NBA: I am the god of basketball

Chapter 74 Popovich: Wang Chao is too good

At this time, Wang Chao, who was still running back and forth on the field sweating profusely, did not know that on the Spurs bench, the wise head coach Popovich had been eyeing him, but even if he knew, he would not feel so excited or excited.

He is very clear that at the current stage of the Spurs, the average salary of the GDP combination has reached a level close to 3500 million US dollars.

Duncan's annual salary is 1700 million, Parker's is 1000 million, and Ginobili's is a little less, with more than 800 million.

The salary of the three accounts for almost half of the total salary of the Spurs. Coupled with a group of outstanding role players, the Spurs hardly have any salary space. A mid-level contract of about 500 million yuan.

If it was last season, Wang Chao would have been ecstatic to get a middle-class contract with an annual salary of 500 million.

But the situation is different now.

He averaged 21 points per game in the playoffs last season, which has already increased his worth. If he can achieve an average of 20+ points per game in the regular season according to Wang Chao's goals or the requirements of the system tasks this season, his performance will be absolutely outstanding. It is not a middle class contract that can be matched!
Don’t look at Wang Chao’s current salary is less than 50 US dollars, but he has great ambitions. If he can really hit the above statistics this season, he can even go further in the playoffs and help the Suns lead the team to win the championship. In the summer, he has the confidence to ask the Suns for a maximum salary extension.

As a rookie who has played in the league for three years, Wang Chao's maximum salary is actually not high, at most it is just over 1000 million.

In fact, 1000 million is also not available according to the current salary space of the Suns.

The current highest salary in the Suns team is Marion. His contract is 6 million US dollars for 7900 years, and his salary next year is as high as 1644 million US dollars.

Below him are Stoudemire at $1300 million and Nash at $1100 million.

The combined salary of the three has reached an exaggerated $4000 million, and the salary space is worse than that of the Spurs.

But the Suns are Wang Chao's home team. Wang Chao, who was selected by the Suns in the 04 draft, is already in his third season in his career.

Regardless of whether he played in his rookie season or whether he was sent to the Development League, his contract is implemented in this way.

Therefore, with the end of this season, Wang Chao's service in the NBA has officially increased to three years, which just meets the conditions of Bird's clause, that is, a player who has played for the same team for three years or more The team is not restricted by the salary cap to renew the contract with the player, and the salary of the renewed player can be increased by 10.5% every season.

The Bird clause is a rule issued by the league to help the team retain talents, and the clause can only be activated after playing for a team for more than three years.

Therefore, even if the Suns have reached the salary cap, they can still renew their contract with Wang Chao.

Wang Chao feels that based on his current performance on the field and his contribution to the Suns' running and bombing tactics, it is completely worth the team's maximum salary to renew his contract. After all, Wang Chao's maximum salary plus the Bird clause is only about 1200 million US dollars. With his excellent performance and the prospect of only 23 years old, this money is definitely worth the money!
That's enough, let's get back to the game.

The turnaround that Popovich expected did not happen after all.

Duncan reappeared after a few minutes off the court. Although he was careful on the court, he was unfortunately fouled for the sixth time by the Suns who were specially watching him, and finally six fouls were sent out.

离场时的邓肯14投9中，罚球9中6，得到24分14篮板6助攻4封盖，数据十分漂亮。

With Duncan's departure, the Spurs completely lost hope of a comeback. In the end, they lost to the Suns by 114 points at home 101:13.

The Spurs' highest scorer in the game was Tony Parker. He played poorly in the first half of the game, but he quickly recovered his form in the second half. In the end, he made 22 of 11 shots and 5 of 5 free throws, scoring 29 points. Rebounds and 2 assists.

Parker scored 29 points, Duncan scored 24 points, and Ginobili also had 21 points and 5 assists in this game. The Big Three in GDP all scored 20+ points, but they still failed to lead the team to victory.

All Spurs fans know why.

All this is because of Wang Chao!
The starting small forward of the Suns, Wang Chao, didn’t play much in this game. He played 14 minutes in the first half, didn’t play the entire third quarter, and played about 10 minutes in the fourth quarter. minutes or so.

But in these 25 minutes, Wang Chao made 18 crazy shots from outside the three-point line, hit 10 goals, and his three-point shooting percentage reached an exaggerated 55.5%. He scored 30 points and 5 rebounds in the game!
In the short 25-minute game time, the Spurs fans could see Wang Chao galloping all over the field almost all the time. The top defensive player they are proud of, Bowen, could only run behind his buttocks, completely unable to form Effective defense.

What's even more frightening is that Wang Chao can not only score by himself, he can also rely on his running to involve the Spurs' defensive formation and help other teammates get better offensive scoring opportunities.

This is one of the reasons why Duncan, a player with high IQ and calmness, left the field with 6 fouls at the end of the fourth quarter.

At the press conference after the game, Spurs coach Popovich said helplessly.

"Our defense in this game is not very good. The Suns' starting small forward is really accurate in three-pointers, but the scariest thing about him is that he seems to run tirelessly on the court. We are not ready to deal with this style of play at all. The Suns, even the Huaguo player scored 10 three-pointers in the game, so we lost."

When asked by a reporter what he thought of Wang Chao, Popovich gave praise without hesitation.

"Wang Chao is a very smart player. He may not be very strong, he is not flexible, and his skills on the basketball court are not comprehensive, but he can use his off-ball running to give full play to his advantages. If you continue the current style of play and maintain that magical shooting percentage, you can definitely become an All-Star player like Richard (Hamilton). Considering his explosive scoring from outside the three-point line, he may be better than Richard. Better."

Popovich's wave can be regarded as boasting to the sky for Wang Chao.

Although Hamilton is not the top star in the league, he helped the team win the championship as the Pistons' Five Tigers, and has always been the team's scoring leader in the past few years. He is the most stable scorer in the Pistons and an All-Star substitute player.

Regardless of the fact that Hamilton's highest scoring season was just over 20 points per game, when people mention the well-known shooting guards in the league at this stage, he will never be ignored.

Of course, Popovich is not simply praising Wang Chao for his strength, but also has the idea of ​​praising Wang Chao.

This summer, after Wang Chao's contract expires, many teams are bound to salivate. Even if the Spurs can't compete with Wang Chao, they must not allow Wang Chao to stay with the Suns. The running and bombing team of the Suns is really deadly.

(End of this chapter)