"We can add new players!"
As soon as Myers said that, Pritchard's eyes lit up for a moment before settling back into calm.
"New players? What new players do you guys even have left?"
Because the Warriors had been so successful the past two seasons, their draft picks were almost all late first-round selections. In Pritchard's mind, the youngest player on the Warriors right now was Damian Jones, the 30th pick in 2016.
Hearing the sarcasm, Myers didn't get annoyed. He smiled.
"Sure, they're not on the same level as Oklahoma City's guys, but squeeze a little and we still have some rookies."
Myers leaned forward slightly.
"Like last year's Damian Jones, or Montrezl Harrell from the 2015 draft. Both are on the table."
Pritchard barely reacted when Jones was mentioned, but the moment Harrell's name came up, a hint of interest finally appeared on his face.
Taken 30th overall in 2015, Harrell had spent half a season developing in the G-League before returning to Golden State for spot minutes. And even though his playing time had dropped this season with the arrivals of Gasol and Whiteside, anyone with a keen eye could already see the potential of a chaos-game specialist in him.
"Harrell is worth considering."
Pritchard muttered, "That Jones kid you can keep."
Seeing him soften, Myers immediately leaned into it.
"Right? Harrell's absolutely solid. Keep him and develop him or flip him later, either way he's a real asset."
Pritchard couldn't help but feel tempted.
"But we still have to take on that Barnes contract. That's part of our evaluation too."
"Take on? You'll say anything just to drive the price down, huh?"
Myers had to stop himself from splashing his cup of water right in Pritchard's face.
Take on Barnes' contract? What a joke.
Barnes was their legitimate starting small forward, on a reasonable deal, still young, and in a market where the salary cap was exploding. His contract was clearly positive value.
Whether they used him or traded him, he was not dead weight.
How did it turn into sounding like they were helping the Warriors dump salary?
But Myers couldn't afford to flip the table now. He swallowed his frustration and asked as calmly as he could.
"So what exactly are you asking for?"
"Add another first-rounder."
Pritchard grinned mischievously.
Add my ass.
The curse reached Myers' throat before he forced it back down.
"That's pushing it, Kevin. You trying to rob me?"
Seeing Myers on the verge of blowing up, Pritchard wisely eased off.
"Oh come on, no need to get worked up."
"We can keep negotiating the price."
...
...
"Something happened! Something happened!"
Peja's panicked voice came rushing down the hallway.
Bang!
He burst into Chen Yilun's office, practically kicking the door open.
"The Western Conference just flipped upside down!"
Peja sprinted across the room and shoved his phone right under Chen Yilun's nose.
Chen Yilun, who had been slacking off, jumped in shock. For a moment, it felt like one of those moments from a past life where you're caught slacking by your boss.
Then he realized—wait, I'm the boss here!
"What are you panicking for?!"
He turned with irritation, ready to scold Peja, but the moment his eyes fell on the phone screen, he froze. He couldn't look away.
"The Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers have reached an agreement. The Rockets send Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, Juancho Hernangómez, Dekker, DeAndre Liggins, Kyle Wiltjer, Darrun Hilliard, and a future first-round pick to the Clippers in exchange for Chris Paul."
It happened.
Chen Yilun's expression hardened.
The 7-for-1 Rockets trade from his original timeline had still come to pass.
He'd thought that because of his interference in 2015, the Rockets didn't draft future Sixth Man Montrezl Harrell, so the deal might never happen.
After all, in the original timeline, the core pieces were Williams + Beverley + Harrell for Paul.
But unexpectedly, Harrell had effectively been replaced by Hernangómez.
Before he could process it, Peja shoved another headline in front of him.
"The Golden State Warriors and Indiana Pacers have reached a deal: the Warriors acquire Paul George in exchange for Barnes, Harrell, and a future second-round pick?"
"Paul George?"
If the Chris Paul trade was still within the realm of expectation, this one hit like a bolt from the heavens.
Failing to land Durant, the Warriors had gone all-in by betting everything on the reborn Paul George.
"Now this is interesting."
Chen Yilun took the phone and began studying both deals. Divac, whose office was next door, heard the commotion and stepped out to see what was going on.
The moment he saw the two trades, Divac froze.
"What happened? I was only working for a moment. How did the world change into something I don't recognize?"
Staring at the headlines, Divac fell into deep self-doubt.
"We pushed them too hard. Those two teams just went all-in."
Chen Yilun quickly understood the key point.
The Rockets and Warriors had thrown in everything they had to challenge him next season.
"Boss! There's another update!"
Peja scanned through the flood of notifications and suddenly spoke up.
"The Spurs were contacting us earlier, but I missed it because there were too many messages."
"The Spurs?"
Before Chen Yilun could even respond, his phone started buzzing nonstop.
"Kid, saw the news?"
That familiar, unchanging voice of Buford came through the line.
"Yeah, I saw it."
Chen Yilun laughed. "Looks like they couldn't hold back anymore and want to go all out against me."
"Exactly. Haven't seen things this exciting in years."
Buford's voice was as calm as ever, but his excitement was impossible to hide.
"Get ready, kid. With them stirring things up like this, we're being forced to move too. I'm coming for your CJ!"