Zhiba NBA

Chapter 105 (one hundred and four)

The Rockets suddenly emerged and won the championship and became the ultimate winner, while other giants in the league naturally have relative losers.

Although the Pistons lost the finals, becoming the Eastern Conference champion is also an acceptable result, not to mention that this is only the first year of the Five Tigers gathering, the team will definitely give these players affirmation and support.

After experiencing the slump in the second half and the tragic loss of the playoffs, the Kings have learned from the pain and are determined to regroup the starting lineup.

The Timberwolves, who have achieved the best record in team history, are determined to build a team around the original three-headed monster and fight for another year.But their salaries are under great pressure. Minnesota is considered a remote country with a relatively poor ball market, but they handed over more than 7000 million yuan, the fourth highest salary in the league.

Even worse is the Dallas Mavericks, Cuban went all out to pay for two big names, Jamison and Walker.Dallas' total salary reached more than 7900 million, the third highest in the league, but only achieved a poor record in the first round.The Trail Blazers and the Knicks, who are the top two in salary in the league, are famously taken advantage of, so don't compare with them.

And the worst is the Los Angeles Lakers. The F4 combination was considered to be the biggest favorite to win the championship at the beginning of the season. As a result, they were eliminated by the Rockets in the second round, which was far below expectations.The contradiction between the two superstars Kobe and O'Neal in the team has become more and more intense. Kobe voluntarily jumped out of the contract to a certain extent to put pressure on the management.

This multiple-choice question is very difficult. One is the league's first center with three consecutive FMVPs, and the other is a potential superstar who has always played for the Lakers.It was difficult for the Lakers management to make a decision. After many days of discussions, general manager Mitch Kupchak finally completed a shocking deal.

On July 7, the Lakers officially announced that the Lakers acquired Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, Caron Butler and the Heat's 14 first-round pick and 06 second-round pick, sending superstar Shaq O'Neal to the Heat.

As soon as this news came out, the whole world was shocked, and the alliance structure was in turmoil.The Heat were a strong team in the second round of the playoffs last season. With the league's No. [-] center, the Heat became the third championship-level team in the Eastern Conference outside the Pistons and Pacers.And the Lakers lost Malone, Kobe's contract extension is pending, and now they have sent away the Sharks, I am afraid they will become an underdog.

好在仅仅一天后，科比就宣布以7年1.36亿美元的天价合同与湖人队续约，其中后两年即09-11赛季科比具有球员选项。显然湖人在交易奥尼尔之前已经获得了科比的续约承诺，他们最终在即将年满26岁的科比和将年满32岁的鲨鱼之中选择了更年轻的科比。

Next, Kupchak kept writing, let go of the meritorious veteran Fisher (joining the Warriors), and signed the Kings old center Divac for a total of 2 million in two years (partial guarantee in the second year).Medvedenko was renewed for 1000 years and 2 million each.

On August 8, another big deal involving many people, the Lakers sent veteran Payton, Fox and a first-round pick to get Chris Mihm, Jumaine Jones and Chuck Atkins.In this regard, the new version of the Lakers is basically formed.Last year's main rotation left only Kobe, Medvedenko and George, and they formed a new rotation with Atkins, Butler, Jones, Mihm, Odom, Grant and Divac.

The F4 Lakers were only formed for one year before they were completely broken up and fell apart.

***
The Rockets' players have not yet reached the point where they need to worry about wages due to their short playing experience.

Player/Position/Age/Salary (US$[-])

McGrady/shooting guard/25/1448.7
Billups/Point Guard/28/595.5
Redd/shooting guard/25/600
Yao Ming/Center/24/443.7
Bosh/Power Forward/20/283.4
Johnson/shooting guard/23/235.9
Jefferson/Small Forward/24/233.2
Turkoglu/Small Forward/25/219.5
Wang Zhizhi/Forward/27/210
Okur/Center/25/To be renewed

Parker/Point Guard/22/169
Varejao/Center/22/83.6
Battle/Center/29/70
Spanoulis/Point Guard/22/Pending Signing

Since the rookie contract will have a significant increase in the fourth year (according to the ratio stipulated in the collective bargaining agreement, which depends on the rookie pick), the salaries of Jefferson, Turkoglu, Johnson and Parker have all increased significantly.This year's salary cap is $4387 million, almost no increase from the previous year.The salaries of the Rockets' young players have all risen one after another. The total of the 12 players in the existing contract is close to 4600 million knives, which obviously exceeds the salary cap.

Unfortunately, the next bad news came, the Rockets are almost doomed to lose Okur.

The reason is simple, exactly the same as last year's Arenas incident.Okur has played for the Rockets for 2 years. With the early Bird exception, the Rockets can ignore the salary cap and offer Okur 175% of the previous year's salary or 104.5% of the league average salary, whichever is higher.And Okur's salary in the previous year was only 110 million US dollars. It is obviously impossible to take the former, and the latter is only in the early 500 million US dollars.This is the highest contract extension that the Rockets can offer Okur within the rules.

And Okur had started many times in the playoffs before, especially in the finals, he performed very well, which has long aroused the interest of many teams in the league.Especially a team that is rebuilding and lacks a starting insider.The Jazz offered Okur a 750-year super-large invitation contract with a starting salary of 6 million US dollars. This kind of temptation naturally made the Turkish guy tempted.And the Jazz is rebuilding, and Okur and Kirilenko can form the core of the team's future reconstruction. This core position within the team is not what the Rockets can give him.

As long as Okur nods in the face of this big contract, the Rockets will not be able to match, and can only watch the loss of core players in vain.

The NBA is not indifferent to this kind of problem.A year later, in the summer of 2005, both employers and employees signed a new labor agreement, which included the famous "Arenas clause".This clause stipulates that for a restricted free agent with only one or two years of ball experience, the salary of the first year of the invitation contract cannot exceed the full middle class, so that his home team can use the early bird exception or the full middle class to match this contract.

(Small knowledge: This supplementary condition is not perfect. For example, the Rockets once offered the famous poison contract for restricted free agents Jeremy Lin and Asik. The salary in the first and second years is not high according to the Arenas clause, but it skyrockets to 1500 million US dollars in the third year, making it difficult for the home team to match and retain people.)
If this rule had been introduced earlier, both Okur and Arenas would have been able to stay on the team smoothly.It's a pity that there is no such if.

On July 7, Okur reached a six-year, $27 million contract with the Jazz and traveled to Utah, where he has never been with the Rockets since then.

　It is very difficult to write a chapter full of dry goods. . . . . .By convention, most of the transactions involved in recent chapters are real transactions in history
　　
　
(End of this chapter)