Paul Was Traded! (First Update!)

The pre-season was about to begin.

Right at that time, the Pelicans officially announced that Stevens had joined the Pelicans.

The two sides had signed a six-year, $24 million contract.

A $4 million annual salary was absolutely in the upper-middle range among all coaches' salaries.

At present, only a handful of coaches earned more than that—Popovich, Rivers, Stan Van Gundy, Carlisle, and the like. It was even higher than that of thousand-win coach George Karl and Cavaliers Head Coach Blatt, placing him in the same tier as Cole.

And Popovich, Rivers, and Van Gundy, who earned salaries in the tens of millions, also held the position of team president of basketball operations.

All of this fully demonstrated how much the Pelicans valued Stevens.

It also confirmed the causal relationship between results and investment. Although the Pelicans had not won the championship last season, they had come very close, so Benson had every reason to spend big.

This announcement also sparked a huge wave of discussion among fans on social media.

"Stevens led the Celtics into the Playoffs last season. Keep in mind that they traded away Rondo last season, and he had played 22 games before leaving;

They also traded away the team's top scorer, Jeff Green, who had played 33 games;

Their final core player was the 1.75-meter Isaiah Thomas, who had played 21 games.

Avery Bradley, Jared Sullinger, Brandon Bass, Tyler Zeller, Jae Crowder, Marcus Smart...

Among these players, the one you might know best was probably Bradley, who had been a rookie during the Celtics' Big Three era. This was truly a team dominated by role players, yet Stevens led them into the Playoffs and even won two games against the League First Hawks in the Eastern Conference.

So, when he coached Tang Tian, Davis, Jokic, Holiday,