$1,650. Crazy Salary

This year's free market was directly ignited after the Grizzlies signed a contract and reached a trade.

According to Woj, Nowitzki, whose contract expired, directly asked the Mavericks to give up his bird rights. Together with other expiring contracts, the Mavericks now have only two players left, Conley with $11 million, Ellis with $8.33 million, and Chris Bosh, who retained the bird rights. Bosh's salary last season was $19.07 million. According to the latest rules, Bosh can renew his contract with a starting salary of up to $21.48 million, with an annual increase of 8% to sign a 5-year contract. If he changes teams, even if he signs first and then trades, he can only sign a 4-year contract with a 4.5% increase.

According to a follow-up report by a Sports Illustrated reporter, Nowitzki, who was the second highest paid player in the league last season with $22.72 million, second only to Kobe's $30 million, told Cuban to give up his bird rights first and wait to see if Bosh agrees to renew his contract. If he does, can he attract one or two more stars? He can be given a contract with as much space as he has left. If there is no space, it's OK to give it to the middle class.

Nowitzki jumped out of the contract and did not renew his contract with a salary increase. Kobe had already cut his salary for two years and renewed his contract with $40 million. Sun Ce's $23.31 million directly became the highest salary in the league.

Within two hours of the news being exposed, there were rumors that Bosh had a strong intention to renew his contract because of Nowitzki, but he had to wait and see how the free market changes this year.

Even if the Mavericks retain Bosh's bird rights, Bosh's bird rights occupy $28.6 million of space, and there is still nearly $24 million of space. Before Bosh renews his contract, the Mavericks are still able to recruit a top-paid player.

Anyway, according to ESPN, after the free market opened, the Mavericks sent a contract offer of 12.5 million per year and 50 million in 4 years to the Kings' restricted free agent center DeMarcus Cousins ​​without hesitation. The space is so casual.

The Kings matched the contract immediately and gave a higher 4-year 64 million contract.

After one failed, the Mavericks sent a 3-year 54 million maximum salary to the Rockets' restricted free agent Chandler Parsons and a 4-year 72 million maximum salary to the Pacers' restricted free agent Gordon Hayward.

The Dallas bid-raising team, the Portland bid-raising team, and the Houston bid-raising team all came out.

On Sun Ce's side, he contacted Vince Carter, a free agent who gave up the early bird rights of the Mavericks. The other party said that he would consider accepting it and is currently on vacation.

He contacted Ariza. Ariza wanted to come, but he wanted to start. It depends on how Paul George makes the final decision.

Sun Ce had no choice. After the Grizzlies management agreed to renew his contract, in addition to the various matters of the trade with the Trail Blazers, the first goal was to renew the contract with Paul George. Robert Pera, the team owner in Los Angeles, invited Paul George to go fishing and stamp collecting every other day.

Sun Ce first contacted two powerful veterans. It is not known whether Carter will join. Ariza is basically impossible. Ariza will agree to a short-term contract with a middle-class salary, but he cannot guarantee that he will start.

Sun Ce is not in a hurry. The free market has just opened. This year, many teams have freed up a lot of salary space like the Mavericks, which has led to the largest number of free agents in 17 years since the free market in 1997.

However, when Sun Ce told the team about Ariza's conditions, he received a call from Chris Wallace that night, and the middle class was spent.

At 8 pm on July 1, the Grizzlies officially announced that they had split up this year's $6.1 million middle class contract and signed Knicks free agent Paul Pierce with a starting salary of $2.9 million and a two-year contract totaling $6 million.

When Sun Ce received the news, he felt that Chris Wallace was so powerful this year.

He didn't get Ariza, but he got Pierce back directly.

Although Pierce is definitely not as good as Ariza at the moment, mainly on the defensive end, on the offensive end, Pierce, who averaged 153 points per game for the Knicks last season, should be able to average 10 points per game as a role player even if he declines.

In their Grizzlies, they may not be able to average more than 10 points per game, but they are capable enough to play as the second small forward.

Including Richard Jefferson and Stoudemire, two veteran forwards who are waiting for the Grizzlies to renew their contracts after the signings are completed, and Tony Allen, Paul George, and Yi Jianlian who have retained the bird rights, they have at most 13 players, and now there are only two people at the point guard and shooting guard positions.

Now there is no need to rush to compete with those teams for free agents. The backup of the back line can be found slowly. Carter is expected to be interested in coming, so there is only a point guard left.

And the league is not short of point guards the least.

As for Antetokounmpo's brother, after he was selected and trained, the Grizzlies regretted it and sold him to the Suns for 150,000 US dollars.

Sun Ce is most worried about the small forward position of the team lineup. Richard Jefferson mostly plays as a power forward. If Paul George does not renew his contract, they don't have a real small forward. Now there is no need to worry.

On July 2, Sun Ce pulled himself out of his messy thoughts and started training with Payton.

This time, when training with Payton, Sun Ce used the "blessing of the legendary point guard" and formulated Payton's defensive pressure defense characteristics, hoping to get a skill like "gloves".

But the failure was not because Payton was dissatisfied with his training, but because he was not suitable for pressure defense at all.

He, Sun, is more suitable for defense like Prince and Durant, relying on mobility and body advantage, rather than oppression defense.

This made Sun Ce realize that investment is risky, and he had to consider whether it was suitable when using the blessing of a legendary point guard.

But the problem was not big. Compared with Jordan, Payton was really like a defensive textbook. He could not defend like Sun Ce, but it did not mean that he did not know how to do it. On the contrary, after research, he formulated more targeted defensive training content for Sun Ce than when Coach Hollins, Tony Allen and others taught him.

It is not easy to find a famous player with defensive experience and defensive ability like Payton to give guidance. Even if you pay him, he may not come.

And the biggest role of this card is not to get guidance from anyone, but as long as he, Sun, does not do anything, he will teach wholeheartedly, just like Stockton.

This is the most important thing. If the other party teaches casually, it is better to watch the teaching video.

Payton taught Sun Ce the details and basic skills of defense hand in hand, three hours a day without slacking off.

For example, Payton saw that Sun Ce's change of direction burst speed in the game was higher than his normal starting speed. He thought that Sun Ce needed to be in a tense state of mind to burst and accelerate, so he helped him strengthen his defensive ability in this aspect according to Sun Ce's characteristics.

From this, it can be seen that Payton is different from Jordan. Jordan wants to exercise his body, find the feeling of shooting and back-to-back, so that Sun Ce can experience it personally.

Payton has studied Sun Ce's defensive videos carefully and made a lot of preparations.

The only thing that makes Sun Ce feel annoyed is that when he practices defense, the system does not score him in this aspect, and cannot be upgraded to the overall ability evaluation.

Fortunately, there is obvious progress in three-point shooting. The three-point shooting with the left hand is infinitely close to the three-point shooting with the right hand. The key is the three-point shooting with an angle of 45 degrees to 30 degrees on both sides, which has made great progress.

Time passed day by day. On July 7, free agents can be officially signed, and Pierce officially joined the Grizzlies.

But top free agents like Bosh have not made any moves yet.

On the contrary, the free agents on the Pacers have left one by one.

The Kings used a 3-year, 21 million USD contract to poach Darren Collison from the Pacers.

Ariza learned that the Grizzlies had signed Pierce, so he joined the Knicks for 4 years and 38 million USD.

Lance Stephenson failed to get an average annual salary of 10 million USD for 5 years, and joined the Hornets for 18 million USD for 2 years.

According to media reports, if it weren't for the two years left in the player option contract, David West would have wanted to leave.

The Pacers matched the 4-year, 72 million USD maximum contract offered by the Mavericks to Gordon Hayward.

It is said that after losing the two starting guards, the Pacers began to sell Roy Hibbert, but no one was interested.

When Sun Ce saw the news about the Pacers, he found that the Pacers, who had played the strongest team in the league last season, were about to be dismantled.

However, the Pacers also got a player back. George Hill jumped out of the last year's 8 million USD player option with the Spurs and joined the Pacers with a 3-year, 30 million USD contract.

On July 10, something happened that made Sun Ce and Zu Gee rant wildly.

Wade jumped out of the last two years of the contract totaling 44 million. Under Pat Riley's deception that he wanted to renew Chandler's contract, Wade renewed his contract with the Heat for 30 million for two years, and rejected the 76ers and Mavericks' 40 million two-year contracts.

On July 12, Chandler did not reach a contract extension with the Heat, and instead reached a two-year 30 million contract with the Mavericks.

After Chandler joined, Bosh immediately chose to renew his contract and reached a quasi-maximum salary contract with the Mavericks with a starting salary of 21 million and a total of 1.1 billion for 5 years.

After Chandler joined and Bosh completed the contract extension, Nowitzki reached a two-year 15 million contract.

The best sixth man with an average of 20 points and 6 rebounds per game, with a contract of 7.5 million a year, but Sun Ce could not compare Nowitzki's salary cut with Wade's salary cut.

The Mavericks really got the players back, and the Heat simply wanted to reduce the salary below the luxury tax threshold.

But this made Sun Ce feel that the probability of signing Carter had declined.

Conley, Ellis, Nowitzki, Bosh, Chandler Bosh has a blood disease, but that was after 2016. This disease cannot be treated. It is said to be related to genetics. The only solution after the disease breaks out is to reduce exercise.

With such a core combination, Sun Ce was worried about signing Carter.

However, on July 14, the last rest day of the four-week training between Sun Ce and the two famous players, he received good news.

Because the Mavericks could not reach an agreement on salary, the Mavericks did not offer him the middle class or even part of the middle class. Carter reached an agreement with Chris Wallace and got the remaining part of the middle class from the Grizzlies. He joined the Grizzlies with an average annual contract of 3.15 million, totaling 6.3 million US dollars in 2 years.

Fortunately, no random signings

Sun Ce knew that as the free market became more and more popular, many guards wanted to join the Grizzlies. Carter was slow to respond, and there were some disagreements within the Grizzlies, and they felt that they could stop pursuing Carter.

But in the end, they held back and did not make random moves. At the same price, there really was no better free agent guard than Carter, even though Carter was already 37 years old.

Carter's contract was reached, and the Grizzlies quickly started a wave of renewals.

The Grizzlies matched the 8 million annual contract offered by the Knicks to Yi Jianlian in the free market, but the Knicks offered 4 years and 32 million, while the Grizzlies offered 3 years and 24 million with a player option in the last year. Yi Jianlian can opt out of the contract in the summer of 2016 and test the free market.

Tony Allen renewed his contract with the Grizzlies with an average annual salary of 5 million and 3 years and 15 million.

After this wave of renewals, the Grizzlies' total salary reached more than 84.74 million US dollars, only 1.2 million US dollars away from the luxury tax threshold.

The third point guard must be the minimum salary, which means that the Grizzlies have exceeded the cap. Currently, only Larry Sanders and Paul George, who still retain the bird rights, are negotiating the renewal.

On July 18, Sun Ce's four-week training finally ended.

"Gary, are you really not going to be a trainer for our team?"

"I would rather be a commentator. If you have any questions, you can call me. I will definitely come to help you train when I have time."

After the last three-hour training with Payton in the morning, Sun Ce invited Payton, but the other party did not agree.

Everyone has a different personality. Payton does not like the low-key life like Stockton, and wants to appear on TV.

On the 15th, Jordan had already left Los Angeles and went to Hawaii for vacation.

After chatting with Payton, Payton also went back to the villa to pack his luggage, taking the 80,000 US dollars transferred to his account, and preparing to take his wife out for a trip.

This afternoon, Sun Ce did not continue training, but prepared to take a break. On the 21st, he will start a week-long training. He will return to China for business activities at the end of the month, and he will have to go to Spain with the national team to play in the Basketball World Cup in mid-July.

In the evening, Paul George and Larry Sanders, who learned that Sun Ce's training with the two best defensive players and guards had ended, came to Sun Ce's house.

That night, Sun Ce did not sleep. He talked with the two until the early morning. He really could not sleep. It was not because the conversation was not good, but because he was too sleepy. He fell asleep at dawn.

The next morning, Paul George and Larry Sanders flew back to Memphis together.

First, Paul George fired his agent Aaron Mintz and signed a contract with the famous agent Jeff Schwartz.

Bill Duffy also went to Memphis with Larry Sanders to negotiate a contract.

The reason was that Mintz wanted Paul George to go to the Knicks, which became an obstacle to Paul George doing what he wanted to do. He decisively jumped to Schwartz.

On July 19, the Grizzlies officially announced that they had reached a quasi-maximum salary contract with Paul George with a starting salary of 15.93 million and a total of 70 million US dollars.

Larry Sanders rejected the 2-year 20 million contract offered by the Hornets and reached a 3-year contract with the Grizzlies with a player option totaling 27 million US dollars.

After the free market opened, the Grizzlies did not do anything for more than half a month except signing Sun Ce, trading for Aldridge, and reaching a verbal agreement with Pierce, which made the Grizzlies "invisible" in the free market for a while.

Other teams were very busy. The Mavericks relied on Nowitzki's salary reduction to 7.5 million US dollars to get Chandler back, which was equivalent to getting Bosh from the Heat for free.

The Knicks offered Rockets small forward Chandler Parsons a 3-year contract of 49.73 million US dollars, but the Rockets did not match it. Chandler Parsons joined the Knicks, and the Knicks also signed Ariza. Although they lost Pierce, the Knicks became stronger.

The Lakers let go of 6 players in one go this summer, renewing Boozer's contract with a minimum salary, and exchanged Donatas Motiejunas, the center who was cleared out by the Clippers last year, from the Bucks. They signed free agents Wayne Ellington, Shawn Marion, and Ed Davis.

After the Lakers signed Ed Davis on the 13th, the 13-man roster was complete. The next step was to sign two water cooler managers or injured reserve players.

The Spurs knew they would lose George Hill. Duncan jumped out of the $10.36 million contract for next season and chose to cut his salary. He renewed his contract for 3 years and $21 million until 2017, helping the team to make more than $10 million of space, which had already been freed up for 7 million. He signed free agent Rajon Rondo with a two-year contract of $20 million.

After signing Rondo, the Spurs renewed Boris Diaw for 3 years and $21.5 million.

Prior to this, the Spurs had renewed Parker for 4 years and $44 million and Ginobili for 1 year and $7 million.

With one year left on Gay's contract, the three players renewed their contracts, Dio renewed their contracts, and Rondo signed, the Spurs' total salary is only 81.42 million US dollars, which is more than 4 million away from the luxury tax threshold.

Except for these six players, no Spurs player has a salary of more than 5 million US dollars. They have suffered many losses from middle-class contracts in the early years, and they will never give full middle-class contracts. Except for these six players, the Spurs' best-paid Danny Green has a salary of 4.07 million US dollars, Patrick Mills has a salary of 3.87 million US dollars, and the rest are all basic salaries.

Regarding signing Rondo, many teams are not optimistic about the Spurs' operation, but this is the limit of what the Spurs can do. Without George Hill, they have lost a key stable organization point.

Regardless of whether other teams are optimistic about signing, in the first half of the month after the free market opened this year, other teams were very hot in signing players. Perhaps it is because of the advanced information exchange in this era. There is no situation like the beginning of the century where big-name players are still negotiating contracts in February.

But the Grizzlies have been quiet.

But from the 15th to the 19th, in 5 days, the Grizzlies spent more than 40 million, and the total salary soared to 109.68 million, directly breaking the 100 million mark.

This was beyond the expectations of the media and fans. They thought the Grizzlies would give up one player each among Yi Jianlian, Larry Sanders, Paul George and Tony Allen. Who knew that the Grizzlies kept all of them ()