Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

The Miami Heat's "want everything" attitude was also reflected in their recruitment of Stoudemire.

Riley hoped Stoudemire would join the Miami Heat and bulk up to play as a full-time center, which would not affect Kevin Love's developmental progress.

In contrast, Stoudemire preferred the Knicks, who did not require him to take a pay cut and allowed him to play whatever position he wanted.

Although the Knicks' plan to recruit James had failed, New York's core appeal was still intact. With the first person to join, more were sure to follow.

Stoudemire made his decision to sign with the Knicks, just like in the past.

Seeing Stoudemire gone, the Heat turned instead to offer a substantial max salary to Hedo Turkoglu, the core player on the Magic's wing, and the restricted free agent Danny Granger.

This meant that the Miami Heat's plan had shifted from signing two superstars to going all-in on one, even if his salary was higher than Wade's, because that was what Wade wanted.

The Bucks' salary cap was on the brink of explosion.

Granger had just finished his rookie contract.

As a key figure on the team, re-signing him was the Bucks' top priority.

But now, with Kevin Martin and Pau Gasol already on max contracts, and the selection of younger players since the Yu Fei era, either already signed on their second contracts or facing re-signing, the Bucks were capped.

Granger was their representative.

Keeping Granger was a must, but the Bucks were no longer the team that could explosively draw fan revenue after Yu Fei left.

Therefore, their option was to cut costs and generate revenue.

First, they matched the Heat's max offer to Granger, then traded Louis Williams, who had a mid-level contract, to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Wayne Ellington, a rookie chosen late in the first round this year, and two future second-round picks.

This greatly reduced their luxury tax for the next season and prepared them for LaMarcus Aldridge's re-signing next summer.

On the Magic's side, they did not pursue Turkoglu to the end.

Carter's outstanding performance in the playoffs and Howard's dominant defensive presence clouded their judgment on Turkoglu.

They believed that a guard like Nelson could take on Turkoglu's organizational responsibilities, and their only reason for not surpassing the Bucks was a lack of offensive firepower.

Thus, they aggressively pursued Ray Allen but showed little interest in continuing to make offers for Turkoglu.

This left both Miami Heat and Magic satisfied.

Miami Heat signed Hedo Turkoglu for 4 years with 60 million US Dollars, while Magic signed Ray Allen for the same terms.

Afterwards, Carlos Boozer signed with the Chicago Bulls, Shawn Marion was traded to the Mavericks, and Jason Kidd followed Stoudemire's steps into the Big Apple, securing most of the free agents on the market.

Then, Allen Iverson caught the interest of several teams.

Iverson was also a free agent, but he was no longer the superstar he had been at the beginning of the century.

For strong teams, if Iverson was willing to come off the bench and handle the offense for the second unit, then he was a valuable target.

But Iverson remained Iverson, and he refused to be a substitute.

In the end, only his former team, the Philadelphia 76ers, were willing to offer a minimum salary contract as they embraced tanking while also harvesting fan coins in the name of nostalgia.

With still more than ten million in salary cap space, the Miami Heat began stirring the pot in the free agent market.

They made their moves everywhere, finally setting their sights on Trevor Ariza who had just completed a qualifying offer with the Bulls and became a completely unrestricted free agent five years later.

In Milwaukee, Ariza was known as "Frye's man."

Because he was trained one-on-one by Yu Fei every day, his defense had greatly improved, and his shooting had rapidly progressed under the deliberate training of the coaching staff. However, his growth stalled during his time with the Bulls.

Before Derrick Rose arrived, the Bulls were an indistinct team.

They didn't know if their talent was enough to push for a championship, nor did they want to waste their playoff-contending capabilities on tanking.

The internal chaos shrunk Ariza's space for growth, and over the years, while his defense had significantly improved, his outside shooting percentage stayed at 33%, only two percent better than during his time with the Bucks.

But what Riley was interested in was precisely this semi-3D trait.

Ariza's growth from a rough guy who couldn't shoot to this point showed that his shooting ability was capable of development, and his defense on the small forward position was exactly what the Miami Heat urgently needed.

The Bulls had offered Ariza a 2-year contract worth 12 million US Dollars, which was nothing compared to the Heat's 4-year 28 million US Dollars mid-level contract.

Miami Heat successfully signed Ariza.

Thus, forming a starting lineup of Curry, Wade, Ariza, Turkoglu, and Love.

One funny point about this lineup was that Love was very likely to become the Miami Heat's starting center for the upcoming season.

But setting aside that joke, Yu Fei, currently participating in the shooting of "Iron Man 2" in Hollywood, felt that the Miami Heat had an amazing potential.

A lineup with four players capable of handling the ball embodied the all-round philosophy of the small-ball era, and it just might see the Miami Heat returning to the finals next season.

Meanwhile, the Lakers, which had become the Evil Empire, started bleeding.

After signing Richardson, they acquired James through a sign-and-trade deal.