(Sorry, it's late tonight)

For Trail Blazers' general manager Situ Inman, the current situation facing Trail Blazers makes him both optimistic and disgusting.

In 1984, the newly appointed NBA president David Stern introduced the salary cap system, which is also an important step in the standardization of the NBA salary system.

For NBA general managers, this means they can no longer issue contracts to players at will. For example, the Magicians' 25-year contract of 25 million will not only be unprecedented but also a success.

Therefore, Inman will start to effectively manage the players' assets on his opponents, not only considering the present, but also thinking about the future of the team.

After three high-quality drafts in 1983, 1984 and 1985, the Trail Blazers have already had a group of excellent young players, including Gan Guoyang and Drexler, both cornerstone superstar players.

This was beyond Inman's expectation. When choosing Drexler in 1983, the Glider was just a 14-round rookie. His shooting skills were problematic and he did not show enough dominance like his teammate Olajuwon. However, two years of training have made him an all-around defender who is full of expectations.

In 1984, the Portlanders' primary goal was Drexler's college teammate Olajuwon, for which the Trail Blazers solicited opinions from citizens across Portland about which side of the coin they should choose.

Although the Portlanders eventually chose the wrong side, allowing the Houstonians to win their city heroes, the Trail Blazers also became a blessing in disguise and took Gan Guoyang.

This choice is naturally controversial, not because of Gan Guoyang's potential, but because of his skin color. No one thinks that a yellow man can show his dominance in the NBA, even if he defeats all sides in the NCAA and wins the NCAA national championship.

After a year of trial, Gan Guoyang showed enough talent and proved that he could definitely become a historical player.

So Inman had to start considering the future renewal of these two new stars.

The performance of both of them can be said to be far beyond the team's expectations, which made Inman happy and bothered him because it disrupted his team building plan.

The big deal in the offseason in 1984 brought powerful attacker Van der Wizard to the Trail Blazers, paired with the old No. 1 pick Sampson, Valentine, who was playing for the year, plus the growing Gan Guoyang and Drexler, this will be a very competitive lineup.

But Gan Guoyang and Drexler grew too fast, so soon they will become one of the strongest players in the league and gain the dominance of the Trail Blazers, becoming the real core of this team.

However, Van dervich is not a veteran in his twilight years. He is at the peak and is at the golden age of an NBA player. This is a good thing for the team's strength, but it is a trouble for team management.

During the offseason, Van derwich had applied for a contract renewal to Inman. He wanted a long-term contract to reflect the value of his team's number one scoring master.

If Gan Guoyang did not appear, if the Trail Blazers chose Sam Bowie, the Trail Blazers would choose to renew their contract with Van dervich and use a high salary to keep this efficient outside scorer.

But now, for Inman, Van derwich, a white outsider with potential injuries and defensive flaws, is no longer his first choice. How to keep Gan Guoyang with a contract this summer is the boss's priority task assigned to him.

Of course, due to the existence of the Celtic Bird clause in 1984, the Trail Blazers could go beyond the salary cap limit and Van der Wich, or Sampson signed a contract, but this would undoubtedly greatly increase the Trail Blazers' salary expenses, which was not what their boss, Larry Weinberg, would like to see.

He is not a world-renowned rich man. Before taking over the Trail Blazers, Larry Weinberg was just a real estate developer. At that time, he was just one of the bosses who took over the Trail Blazers (Inman is also the founder of the team). He was willing to pay money to shape a championship team-assuming that the money can be doubled in his pocket in the future.

Judging from Inman's team building analysis, signing Van der Vicky with a large contract is not a good choice. This will increase expenditure and lead to the team's operating space being locked down - there was no concept before 1984, and Inman is now re-learning these complex rules.

Sampson's problem is similar to Van der Wizard, and may be more troublesome than Van der Wizard, because when Sampson was selected and trained by the players the Trail Blazers themselves had an unforgettable friendship with Portland.

But he never became one of the best players in the league as the Trail Blazers expected. He just worked diligently to do what he should do, and then clocked in with the Trail Blazers for nearly ten years.

In comparison, Paxson has to deal with it better. This shooting guard, also trained by the Trail Blazers, has been gradually excluded from the Trail Blazers' future blueprint as the conflict broke out in the playoffs last season.

However, compared with another problem, these problems do not seem to be a big problem. In Mann's view, problems that can be solved with money are not a big problem.

The biggest problem facing Inman is how to say goodbye to the former brain of the Trail Blazers, meritorious coach Ramsey, and find Ramsey's successor.

Ramsey, Inman, Weinberg, and the Trail Blazers spent 10 years together. Fortunately, in the first year of their collaboration, in 1977, they won the NBA championship and stood on the top of the world.

Unfortunately, in the following days, they continued to climb towards the peak of glory they had reached, but never touched that place again. The closest season they were in the just-concluded 1984-1985 season, and this incomplete young team rushed to the Western Conference Finals.

According to common sense, in the new season, the Blazers' goal should be the finals or even the championship. They should strengthen in the summer and sign new players, but Inman did not do that.

His years of work as a manager has made him realize that such a long-term structure cannot last. The conflict between Gan Guoyang and Sampson, Drexler and Paxson last season has affected the team's performance. Even if everything is eliminated in the end, who can guarantee that the Gemini wings will become stronger and stronger in the future, will a new conflict with the old members?

Instead of waiting until things are out of control before dealing with them, it is better to kill all the roots of the disaster in the bud. He does not want what happened to Walton to repeat, and that injury and conflict ruined the ten-year period of the Trail Blazers.

To remove the old forces within the Trail Blazers, Ramsey, the respected old coach, inevitably became a victim.

One of the reasons why Inman wanted to replace his assistant coach was to limit Ramsey's power and gradually undermine his voice in the team's tactics. Although Bellman knew nothing about this, Adelman had already noticed it.

At the same time, Inman has long been impatient with Ramsey's team-building ideas. His ideas that were successfully implemented in 1977 now seem to be out of date. Ramsey still holds this "ideal country" to select talents, build his champion, and relive his former dreams.

In fact, Inman has already smelled a little from the recruitment of other teams and the reform of the NBA - he knows that the future NBA will soon become faster and stronger, and team basketball will gradually be replaced by more dazzling superstar basketball. Stern's publicity on the yellow and green battle and the Hukai showdown also made Inman realize the importance of "stars" and "confrontation" to the NBA.

This forced Inman, who holds two high-quality resources, to cut off his old feelings from the past. He took a ruthless move for the future of the Trail Blazers. In the summer, he had clearly told Ramsey that the team would not renew his contract with him and that this season would be Ramsey's last season.

If the team's record is not good, Ramsey may even be dismissed early and be left behind as the Trail Blazers, a giant wheel that is constantly moving forward.

Judging from the first three games, the Trail Blazers are in good shape at present. The new assistant coach is really capable. It is not entirely just the chess piece used by Inman to suppress Ramsey. Of course, it may also be because the opponent is too weak.

According to Inman's understanding, in the third game against the Clippers, Ramsey had lost control of the team, and this actually showed a hint of clues from the playoffs last season.

Inman is happy to see this. His ideal state is that Van der Witz and Sampson do not play well because the contract is not guaranteed. Ramsey will definitely not be able to control these two old players, and the team's performance will naturally decline.

Ramsey's resignation is the best result. If possible, he will trade Van der Witz or Sampson in exchange for younger potential players or more obedient and easy-to-use veterans to assist the two future stars.

Others such as Cauchy, Porter, Valentine and Paxson are all easy-to-handle players. Inman is not in a hurry. He has enough time to wait and observe. Drexler and Gan Guoyang are still very young and have a long life.

Among them, Drexler had signed a two-year contract with the team in the summer, which was not high, but the age was also very short. Therefore, Inman had to make a lot of preparations to retain this outside glider in the future.

Gan Guoyang is a real headache for Inman. He knew that this guy's agent was a famous vampire. His Michael Jordan had already finalized a two-year contract with the Bulls. From this, Inman judged that Gan Guoyang's contract would definitely not be less than two-year contract of 1.6 million, which is already bigger than Van dervich's contract.

Inman hopes to sign a contract with Gan Guoyang with a longer term and lower average salary, but how to convince his agent and this basketball boy from China will be Inman's biggest problem.

"Four years, 2.5 million, I hope such a contract can make him excited... By the way, what I gave him is not only a contract, but also control of the entire team. He will definitely not refuse..." Inman sat in his office, looking at Willamette River outside the window and thought.
Chapter completed!