One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-One. Glory Comes with Responsibility
Since Sun Ce became famous in Europe in 2010, his popularity in Europe has been increasing. The key point is the continuity of his performance. According to some reports, many Europeans fell in love with basketball and started watching live basketball broadcasts because of him. It can be said that the current NBA relies on him to open up the European market.
This is something no one expected. Back then, Jordan helped Europeans to have a certain understanding of basketball. Later, it was a Chinese player who followed up to develop the European market.
Just after breaking the Bulls' win record in the regular season and the Lakers' highest winning rate record in the playoffs, Sun Ce's promotional activities in London, Milan, Barcelona and Munich were extremely popular. It is rare for NBA stars to need local governments to conduct traffic control and dispatch a large number of police forces for security when promoting in European cities. Even James has difficulty. Another person with such popularity is Kobe, who has accumulated 19 years of popularity and has lived in Europe for 19 years.
After the morning promotional activities at each stop, Sun Ce also followed the representatives of FIBA, NBA, China Basketball Association and UEFA Basketball Association to carry out basketball promotion activities in the afternoon, hoping to take advantage of this wave of popularity to promote basketball in Europe.
Sun Ce clearly felt that the higher his achievements in basketball, the more he gained and the more responsibilities he had to bear.
However, Sun Ce did not slack off and devoted himself to the great cause of promoting basketball.
What Sun Ce couldn't understand was that Europe was a very strange place. Those who liked basketball really liked basketball. They regarded it as a future goal since elementary school, and began to try to become a professional in middle school. Moreover, many basketball players have become professional players in middle school, but the base is not large.
Sun Ce felt that the player training system of the UEFA was no worse than that of North America, but the base of children playing basketball was not large. Moreover, Sun Ce felt that the player training system of the UEFA was more suitable for China... But in the past 20 to 30 years, China has learned from the United States and Europe, but it seems that it has only taken the dregs and has not absorbed anything good.
After all, the managers of the Blue Union Basketball Management Center only valued interests and their own promotions, and only wanted to see results. They only took the last step to overtake others, but in sports competitions... For example, in terms of basic skills, there is no way to overtake others.
The development of domestic basketball depends on this trip to Europe to help promote basketball... In fact, it is just to join in the fun, mainly to learn advanced player training systems. What can the team of Boss Yao learn and whether they can make changes when they return.
For such a large country, the basketball industry cannot be changed overnight, but there must be a clear direction for change.
However, Sun Ce was still a little surprised this time. He underestimated his influence, but he could also help Yao Ming and Chinese basketball more. He hoped that this would be the case.
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When Sun Ce was on his business trip in Europe, the NBA free market had already opened, but there was really no big movement at the beginning. Many players' agents were waiting for the price. After all, the salary cap will increase significantly next year, and they can ask for a bigger contract in advance. Of course, this is limited to non-maximum-salary players. The maximum salary of the top-salary players cannot increase even if they want to. The maximum starting salary divided by the age of the designated veteran clause or non-veteran designated clause is a fixed percentage of the salary cap.
At the beginning, the agreement was reached with some veterans who took low salaries and did not ask for big contracts. The Nets poached three players from the Grizzlies in one go. Livingston reached a verbal agreement with the Nets for two years and 12 million US dollars, Larry Sanders reached a verbal agreement with the Nets for 4 years and 60 million US dollars, and Pierce reached a verbal agreement with the Nets for 3 years and 10 million US dollars.
At the same time, the Nets also offered a one-year contract of 5 million US dollars to the Lakers' free agent combo guard Wayne Ellington and reached a verbal agreement.
On July 7, Sun Ce returned to China. At 12 noon, which was 0:00 a.m. on the 8th in New York time, the free agent signing was open, and the Nets and Grizzlies signed three players and Jeremy Lin.
Lopez, who had previously opted out of the player option, also renewed his contract with a 3-year, 60 million U.S. dollar contract.
Sun Ce, who had just returned to China, saw the news of the Nets' signings... I felt that the Nets were still very thoughtful in signing. Lopez and Larry Sanders are now probably regarded as the core inside combination, Porzingis is a potential inside player, and veteran Pierce has no problem playing as a substitute on the outside.
Wayne Ellington and Livingston's back line, Wayne Ellington gave a one-year contract, probably to gamble on whether he can play a good pick-and-roll with Porzingis. Livingston is a very stable veteran, good at positional warfare and fast breaks. If you want to talk about shortcomings, Livingston's shortcomings are that he is old and has poor physical strength.
Coupled with Jarrett Jack, the Nets' point guard line is complete.
The amnesty of Joe Johnson freed up more than 23 million US dollars, the buyout of Deron only occupied 5 million US dollars per year, freed up 14 million US dollars, but it took a little longer, and the trade of Anthony and Plumlee freed up 24 million US dollars. The Nets' salary once dropped to only more than 30 million US dollars, and even more than 10 million US dollars without Lopez's bird rights.
After this signing, the Nets' total salary reached more than 63 million US dollars, and there are still more than 14 million US dollars from the announced salary cap of 77.92 million US dollars for the new season, which is enough to continue to sign one or two strong players.
Overall, Sun Ce felt that the Nets had only returned to the playoff level, but, except for the lack of draft picks, the future suddenly became very bright!
Sun Ce couldn't help sighing. Sure enough, money is omnipotent. Any team would be reluctant to directly pardon Joe Johnson's last two years of contract and buy out Deron's two-year contract extension payment. This is the feeling of throwing money away. Other teams, even the Knicks and Lakers, whose owners are willing to spend money, will drag it to the last year of the two people's contracts and trade them to teams that need to clear salary space. Maybe they can get a second-round pick.
But the Nets owner Ballmer is ruthless and doesn't talk much. He directly pardoned or cut them. With the help of the Rockets, the logo man directly revitalized the Nets under such favorable conditions.
It must be said that from the perspective of an observer, it is indeed comfortable to watch the excellent operation of a team that has no good or bad feelings, especially the operation of the logo man, which is really comfortable.
After arriving at the hotel, Sun Ce rested while browsing the news. He rested tonight and had to continue business activities tomorrow, and there were also basketball promotion activities... I saw the news about the Nets signing, and soon after, the news about their Grizzlies signing came.
Formally reached a contract extension with Klay Thompson and Aldridge.
With two long-term contracts signed, and the long-term contracts that Sun Ce and Paul George can only opt out of in 2017 at the earliest, the core lineup of the Grizzlies for the next two seasons is stable.
Gobert's rookie contract also has two years left, and he will be a restricted free agent when his contract expires. Randolph's contract still has one year left... Sun Ce learned from the comments of the media and fans that the Grizzlies are still regarded as the top favorite to win the championship.
Sun Ce knew about these two contract extensions a long time ago, but the first free market signing of the Grizzlies surprised Sun Ce!
At the same time, the NBA circle was in an uproar when this deal came out...
At 2 a.m. on July 8, 2015, New York time, the Grizzlies reached a veteran minimum salary contract with veteran David West for 1 point, 1 year, and 1.5 million US dollars.
Just 10 days ago, David West refused to exercise the last year of the 12 million contract in the player option. People thought that he, who was about to turn 35, might need to pursue a 3-year contract with an average annual salary of 8-10 million US dollars. For a technical player like him, there is a high probability that a team will give him a contract.
However, David West actually went to the Grizzlies for a year with a minimum salary. This signing suppressed the news that Love signed with the Jazz for 38 million US dollars in two years with a 1+1 almost at the same time!
Sun Ce was also surprised when he saw the crazy discussions of fans online and the media hype.
He knew that David West would go for the championship, but since the Grizzlies were already full of power forwards and needed a center, he didn't think about it, but the other party seemed to take the initiative to join! They must sign this, and they can't let other championship teams get away with it.
Although they were mentally prepared for Larry Sanders, Pierce, Livingston and others to leave, after all, they all had their own reasons. Livingston and Larry Sanders definitely wanted money, and Pierce went for his relationship with Rivers, but there must be some different emotions.
But as soon as the free market started, David West was signed... The team had too many power forwards, but this did not affect Sun Ce. It was the coaching staff who had to work hard to think about how to adjust the rotation and tactical structure. For him, Sun Ce, it might be more tactical options.
After a day of rest, he looked at the free agent market. On July 8th, Beijing time, Sun Ce started from the imperial capital, then Qingdao, Seoul in South Korea, Osaka in Japan, Singapore, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Chengdu. A total of 8 promotional activities began, one stop a day, plus basketball promotion activities, he was busy as a dog.
During this interval, Sun Ce received a notice from the team and successfully signed Gerald Green, who played for the Suns last season, with a base salary of 1.36 million US dollars for 2 years and a total of 2.82 million US dollars.
This is one of the players on the list provided by Sun Ce. He actually didn't quite understand at first why no team wanted Gerald Green. Last season, Gerald Green averaged 1.9 three-pointers per game in the Suns, and the season before that, he averaged 2.4 three-pointers with a 40% three-point shooting rate. But just like Matt Barnes, no matter how well he plays, he has to find a new job next summer, and it is often a minimum salary.
But when discussing the summer recruitment work before the draft, Sun Ce studied Gerald Green's game... This guy has almost no other ability except dunking and shooting three-pointers from the outside with his excellent physical fitness.
But this is enough for the Grizzlies. They need this kind of functional player now.