Chapter 911 The Current Warriors and the Crazy Nets!

On July 1, 2022, the NBA free market officially opens.

There are no big fish in this year's NBA free market. Especially when the market has just begun, there are only news about relatively small fish and shrimps.

For example, this year's Eastern Conference champion Bucks and their starting center Portis used early bird rights to sign a four-year, 49 million contract.

Although Portis was beaten badly by Chen Xiao in this year's finals, and even Chen Xiao's 82 points in G5 of the finals, most of the credit can be attributed to Portis.

But in the Bucks, Portis still plays a very important role.

There is only one Chen Xiao in the entire league, and apart from Chen Xiao, Portis definitely plays a positive role in the Bucks' system and played very well against the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.

A mobile center who can run, jump and shoot three-pointers is still very useful in this era.

It's just that he met Chen Xiao.

Therefore, even if his performance in front of Chen Xiao is very poor, 49 million in 4 years is still worth it.

What's more, he is really compatible with the Bucks' Big Three, and he has a share of the credit for the Big Three's invincible offense. Of course, from another aspect, the Bucks seemed to have no intention of attacking the Bucks after losing the finals. The team plans to make massive changes.

This is actually understandable. After all, the Big Three of the Bucks are now very young. For the Bucks, stability is actually much more important than radical reconstruction.

After retaining Portis and Holiday, the Bucks are still the strongest starting team in the league. In this case, they only need to continue to recruit some capable leg-holding veterans on the bench.

For example, former Jazz player Ingles signed with the Bucks with a basic salary.

Although the Bucks are the runner-up, because Chen Xiao, the head player of the champion Warriors, has returned to the Nets, the Warriors can be said to be far less attractive than the Bucks. Without Chen Xiao, can the Warriors break out of the Western Conference? Hard to say.

As for Chen Xiao’s current Nets team...

The Nets are almost in ruins now. Except for Chen Xiao, Xiao Chen and Ingram, the rest of the team can basically be called small fish and shrimps. With Chen Xiao, the future prospects of this Net will definitely not be good. Bad, but what these leg-holding veterans need is now, not the future.

They actually don't have time to wait for the Nets' future.

Therefore, in this year's free market, the Bucks can be said to be the team at the top of the food chain.

Of course, although the Warriors' appeal has dropped significantly due to the departure of Chen Xiao and Jerry West, for the Warriors, attracting free market players this summer is not their main task.

The Warriors' most important task this season is actually to renew players whose contracts are about to expire.

Alexander, Michael Porter Jr., Marvin Bagley, and Wiggins, these four players are the backbone players of the team after Chen Xiao left.

If possible, the Warriors definitely hope that all of them can be renewed.

The first player among these four to complete a contract extension with the Warriors is Marvin Bagley. Marvin Bagley has never been able to redeem his potential in the league over the years, and he had a season of overhaul before this season. , was sent to Cleveland by the Warriors for a season.

Although Bagley's performance this season is quite good, because the uncertainty about him is too great, no team is willing to take risks on him.

Most teams actually gave him a three-year contract. After all, the lessons learned from Cousins ​​​​that year are still in front of us. After Cousins ​​was seriously injured that year, the Bobcats were willing to give him a five-year contract, but Cousins ​​wanted the maximum salary. , and finally went to the free market, and in the end no team was willing to give him a contract of more than three years.

Cousins ​​is a much bigger player than Marvin Bagley.

As far as Marvin Bagley's current situation is concerned, a team is willing to give him a three-year contract, which is actually pretty good.

But obviously, this is not what Marvin Bagley wants, and he is not very confident in his body, but the more this happens, the more he needs a long-term contract guarantee.

Therefore, when the Warriors were willing to offer him a one-year, five-year contract worth 80 million, Marvin Bagley agreed without saying a word.

Well, historically Bagley's contract extension with the Pistons was three years and 37 million.

Although Bagley's situation in this time and space is much better than in history, based on his current situation, the Warriors' offer is still very sincere.

Bagley obviously also knew the Warriors' sincerity, which is why both parties agreed so decisively.

But the other three people are different from Bagley.

Michael Porter Jr. is actually at risk of injury. He was the No. 1 pick back then, but in the end he almost fell to the bottom due to a back injury.

In the past four years of his career with the Warriors, Porter has never been troubled by back injuries. On the contrary, his three-point shooting accuracy is close to 50%. Coupled with his past talent and His current strength, coupled with his current age.

Seriously, there are a lot of teams willing to get him.

Even the Nuggets, the craziest team pursuing him, are willing to offer him a four-year maximum salary contract of 120 million.

Faced with such a super contract offered by the Nuggets, to be fair, although the Warriors also wanted to re-sign Michael Porter Jr., they had to give up in the end.

In the end, Michael Porter Jr. left the Warriors and ended up with the Nuggets.

After losing Michael Porter Jr., the Warriors will definitely make every effort to renew Alexander's contract.

Although the Warriors already have two guards in Morant and Kyrie Irving, Alexander is a player developed by the team, and Alexander has now shown very strong abilities.

Let's put it this way, no one knows what Kyrie Irving will look like after coming to the Warriors. In this case, keeping Alexander will put pressure and motivation on Irving.

If Irving still refuses to obey, having Alexander can also give Irving more sense of crisis and keep him from messing around.

Therefore, the Warriors did not meet Michael Porter Jr.'s maximum salary requirement, but they met Alexander's maximum salary requirement.

With a five-year, $172 million maximum salary contract, Alexander ultimately stayed with the Golden State Warriors.

After giving Alexander a big contract, Wiggins knew that it was impossible to get a big contract with a maximum salary when he renewed his contract with the Warriors.

In fact, before the Warriors renewed Alexander's contract, Wiggins forced the Warriors to get a five-year, $230 million maximum salary contract.

But in the end, the Warriors rejected his offer and gave Alexander the maximum salary backhand.

The meaning is very obvious.

That is, even if Wiggins renews his contract, his status with the Warriors will definitely not be as good as Alexander's.

With Morant as the boss, Alexander as the second player, and Wiggins as the third player, they can compete with Irving at most.

How can a team's third-in-command have a maximum salary?

The Warriors' positioning of Wiggins is also understandable.

Although Wiggins performed very well in this year's finals, this guy also has a criminal record. Who knows if you will fail in your health after getting a big contract?

Even this time you don’t get a big contract, but a big contract plus a championship!

It can be said that for Wiggins, all his career pursuits have been completed.

In this case, who knows whether he will be more thorough?

Therefore, although the Warriors want to renew Wiggins' contract, they also have a second-hand preparation, which is to give Wiggins a four-year, 108 million contract with an annual salary of 27 million. Is this a big contract?

This is definitely a big contract, but the average salary is 27 million and the average salary Wiggins wants is more than 40 million. The gap is quite huge.

And importantly, this contract is not fully guaranteed, but a 3+1 contract.

This made Wiggins even more uncomfortable.

Let's put it this way, if the free market can provide a better contract, Wiggins will choose to leave the Golden State Warriors without a second thought.

Because he felt that the Warriors treated him, the hero of the championship, too badly.

Well, at the beginning, Wiggins did think so. He felt that the Warriors treated him very badly.

His Timberwolves teammate Towns now has a four-year contract worth 230 million yuan, with an average salary of 60 million yuan.

He never considered himself worse than Towns.

If he gets a contract worth more than 40 million yuan, this is considered a price for the Warriors.

Why did the Warriors give him a four-year, $108 million contract and then ignore him, take it if he wants it, and get out if he doesn't?

With such a contract, is it because the Warriors are crazy or stupid that they think it is a charity to him?

But as time went by, Wiggins slowly discovered that it seemed that the Warriors' contract was the best contract he could get...

Because no other team is willing to provide him with a contract of more than three years.

The contract with the highest annual salary is 90 million for three years, but it is a 2+1 contract.

Yes, most of the offers he received were 2+1 contracts.

It can only be said that Wiggins has finally reaped the bitter consequences of playing healthy basketball when he renewed his second big contract.

There are no fools in this world. When your performance on the court is not worthy of the salary you get, you must not be complacent and think that those who work hard are fools, and that you have a big contract just to play casually.

Now, those who are desperate can sign a contract worth 60 million, but you can't even sign a contract worth 30 million.

In this year's finals, facing Durant, Wiggins actually regretted that he had wasted his talent in the past.

And now, when he signed the big contract, he regretted it even more.

Once his reputation is ruined, it will never be possible to pick it up again.

Let's put it this way, even if he plays hard in the future, others will think that he is pretending to work hard to get a big contract, and they will not give him a big contract again.

From now on, he will never be able to get a maximum salary contract like Towns and others.

Even the four-year, $108 million contract from the Warriors, which he despises very much, is already a good contract that he can get.

Wiggins actually really didn't want to sign this contract, but in the end, Wiggins signed his name on the contract and chose to stay with the Golden State Warriors.

So far, the Warriors have four core players who need to renew their contracts this year. Except for Michael Porter Jr., who was poached by the Nuggets with a maximum salary, the other three players have all completed their contract renewals despite some twists and turns.

In addition to these three core players, Jeff Green and Anthony all jumped out of their contracts and left the Warriors.

Let's put it this way, both of them came to the Warriors to win the championship. Now that they have won the championship, they naturally need to find their next goal.

Jeff Green wants a big contract, so he can go wherever the contract is.

Anthony, on the other hand, needs a position on the team because he wants to complete his career goal of 30,000 points.

So in the end, Jeff Green went to the Grizzlies, who gave him a three-year, 24 million mid-level contract, while Anthony went to the Timberwolves.

Timberwolves head coach Garnett promised that as long as Anthony goes to the Timberwolves, he is willing to give Anthony a chance to start and will also develop special tactics for Anthony.

To be honest, the Timberwolves' growth over the years has not been so smooth because the team lacks a big boss at critical moments.

Towns and Big Eyebrow are both very talented players, but they need a big brother like Anthony on the court.

Although Rondo is also a big brother-type player, Rondo's current combat effectiveness is really beyond words.

I'm afraid only the mouth is still at its peak.

In short, the Warriors have completed their reconstruction after Chen Xiao left.

By the way, the Warriors selected young big man Holmgren with the third overall pick this year. They got a very promising young player at the center position. In addition, Bagley, Wiggins, Alexander and Irving also all They are still very young, so this Warriors team can actually look forward to the future.

Of course, that assumes Holmgren can grow up in the future.

But no matter what, the Warriors have made a steady progress since leaving Chen Xiao.

This year's free market is not big, so the focus of NBA public opinion after July 1st is almost all on the signing ceremony between the Nets and this year's top draft pick Xiao Chen on July 7th.

Because at this signing ceremony, Chen Xiao will also make his first public appearance.

At two o'clock in the afternoon on July 7, the signing site between the Nets and Xiao Chen was almost completely surrounded by New Jersey fans.

And when the team's owner Kidd showed up with Chen Xiao, Xiao Chen, Ingram, Drummond, Joe Harris, and Bruce Brown Nets players, the whole scene went crazy.

Yes, the entire scene was shouting God’s voice crazily.

This shocked Ingram and others who saw this kind of battle for the first time.

"Is this the love Nets fans have for God?"

They feel it!

Especially Ingram.

God only played for the Nets for one year.

And he has been playing with the Nets for six years.

The cheers Chen Xiao is receiving from Nets fans now make Ingram feel that he has lived like a dog in the Nets for the past six years.

At this signing ceremony for Xiao Chen, Kidd specially asked Chen Xiao to welcome Xiao Chen as the team representative.

So, when Xiao Chen signed the contract and Chen Xiao and Xiao Chen shook hands with each other, the reporters at the scene went crazy.

On the Internet around the world, when Chen Xiao and Xiao Chen shook hands wearing No. 7 and No. 15 respectively, the entire network went crazy.

"Crazy, I announce the birth of the only father-son All-Star team in NBA history!"

Maizi, who broadcast the signing ceremony, was extremely excited!