By Lee Dresie | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-04-01 21:00:00
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
马刺队正在启动NBA走向全球的征程。
一则震惊NBA世界和法国的消息传来，马刺队今天宣布他们已经将 维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama) 交易至新奥尔良鹈鹕队。请注意措辞——不是交易到新奥尔良鹈鹕队，而是用 文班亚马 换取新奥尔良鹈鹕队。本质上，马刺队将用一名球员换取鹈鹕队的整个阵容。
另一则肯定相关的消息是，鹈鹕队宣布，在2025-26赛季，并且很可能延续更长时间，他们将把一半的主场比赛放在法国巴黎进行。因此，鹈鹕队既会在新奥尔良的法国区附近比赛，也会在法国真正的法国区比赛。在法国的比赛中，球队将被称为“鹈鹕队(Pelicans)”，因为鹈鹕的法语单词就是“Pelican”。
看来 文班亚马 在这次交易发生前咨询过他的意见。在公告发布后我联系了他， 维克托 要求我向整个马刺队组织表达他真诚的感谢，感谢他们在他在圣安东尼奥的短暂逗留期间给予的支持，并特别感谢他们允许他成为首支跨洲球队的一员。 维克托 还表示，他将努力招募法国国家队的队友。提醒一下，去年夏天在法国举行的奥运会上， 维克托 和他的同胞们赢得了银牌。
NBA已经批准了这笔交易，并且免除了薪资帽的限制，因为马刺队承诺交易或裁掉足够多的现有马刺队球员或前鹈鹕队球员，以便在下个赛季开始前达到薪资帽以下。NBA愿意支持这笔交易，无疑反映了联盟经常表达的将市场扩张到美国和加拿大以外的愿望。事实上，亚当·肖华上周宣布联盟打算扩张到欧洲，而这似乎是这个过程的第一步。
内部消息人士透露，这笔交易始于鹈鹕队询问马刺队是否会考虑以 锡安·威廉姆森(Zion Williamson) 为核心交易 文班亚马 。马刺队显然回应说：“真可笑。我猜你的意思是 锡安 和球队的其他人”，鹈鹕队回应说：“当然，好的，为什么不呢？” 鹈鹕队肯定认为 文班亚马 是那种可以围绕其建队的球员，即使这意味着完全从头开始重建球队。今天球队阵容中只有一名球员，鹈鹕队肯定有足够的薪资空间。他们大概也希望巴黎的“主场”比赛地点对球员和他们喜欢挥霍的妻子或女友们有吸引力。（自我提醒：应该是妻子还是女友？）当然，在法国购买商品可以避免因任何关税而导致的价格上涨，这对鹈鹕队球员和其他在法国对阵“勒鹈鹕”的NBA球队来说都是额外的奖励。
从马刺队的角度来看，他们知道他们会受到与最近 卢卡·东契奇(Luca Dončić) 被交易到湖人队时类似的强烈反对。但是马刺队从这次交易中获得的远比独行侠队从 东契奇 那里获得的要多。马刺队得到了整个鹈鹕队阵容，而不是独行侠队的“回报”——经常受伤的 安东尼·戴维斯(Antony Davis) 、道格·克里斯蒂的儿子和选秀权。马刺队显然得出结论，将两个阵容合并为一个阵容的能力将创造一个即时的竞争者，也许是本赛季，并且会持续多年。例如，马刺队可以在今晚对阵奥兰多魔术队和明天对阵丹佛掘金队的比赛中，将 锡安·威廉姆森 和 特雷·墨菲(Trey Murphy) 加入他们的首发阵容——肯定会让这两个季后赛竞争者吓得魂飞魄散。鹈鹕队阵容的加入能否让马刺队在季后赛附加赛中取得最后的冲刺？如果能的话，马刺队将成为一支没人想与之交手的球队，即使是第十号种子。
即使这不能推动马刺队进入本赛季的季后赛，合并阵容中的许多球员都可以在今年夏天成为有价值的交易筹码。马刺队可以进行二换一的交易来减少阵容中的球员数量，或者从收购多余球员的球队那里换回选秀权。例如，马刺队可以用 锡安 、 墨菲 和 CJ·麦科勒姆(C.J. McCullum) 中的任何一个换取大量选秀权和/或优质球员。尽管任何交易 锡安 的球队都可能要求在交易中加入一大堆H-E-B折扣券。
有些人可能想知道为什么马刺队选择在 文班亚马 去年向马刺队球迷发出消息一周年之际宣布这一消息，即他将在2023-24赛季结束后返回法国，这个消息最早在这里报道。如果Pounding the Rock的读者查看日历，他们应该能够确定为什么今天发布此公告。事实上，我似乎每年这个时候都会宣布类似重大新闻……
点击查看原文：Stunning trade news out of San Antonio
Stunning trade news out of San Antonio
The Spurs are kicking off the NBA’s quest to go global.
In news that shocked the NBA world and the country of France, the Spurs announced today that they have traded Victor Wembanyama for the New Orleans Pelicans. Note the distinction — not TO the New Orleans Pelicans, FOR the New Orleans Pelicans. In essence, in exchange for one player, the Spurs will be receiving the entire New Orleans Pelicans roster.
In what is surely related news, the Pelicans announced that for the 2025-26 season, and presumably longer, they will play half of their home games in Paris, France. As a result, the Pelicans will be playing both near the French Quarter in New Orleans and in an actual French Quarter in France. For the games in France, the team will be known as the “Pelicans” because the French word for Pelican is “Pelican”.
It appears that Wembanyama was consulted on this move before it happened. When I contacted him after the announcement, Victor asked me to convey his sincere appreciation to the entire Spurs organization for their support during his short stay in San Antonio, and to especially thank them for allowing him to be part of the first bi-continental team in all of sports. Victor also said that he will work hard recruiting his teammates from the French National team. As a reminder, Victor and his countrymen won the silver medal in last summer’s Olympic Games, which also took place in France.
The NBA has already approved the trade and waived salary cap considerations based on the Spurs’ commitment to trade or release enough existing Spurs players or ex-Pelican players to get under the cap before the start of next season. The NBA’s willingness to go along with the transaction surely reflects the league’s oft-stated desire to expand its market outside of the USA and Canada. Indeed, Adam Silver announced last week the league’s intent to expand to Europe, and this seems to be the first step in that process.
Inside sources indicate that the transaction began with the Pelicans asking whether the Spurs would consider a trade for Wembanyama centered around Zion Williamson. The Spurs apparently responded with something like, “Very funny. I assume you mean Zion and the rest of the team”, to which Pelicans responded with “Sure, OK, why not?” The Pelicans surely see Wembanyama as the type of player to build a team around, even if that means building the remainder of the team totally from scratch. With only one player on their roster today, the Pelicans certainly have plenty of room under the salary cap. They presumably also hope the Paris location for half their “home” games will be attractive to players and their free-spending wives and girlfriends. (Note to self: Should that be wives or girlfriends?) Of course, purchases made in France will avoid the higher prices resulting from any tariffs, an added bonus both for Pelican players and the other NBA teams playing against “Le Pelicans” in France.
From the Spurs’ standpoint, they know they will receive the same sort of backlash that accompanied the recent trade of Luca Doncic to the Lakers. But the Spurs receive much more in this exchange than the Mavs got for Doncic. The Spurs get the entire Pelicans roster as opposed to the Mavs’ “haul” – FI-AD (Frequently Injured Antony Davis), Doug Christie’s son and draft picks. The Spurs apparently concluded that the ability to merge two rosters into one will allow the creation of an immediate contender, perhaps this season, and for years to come. For instance, the Spurs could add Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy to their starting line-up for tonight’s game against Orlando and tomorrow’s against Denver – surely scaring the hell out of both of those playoff contenders. Could the addition of the Pelicans’ roster allow the Spurs to make a late-run to the Play-In Tourney? If so, the Spurs will become the Team That No One Wants to Play, even as the 10th seed.
Even if this does not propel the Spurs into this season’s playoffs, many of the players on the combined roster can become valuable trade bait this summer. The Spurs can make either two for one deals to reduce the number of players on the roster, or take back draft picks from the team acquiring the excess players. For example, the Spurs could presumably get numerous draft picks and/or quality players in exchange for each of Zion, Murphy and C.J. McCullum. Though any team trading for Zion may demand a boatload of H-E-B discount coupons in the deal.
Some may wonder why the Spurs chose to make this announcement on the first anniversary of Wembanyama’s message to Spurs’ fans last year that he would be returning to France at the end of the 2023-24 season, a story first reported here. If Pounding the Rock readers look at the calendar, they should be able to determine why this announcement is being made today. In fact, I seem to announce similar breaking news every year at this time…
By Lee Dresie, via Pounding The Rock