NBA: I am the god of basketball

Chapter 351 With frequent big moves, James forms the Big Three again?

Wang Chao can understand Lopez's excitement. After all, after the end of this season, Lopez is really to the point where almost no one cares about him.

But as a traveler, Wang Chao is clear about Lopez's future development prospects.

In the original history, after the expiration of the big contract in the 17-18 season, Lopez's situation is almost the same as that of him now.

After spending the 17-18 season with the Lakers, Lopez was also in a state of no one caring about him. In the end, he could only choose to join the Milwaukee Bucks with a basic salary of 338 million yuan a year.

Then people discovered that the 2200 million Lopez contract can be called a garbage contract, but the 338 million Lopez contract is simply not too good.

A player who can defend inside, pull outside to shoot three-pointers, and is almost a perfect fit for a center in the league's small-ball era, except for a little less rebounding, is it so cheap?

In the 18-19 season, Lopez played 81 games in the regular season of the Bucks, averaging 12.5 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, shooting 45.2% from the field and 36.5% from the three-point range. Although he is not the core player of the team, he is the main starter It is precisely because of his existence that Antetokounmpo has enough space to break through and wreak havoc on the enemy's basket with the ball.

To some extent, Antetokounmpo was able to win the regular season MVP for two consecutive years in the 18-19 and 19-20 seasons, which is inseparable from Lopez silently pulling outside the three-point line to help him involve the enemy's inside defense.

Because of this, after the end of the 18-19 season, the Bucks and Lopez re-signed a 4-year 5200 million-meter contract, but this is not over yet.

In July 2023, the 7-year-old Lopez renewed his contract with the Bucks for 35 years. The contract amount is as high as 2 million yuan, an average of 4800 million per year!
During Lopez's years in the Bucks, his scoring average was only about 12+5, but his role is not reflected in the statistics. The three-pointer deterrence plus the defense of the basket is the real strength of Lopez on the field. where the value lies.

In this regard, Lopez is almost the same as Celtics center Al Horford, but compared to Horford's high salary of more than 16 million in 2500, Lopez is really cheap during this period The presence.

Wang Chao owed Lopez more or less a little. Although it was a normal team trading behavior to trade him for Durant at the beginning, at the beginning Wang Chao really planned to use the Nets' first year's method. The lineup is contending for the championship.

Thinking about it now, in fact, even if Durant was not needed at the time, with the configuration of Lopez + Jokic, two big men with shooting ability inside, it would not be difficult to win the championship.

He took the initiative to call Lopez to invite him to the Clippers, which is somewhat of a compensation to him.

After all, even if Lopez joined the Bucks as in the original history and was excavated to shine, it will take a few years before he has a chance to win the championship.

It’s completely different from Wang Chaohun, who has a great chance of winning the championship next year, and in the current lineup of the Clippers, after Jordan’s contract expires and leaves the team, there will be no serious center. The team also needs an insider A big man who protects the rim.

Wang Chao is sure that in one year's time, Lopez's worth will be restored, and he will get at least one contract with an annual salary of more than 19 million in the 20-2000 season.

After all, starting from the 2017-18 season, Horford and Lopez are actually almost at the same level. Both of them are around 12+5. The gap between people is really very limited.

And even if he joins the Clippers next season, Wang Chao has no intention of treating Lopez badly. Based on his attitude of choosing to join him without hesitation, he must at least give him a full middle-class contract of about 800 million yuan. The 338 million offered by the Deer Team is much more attractive!
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The conversation between Wang Chao and Lopez is naturally unknown to outsiders.

With the advent of July 2018, the free market officially opened.

On July 7st, the contract has officially expired, and the players who have returned to free agency have not acted yet. The teams in the league will start to operate first. After all, many teams need to go through some transactions to free up enough salary space. Bring in new players.

At the same time, each team also began to actively contact those free agents to offer offers to show their sincerity, and strive to get a superstar to join them and change their fate.

However, superstars are obviously not that easy to come by.

On the day the free market opened on July 7, the Thunder team took the lead in issuing a statement that the team's star Paul George renewed his contract with the Thunder with a four-year, 1 million yuan contract.

Immediately following the action was the Brooklyn Nets. They first renewed their contracts with Durant and Paul respectively, and then renewed the contracts of Devin Booker and Nicola York at the same time with five-year offers of 5 million and 1.58 million. Kic's two players successfully retained the team's finals lineup last season.

But this is undoubtedly a big gamble.

The 18-19 season is not the 17-18 season.

After the child labor contract in the rookie season ended, the starting salary of Booker and Jokic's new contract was close to 2500 million.

The contract extension signed by Durant and the Nets is a 2-year contract of 6800 million yuan, with an average of 3400 million yuan a year, and the player option for the second year. His idea is very simple. If he has a chance to win the championship, he must leave the Nets. After all, even if he has a championship now, not only has he not been recognized, but more people question him, especially the loss in this year's finals, which makes him more urgent. The longing for a championship of their own.

In contrast, Paul didn't think so much. For him, the bag is safe. The championship is of course important, but the white money is the key.

In order to keep Paul, the Nets had to pay a four-year super contract of 4 million yuan. His new contract starting salary reached 1.6 million yuan, which is the highest salary in the Nets team.

This way you can count.

Paul's starting salary for the new season is 3565 million, Durant's is 3400 million, and Booker and Jokic are both 2500 million.

The sum of the salaries of these four people alone has reached an astonishing 1.196 million!
Don't forget, the Nets completed a contract extension with Bojan Bogdanovic in the summer of 17, with 4 million in 4800 years and an average annual salary of 1200 million.

In the 2018-19 season, the league salary cap was 1.018 million, and the luxury tax line was 1.237 million.

The salary of the five Nets players has already reached 1.32 million, even if the other players are all paid a basic salary, the total salary of the entire team must be at least 1.5 million!If you sign a stronger player, you will go up to 1.6 million.

It is foreseeable that the owner of the Nets will have to pay an exaggerated luxury tax next season.

But at this time, the owner of the Nets, a wealthy Russian owner, is already selling the team's affairs. He doesn't care about this issue at all. In the past few years, the Nets have entered the finals twice and won a championship. The market value has risen again and again. Don't worry about the seller at all.

In fact, if it wasn’t for the butterfly effect caused by the existence of Wang Chao, the Nets should have sold it to Cai Chongxin in April 18. The reason why it was dragged to the end of the finals was because the rich Russians were also hesitating. If the Nets can continue to win the championship If so, maybe he can stay with the team for a while longer.

The Nets, who have successfully retained their entire main lineup, are undoubtedly still the team with the best chance of winning the championship, especially when Wang Chao is sure not to stay in the Nuggets, the whole league can compete with them There are only a handful of teams.

In fact, the Warriors have the same situation as the Nets.

The Warriors also have a lot of salary. After all, the team has Curry, Thompson, Green and Cousins ​​​​four all-star teammates. It was better before that. Curry's first big contract has shrunk a lot due to injuries. The annual salary is only in the early 1000 million.

But last summer, Curry's contract expired. In order to keep the two-time regular season MVP, the Warriors had to give a super maximum salary. The starting salary for the 17-18 season was as high as 3468 million yuan. It even reached 3746 million!
In addition to him, there are 1800 million Cousins, Thompson, 1700 million Green and 1600 million Iguodala.

In the 17-18 season, the Warriors had a total salary of 1.35 million and paid a high luxury tax.

But compared with the next 18-19 season, this is still good, because Cousins' contract has also expired. With his steady contribution of 20+10 in the regular season, the new contract will cost at least 3000 million!

In this way, the total salary of the Warriors is no less than that of the Nets.

The problem is that the Nets have won a championship in the past three years. The Warriors have had nothing in terms of team honor for so many years. Many playoff losses have made them gradually realize that Cousins ​​​​and the Warriors' small Ball tactics don't particularly fit.

Whether the Warriors have to pay a huge price to keep Cousins ​​and continue the Warriors' long way to win the playoffs, even the Warriors' own management is quite hesitant.

However, since Cousins ​​did not suffer serious injuries like he did in the Pelicans at this time, and still maintains a relatively healthy state, the market value is extremely high. After all, there are very few high-quality centers with comprehensive skills like him in the league today. , even if you don't plan to stay, you must at least get as many chips as possible by signing first and then trading.

The whole league is paying attention to the future of the Warriors Cousins, and finally there is a result after a few days.

The Warriors finally decided to send Cousins ​​away. This kind of slow-footed center who needs to attack in positional battles is really not suitable for the Warriors' small ball tactics.

However, the Warriors did not let Cousins ​​go in vain. Instead, they first reached a three-year contract extension of 3 million US dollars with Cousins, with an average annual salary of 1.07 million, and then reached an agreement with the Los Angeles Lakers. Trade, get Brandon Ingram, Ruhr Deng, and the Lakers' future two first-round and two second-round picks from the Lakers.

This is clearly a trade-off.

While the Warriors sent Cousins ​​away, although they took over Ruhr Deng's trash contract, they also got Durant's model Ingram. Ingram, who is 2 meters tall, has outstanding athletic ability and long-range shooting ability It is also relatively stable and can serve as a power forward position in the Warriors' death five small lineup.

At the same time, the Warriors can buy out Ruhr Deng’s big contract with two years left in the future. Although they still need to pay the opponent’s salary, they don’t need to occupy the team’s salary cap, which can save the Warriors a lot of luxury tax fine.

Of course, just like this, the Warriors are still at a loss. After all, although Ingram seems to be full of talents, there are countless players in this league who have not successfully realized their talents. flat.

But if you add two first-round picks, it will be different.

Thus, the deal was concluded.

You know, even if the Lakers get a stronger and more valuable thick-browed Davis in the future, the chips are nothing more than Ingram, Lonzo Ball, a 19-year first-round pick plus two second-round picks.

The Lakers are willing to pay two first-round picks for Cousins, and their sincerity is already very good.

Once the deal was concluded, it immediately caused a sensation in the entire league.

The Warriors' move can be said to exchange immediate combat power for the future. Ingram plus two first rounds will ensure the overall strength of the Warriors in the next few years.

On the Lakers side, they paid a lot of future as the price and got All-Star center Cousins, and their inside line also has the No. [-] pick Towns.

The combination of inside Towns + Cousins ​​means that the Lakers have once again formed the top inside combination in the league.

It's just that Ingram has always been a future star that Lakers fans are very optimistic about. Is it really cost-effective to trade a young Ingram for a center who is already 28 years old and has only four or five years at his peak?

And even if the Lakers form the inside twin towers of Towns + Cousins, in this era of small balls and the era where the outside line is respected, it is difficult to do anything if there are only two inside twin towers without enough strong players on the outside. .

However, they didn't know that the Lakers had already planned a big game.

When Wang Chao learned that the Warriors sent Cousins ​​to the Lakers, he couldn't help being a little surprised. He thought of a possibility.

"Shouldn't it be..."

Yes, he really guessed right.

On July 7, James, who had previously officially announced that he had jumped out of the contract, announced that he had reached an agreement with the Los Angeles Lakers to join the Lakers for $10 million in four years. The league was shocked!

James + Towns + Cousins?What kind of magical combination is this?
While everyone was shocked, they couldn't help the desire to complain.

LeBron, LeBron, are you imitating Wang Chao?That's really an imitation.

Wang Chao changed teams to help the poor, but you are good, which team has a good lineup, where do you go?

First went to the Big Three in the Heat group, and then the Cavaliers had the No. [-] pick and ran back. Now that the Lakers have two inside towers, they rushed over again. This operation, Durant next door deserves a thumbs up. !
But there is one thing to say, the few times James ran, at least he went to teams that were not particularly strong, and the teams were also slightly flawed. It's hard to come up with five serious starting players, let alone a substitute player. Neither Irving nor Embiid had proven themselves during the Cavaliers period, and they hadn't made the playoffs yet.

And the current Lakers team is also a relatively weak team in the Western Conference, at least a little better than Durant's behavior of running directly to hug Wang Chao's thigh... Well, it's about fifty steps and a hundred steps.

(End of this chapter)