile and say all the right things.
"Brian, we’ve agreed to your proposal," Bob Bass said, not beating around the bush.
The phone was on speaker, so everyone heard it.
Brian excitedly pumped his fist in the air. Today’s trading efforts wouldn’t be for nothing, after all.
Just a moment ago, Chen Yu had suggested that since they couldn’t get Wade, they could trade up with the Suns’ first-round pick this year to get David West from the Hornets.
Brian had offered a two-for-one deal.
Two late first-round picks for the 19th pick. He felt it was a very reasonable and sincere offer.
He had been afraid that Bob Bass would follow Jerry West’s example and fleece him with an outrageous demand.
But now it seemed Bob Bass was much more reasonable than West.
"But," Bob Bass’s tone shifted, "we don’t want your first-round pick from this year. We want your 2004 and 2006 first-round picks."
Brian froze for a moment.
He had previously proposed trading this year’s and 2005’s first-round picks.
"Do you agree?" Bob Bass asked.
"Mr. Bass, please give me two minutes."
Brian quickly hung up the phone, turned to the others, and gave them a questioning look.
Skiles frowned. "Does he think we’ll be worse in three years, so our pick will be higher?"
But on second thought, it made sense.
By ’06, O’Neal would be 34, and Hardaway would be 33.
By then, the Suns’ competitiveness would surely decline significantly, and their draft position would definitely improve—at least higher than this year’s pick.
Brian had clearly thought of this as well. He glanced again at Chen Yu on the computer screen and immediately redialed the number.
"Mr. Bass, we agree."
After hanging up, Brian hardened his resolve. ’Ewing and Olajuwon could still play at 40,’ he thought. ’What’s the big deal about O’Neal being 34? He can still stay at his peak.’
Meanwhile, Bob Bass had also arrived at the draft venue.
He hung up the phone, glanced at head coach Paul Silas sitting across from him, and said, "They agreed."
Paul Silas nodded.
He had no objections to the trade.
The Hornets’ current roster was quite solid.
In the backcourt, they had David Wesley and Byron Davis.
On the front line, they had Jamal Mashburn, P.J. Brown, and Jamal Magloire.
They had experience, they had talent, and their chemistry was excellent. He had no plans to make any adjustments for the time being.
Drafting David West was just a routine move to bolster the roster.
A 19th pick at 23 years old... to be honest, he wasn’t expecting any stellar performances from David West.
The draft was basically a lottery, anyway.
Since the Suns had their eye on him, a two-for-one trade was actually a pretty good option.
Being in the East, the thought of whether trading with the Suns would be arming an enemy never even crossed his mind.
Would the Suns suddenly be weak without one David West?
Besides, the Hornets’ current goal was to get past the first round of the playoffs, not to compete with the Suns for a championship.
"I’ll go inform him, then," Paul Silas said, getting up.
After drafting West, he hadn’t even had a chance to talk to him yet.
After shaking hands with Stern and putting on a Hornets cap, David West went backstage, where his agent, Lance Young, was the first to greet him with an excited, celebratory hug.
But after letting go, he noticed that West didn’t seem very excited.
"David, you made it to the NBA! You’re about to become a millionaire! Why aren’t you happy?" Lance Young asked.
David West forced a smile and sighed. "I just feel like my pick was too low. Think about it, in the potential rankings Chen made, he put me at number nine."
Lance Young quickly shook his head. "David, that so-called potential ranking from Chen is, at best, a reference. Do you really think the GMs in this league actually believe it? Besides, you know your own situation."
He didn’t elaborate.
For a 23-year-old, this draft position was more than good enough.
David West sighed and said no more.
’The pick is in. It’s not like it can be changed now.’
He waited patiently backstage for someone from the Hornets.
After a while, Paul Silas finally arrived.
David West composed himself, smiled, and stepped forward to greet him.
Unexpectedly, Paul Silas just gave him a simple pat on the shoulder and informed him with a deadpan expression that, unfortunately, he had been traded to the Suns.
With that, he just walked away.
David West stood frozen to the spot, too stunned to complain about Paul Silas’s coldness. He turned to Lance Young and said in disbelief, "Lance, did I hear that right? I’ve been traded to the Suns?"
Lance Young’s heart was also pounding uncontrollably.
"David, you’ve hit the jackpot!"
Lance Young snapped back to his senses and excitedly threw his arms around West.
What kind of lousy team were the Hornets? A team so weak they were about to relocate. How could they possibly compare to a championship team like the Suns?
Going to the Suns, even if it meant just sitting on the bench, was a dream start for any rookie.
David West was also visibly excited. Before the draft, knowing his prospects weren’t great, he had actually fantasized about being picked by the Suns late in the first round.
He never thought the dream would come true.
"It must be because of Chen. He thinks highly of me, so the Suns traded for me," David West said decisively.
Everyone knew Chen Yu had a lot of influence on the Suns and was about to become a minority owner of the team.
Back on the Suns’ side, after completing the trade, it was their turn to make a selection.
Fortunately, their second target hadn’t been sniped by another team.
Brian didn’t hesitate for long and selected Kendrick Perkins directly.
However, he was still unsatisfied, grumbling nonstop about West’s ruthlessness and outrageous demands.
Chen Yu rubbed his ears and casually turned down the volume on the video call.
At this point, the Suns’ draft for the year was basically over.
They had one second-round pick left, and as Brian had said before, getting Kovol would be easy. Even if they didn’t get a chance to draft him, it wouldn’t be a problem.
Who could really expect to hit the jackpot with a second-round pick anyway?
While Brian grumbled on, the draft moved into the second round.
Skiles also left the room to meet the two new rookies.
Brian turned his head and asked Chen Yu when he would be back in Phoenix.
Chen Yu had muted the audio and couldn’t hear what he was saying, but he glanced up occasionally and saw Brian talking nonstop at the camera, pointing at his own phone.
Chen Yu unmuted the audio and asked him what was wrong.
Brian looked ecstatic and quickly put his phone on speaker.
On the other end of the line was a man’s voice that was quite familiar to Chen Yu. "Brian, that’s our initial thought. I can make this happen. What do you think?"
Brian quickly replied, "Okay, Hahn, thanks for the call. We need to discuss it."
He hung up, jumped high in the air with excitement, and started shadowboxing wildly, yelling and shouting.
"What’s with him?" Chen Yu asked Nelson, completely bewildered.
Nelson leaned in and said, "It’s Terrem."
Hahn Trellem. He was Miller’s agent.
Chen Yu was also taken aback. ’Could there be another change of plans with Miller?’
After venting his excitement, Brian sat down and said to Chen Yu, "Chen, it’s Miller! He still wants to join the Suns! Oh my God, even though we didn’t get Wade, we might get Miller! This is just fantastic!"
He explained in detail until Chen Yu finally understood.
"So, you’re saying Reggie left Phoenix because we were trying to trade up for Wade."
Chen Yu had found it strange before, how Miller had just up and left so suddenly without a word.
Now he knew the reason.
In Terrem’s own words, Miller didn’t want to be a backup for a rookie like Wade. He could accept the fact that he was getting older and was willing to come to the Suns for a championship, but he didn’t want to play for the Suns as a substitute, like Oakley or Old Curry.
He could compromise with himself, but he still had his limits.
And that limit was that he had to at least be a starter, like Ewing and Olajuwon, contributing to the team through his own efforts and leaving his own sweat on that championship trophy.
The Suns were so eager to draft Wade, which meant they would definitely invest heavily in his development and give him a starting position.
Therefore, Miller couldn’t accept being a backup for a rookie and chose to leave.
Now, seeing that the Suns’ hopes had been dashed and they hadn’t gotten Wade, he had changed his mind again.
"He’s famous for his discipline. Even though he’s 38, he still played 70 games last season, averaging over 30 minutes a game. He’d have no problem starting. As for a sign-and-trade, that benefits us too," Brian calculated excitedly.
Miller also proposed that even if he were to leave the Pacers, he wanted to do it via a sign-and-trade to at least leave something behind for them.
Brian thought that was perfect.
Initially, he had planned to sign Miller using the mid-level exception.
But on Gary Payton’s side, his agent had also indicated that Payton was unwilling to accept a veteran’s minimum salary and wanted the Suns to use the mid-level exception to sign him.
Brian had been in a bind at the time.
Now, everything worked out perfectly.
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