When Stern announced the final result of the MVP, there was no sense of excitement on James' face.

Although the All-Star MVP has the lowest value among all MVPs, no matter how small the flies are, they are still meat, especially when they first receive this honor in their careers.

He took the trophy from Stern and couldn't help but kiss the trophy excitedly, his eyes flushed.

This scene also caused a burst of cheers on the scene.

In the eyes of many people, the "Son of God" who was about to defeat Sun Hao as soon as he entered the alliance, finally began to realize his talent!

In the days to come, there will be another topic for fans to discuss.

James has a very high quota. After winning the trophy, he has a long but organized speech on winning the award, which is very stylish with Sun Hao.

And surprisingly, at the end of this speech, James emphasized to thank someone.

"I want to beat him because he is the perfect player I think, and I also want to thank him because he motivates me to keep moving forward."

Although James did not say who "he" was, everyone knew who "he" was.

Especially when James looked at Sun Hao after he finished speaking, the cheers at the scene reached a peak.

Compared with James, Sun Hao has only entered the league for three years earlier.

But the achievements he has made cannot be compensated by many years.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the eyes of James and the others, Sun Hao now needs to look up to Jordan just like the players in the past.

As the All-Star Game ended, fans' eyes also shifted from the All-Star Game to the free trading market.

Like in previous years, the trade deadline is shortly after the All-Star Game.

However, compared with previous years, the performance of each team this year is similar to pre-match expectations. Although there are many rumors about trading, most of them are in the scope of small-scale fights.

The Lakers had many problems, and Kupchek wanted to trade all players except Sun Hao at the end of December.

But after O'Neal's comeback, these people suddenly became able to play basketball again, and those ideas were left alone.

But there is a person who has always been rumored.

Michael Finley.

Finley is 32 years old this year, and his ability declines as he ages.

Especially after Payton arrived, his positioning became a little awkward.

Many people may forget that Sun Hao is actually a dual-athlete guard because of his long-term role as a point guard.

Judging from the Lakers' configuration, the effect of Payton and Sun Hao in the backcourt is obviously better than Finley.

So the Lakers sought to trade Finley at the beginning of the season, but they had been struggling to have no next company.

This has to start with Finley's contract.

In 2001, Nelson and Finley signed a seven-year, long-term contract of more than 90 million yuan, and the contract lasted until 2008.

Moreover, Finley performed well at the beginning, which was a contract with an increase in annual salary. Finley's salary this year was as high as 15.94 million, which was higher than Sun Hao.

But then again, if it weren't for Finley's contract, the Mavericks might not have agreed to trade Sun Hao to the Lakers.

So it makes no sense to blame Finley's contract, the key is how to deal with it.

Of course, the rumors remain. In history, Finley's contract was bought out directly by the Mavericks. It is really difficult for the Lakers to deal with it.

To make a very simple analogy, this contract has three years left, and it is all close to the maximum salary, which is bigger than the two garbage contracts that the Lakers gave to "Deng Yingqiao" and Mozgov in history.

The difficulty of handling the two contracts is impressive, and it is easy to imagine how difficult it is.

Time is fast, and the transaction deadline is coming in a blink of an eye.

On this day, each team made continuous small transactions, but they basically fall into the scope of small-scale fights.

The only thing that caught the eye was a deal between the Nuggets and the Hornets.

The Nuggets sent out former three-point contest champion Wash Leonard and two future second-round picks, getting JR Smith from the Hornets trade.

The deal can be considered "unexpected and reasonable."

Unexpectedly, JR was the first round pick that the Hornets only selected last year. Although the pick is not very high, the 18th pick is not low.

And as a rookie, he averaged double-digit points per game last year, which was a great value for money.

Including the cooperation between participating in the slam dunk contest last year and James, it is still fresh in memory.

This rookie traded and left before the second year, which is a bit surprising from a theoretical point of view.

It's reasonable because Smith has shown his thorny attribute in his second season.

At the beginning of this season, he started well, playing 21 games in 22 games and averaged 11 points per game.

But it was the time when he was substituting the bench and had a quarrel with head coach Scott on the spot.

After that, his team's status dropped again and again, from starting to substitute, and finally he was directly on the bench by Xuezang.

At this time, someone may ask, why does Scott have such great power to directly pull the starter to the bench?

As a player who is focused on being trained by the team, won’t the management have any objections?

This has to start with Smith's playing style.

Smith's playing style of the league just now is very different from his future, and he is a standard deductible player.

This is also the reason why he was invited to participate in the dunk contest last year when he was a rookie and competed on the same stage with James and Sun Hao.

One thing most dunks have in common is that they are not good at shooting, and Smith is no exception.

His rookie shooting percentage at the basket reached 56.7%, but in addition, his mid-range distance was only 38%, and his three-pointers were only 28.8%.

In the end, his overall shooting percentage was only 39.4%.

This is obviously unqualified for an outside line.

So this year, in order to improve himself, he began to practice three-point shooting hard, and his outside shooting percentage increased greatly.

At this time, the Hornets were a team that attached great importance to pick-and-roll and defensive counterattacks, and they did not want Smith to develop in that direction.

It may be a bit strange to say it, but his hard training conflicts with the Hornets' training method.

In addition, Smith always likes to take difficult shots and thorny attributes in the game.

It is reasonable that Hornets management did not object to Scott's decision.

So at this time, Smith, who had already been hidden in the trade, could get an experienced veteran and get two draft picks, so the Hornets would naturally be happy.

As for the starting point of the Nuggets, after a round trip, we have to start with last year's dunk contest.

The All-Star Weekend stage was very exposed, and the Nuggets management saw the tacit understanding that James and Smith showed in the dunk contest.

In addition, Smith has a good defense, and his three-pointers have improved greatly, and his playing style is very consistent with James.

As for the thorn attributes, the Nuggets management also believes that James' personality can control players like Smith.

Combining these, it is reasonable that they will trade Smith.

As for whether the management has consulted James or whether the transaction was requested by James, it is unknown.

Sun Hao was also surprised when he saw this deal.

In the history he knew, James and Smith started to cooperate very lately, and the classic gif picture from dribbling to the end of the game was born.

But now, the fledgling Smith meets James who has begun to realize his talent. He doesn't know whether the two will recreate the "long-term reunion" in history or have a violent chemical reaction.

To be honest, Smith's talent is very outstanding and is called an existence that is "comparable to Jordan" by fans.

There is another saying, "JR is not nervous, and he is all-star every day."

If James could hold Smith at this time, the combination of the two was worth looking forward to.

It was at this time that Sun Hao felt that James was a little like summoning historical generals.

Copying the miracle of Nowitzki in history in 2011? It has begun to become more and more sensible.

Apart from this transaction, there is nothing else worth paying attention to on this deadline.

Including the Lakers, Kupchek was unable to send Finley out in the end.

To use an inappropriate analogy, this difficulty is not much higher than that of the Lakers who traded Sun Hao.

Some people may say that it is not enough to pay a draft pick? Or they may change to a shorter garbage contract and then deal with it slowly.

Or it really doesn't work out directly like the Mavericks in history.

From a simple perspective, this is feasible.

But the problem is that the Lakers are not allowed to do that now.

When they deal with Finley, they expect to get a player with similar strength to Finley, or a little worse than Finley.

For nothing else, it's because the Lakers are trying to defend their title.

If one Finley is suddenly missing and there is no reward, it will be like a waste of martial arts and the loss will be more than worth it.

This is the most difficult thing for Finley to deal with.

The free market has settled and the second half of the NBA season has officially begun.
To be continued...