Pick Westbrook

Chapter 426 Very Bad Record

Just when Li Lai confirmed that Devin Harris was the first choice after Beverley left, Hammond pushed open the office door and walked in.

"The moment the door to the trading market opened, I received many offers from free agent agents."

After speaking, Hammond handed over a list to Li Lai.

This list is his record of players who are willing to come to the Pelicans to play. Among them are young players who are depressed, as well as down-and-out players who are not interested in this year's free market, as well as powerful players in their prime. .

Li Lai was quite surprised by this scene.

After all, after the Bucks won the championship for the first time, not so many players were willing to take the initiative to join, and now some players are even willing to join with a salary cut.

Hammond saw Li Lai's doubts and explained: "After the Bucks won the championship for the first time, the new season is not the biggest favorite to win the championship at all."

"And it was your first title as a coach, nobody wants to believe you can keep doing it."

"But it's different now. You have led the Bucks to win two consecutive championships, and you have led the Chinese women's team to break through historical records and win medals in the Olympic Games."

"The Pelicans won the championship last season, and you managed to lead the two teams to do this again."

"That's why Phil Jackson, the Zen master, and Paleil, the magician, are respected by the world. They are the head coaches who led two teams to championships."

"And you're the fourth head coach in NBA history to do that."

Li Lai nodded, but he could see it more clearly than Hammond.

"My reason should only be secondary, the most important reason is the reason of the Pelicans team itself."

"Leonard, Jimmy Butler and Anthony Davis played very well in the playoffs last season, and they are all rookies with rookie bonus contracts."

"Anyone can see that the three will become stronger next season, especially the performance of Anthony Davis in the Western Conference Finals and semifinals, and the explosion of Jimmy Butler and Leonard in the Finals."

"The potential of the Pelicans is unlimited, which is why these players are willing to join even with a salary cut."

Of course, there is another reason for this situation.

There are a lot of big fish in the trading market this year.

The first is the Lakers center Warcraft Dwight Howard.

Although the Lakers played a good chemical reaction after the All-Star Game, the team ushered in a wave of winning streak, but in the playoffs were bloody abused by the Pelicans and Kobe's Achilles tendon rupture, the prospect of the Lakers has been bleak.

More importantly, the Lakers have lost a lot of future bargaining chips in order to get Howard and Nash, and the team's salary structure is also extremely complicated.

Coupled with the demonstrations of local fans in Los Angeles after the playoffs, the chaos in the Lakers management was exposed.

Howard has a very high probability that he will not stay with the team, but will test the free market.

So most teams are staring at this inside gate.

In addition, there are Hawks power forward Josh Smith, Jazz inside players Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap, all of which are players that various teams are vying to contact.

What's more, among the remaining players are Andre Iguodala, Manu Ginobili, Zaza Pachulia, Jose Calderon, David West, Tony A Len, Monta Ellis.
"Although there are no super big fish entering the free market this offseason, the number of All-Star players and first-class players far exceeds that of the past."

"It puts a lot of pressure on players in the 500-1000 million range."

"That's why a large number of players are willing to take the initiative to join the Pelicans, because most teams have no extra salary space to sign other players after preparing the salaries of All-Stars and first-class players."

Hammond nodded again and again, thinking that Li Lai's analysis was correct, and the latter also carefully examined the list of players who were willing to take the initiative to join.

In the end, Lee saw three of them, Devin Harris, JJ Redick and Nick Young.

Li Lai quickly contacted the agents of the three for a detailed discussion.

Devin Harris' agent proposed a three-year, $900 million deal with a player option in the final year.

In the game played by the Atlanta Hawks last season, Devin Harris averaged 9 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists per game.

This salary is strictly in line with what Devin Harris needs in the market.

Moreover, Devin Harris is a breakthrough combo guard who is good at making free throws and has a certain passing ability. It has been improved and reached 36%.

In short, Devin Harris will not have the defensive passion and willingness of Beverly when he was on the court, and he does not have that defensive ability, but he is better than Beverly in terms of offensive end and versatility.

This is a trade-off, and it is also a very good choice for Li Lai.

But considering that Devin Harris is 31 years old, if he signs a three-year contract, the opponent will play in the Pelicans until he is 3 years old.

Li Lai didn't think that Devon Harris could continue to be efficient for such a long time, so he shortened the contract period to two years and 600 million, and the last year was still a player option.

And JJ-Redick is a player that Li Lai cares about very much. He also thinks that the opponent is a very important role player after JR Smith left.

Although in the face of high-intensity defense, JJ-Redick does not have the nerve knife attribute of JR Smith, but in terms of three-point stability and open three-point shooting, JJ-Redick is better than JR Smith .

Last season, JJ-Redick averaged 12 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists per game for the Bucks, shooting 46% from the field and 40% from three-pointers, ranking eighth in three-pointers made this season.

Therefore, JJ-Redick is also much more expensive than Devin Harris.

His agent proposed two plans, one is a short-term contract of 2 million in the form of mercenaries for two years, and the other is a long-term contract of more than four years, and the amount can be negotiated.

Li Lai chose the latter, 4 million in 2700 years. He also believes that the 29-year-old JJ-Redick can be worth a longer annual salary contract.

The subsequent signing of Nick Young was much simpler.

上赛季在76人队的尼克杨场均可以贡献10分2篮板1助攻，投篮命中率42%，三分球命中率37%。

This stat doesn't look bad, but his defensive and personality issues have discouraged the general managers of all teams in the league.

His current situation is very similar to that of JR Smith back then. Everyone knows you can still play, but no one wants to sign you.

This is the general experience of stabbing players in the free market.

After Nick Young's agent asked the general managers of all teams in the league, the answers they got were very pessimistic, so they decided to take a gamble.

Join the defending champion Pelicans at a low price, strive to perform well next season, and then get a big contract next year in one fell swoop.

After all, there will not be so many star players and first-class players in the free market next year.

So Nick Young's agent gave Li Lai a contract term that he couldn't refuse, a two-year basic salary contract of 2 million yuan, and a player option for the second year.

In this way, Li Lai signed three consecutive players for the team, making up for the vacancy left by Beverly and JR Smith.

At the same time, he signed veteran Vince Carter with a three-year, $3 million contract.

Even Carter was very surprised by this contract. He knew that he was worthy of an annual salary of around 400 million, but he did not expect that Li Lai would be willing to give him a three-year contract.

Li Lai's answer surprised Vince Carter even more.

"When the Pelicans were in distress, you chose to believe in us and came to this weak team to compete for the championship. This is what veteran Carter deserves."

Carter choked up when he heard this, and he also believed that this contract would most likely become his pension contract.

Subsequently, Li Lai renewed Oden's contract with US$1000 million for two years.

In this year's free market, Oden received offers from multiple teams with an annual salary of around 500 million, but Oden still chose to stay with the team despite everything when he knew the salary of the Pelicans.

Li Lai did not let the other party suffer. This is a salary worthy of Auden.

So far, the actions of the Pelicans in this year's trading market have basically come to an end. Apart from simple tinkering, there is no particularly big action.

Li Lai also intends to keep the original framework of the championship lineup as much as possible, and strive to defend the title next season.

"The salary cap for the new season has been released, 7100 million, and the luxury tax trigger line is 9000 million."

"The current salary of the Pelicans is 7500 million, which has triggered the luxury tax."

"But the good news is that next season is the last year of Lewis' salary, and we can negotiate a buyout with him, which will free us a lot of salary space."

Hammond reminded Lee to speak.

Li said: "But next season we will inevitably continue to trigger the luxury tax. If Lewis' contract is bought out, it will only make us pay less money, and it will not help us much in signings."

"That is to say, starting from next season, we can only sign players with the basic salary of veterans except for a middle-class contract."

Hearing this, Hammond was in great danger.

This also means that starting from next season, it will be difficult for the Pelicans to even open a low-priced contract of 400 million or 500 million.

Li Lai suddenly smiled and said: "However, we can renew Leonard and Jimmy Butler's contract after jumping out of the contract next season, so that we can strengthen first and then give them a maximum salary contract. troubled."

Hammond looked at Li Lai with a vicious look on his face and said, "The boss is still smart, you can even think of this."

"Although Jimmy Butler and Leonard are both on rookie contracts, jumping out of their contracts at the same time can free up a lot of salary space, at least enough to sign a contract around the middle class."

"But this luxury tax is going to blow up."

Li Lai never worried about this point.

"If you want to win the championship, there is no way you don't spend money."

7 month 3 day.

The team's trade has surfaced one after another.

This offseason, the most important player, Warcraft Dwight Howard, reached a four-year $4 million contract with the Kings, including an early termination option for the final year.

The general manager of the Kings, Geoff Petrie, felt extremely comfortable and made a high-profile announcement directly at the trade conference.

"The Kings formed another Big Three lineup after the Big Three of the Heat, James Harden + Paul George + Warcraft Howard."

This transaction has also attracted the attention of various teams in the league, and the teams in the Western Division are most worried.

Because the Kings had reached the Western Conference semifinals last season, and Howard joined this season to make up for the weakest inside player reserve of the Kings, they have indeed become a very strong team.

ESPN even gave an A+ operational evaluation after the official announcement of the deal, and ranked the Kings fifth on the championship list.

Subsequently, the Warriors announced the signing of free agent Andre Iguodala with 4 years of 4800 million U.S. dollars, and 3 years of 1560 million U.S. dollars to sign free agent Slag Pachulia.

The reinforcement of these two transactions is extremely obvious, which also makes Li Lai extremely afraid.

When they played against the Warriors in the playoffs last season, the opponent's weak link was the interior, so Anthony Davis played extremely terrifying efficiency and performance. The opponent's intention to sign foul master scum Pachulia is Here it is.

At the same time, Iguodala can effectively strengthen the Warriors' wing strikers, enabling them to fully match the Pelicans' offensive and defensive lineup.

It can be seen that the reinforcement of the Warriors in this offseason is aimed at the Pelicans, and they also regard the Pelicans as their biggest opponent in the playoffs.

In addition, Jose Calderon reached a signing agreement with the Dallas Mavericks for 4 years and 2800 million.

Manu Ginobili unexpectedly renewed his contract with the Spurs for 2 million in two years. This is another salary after a salary cut. According to the market value, Manu Ginobili’s annual salary should be around 1400 million .

Of course, this is not the first time that members of the Spurs' GDP team have cut salaries. Duncan has already cut salaries twice for the team.

David West extended his contract with the Pacers for 3 years and 3600 million.

Tony Allen also chose to renew his contract with a salary cut. His salary cut was even more exaggerated than that of Manu Ginobili. .

The reason why Tony Allen did this is just to keep the team's salary space below the salary cap, so that they can continue to reinforce and sign free agents.

The general manager of the Grizzlies, Chris Wallace, even couldn't believe it. He said bluntly at the signing conference, "The team will always remember Tony Allen's contribution and kindness."

"Allen will always belong to Memphis."

The Mavericks officially signed Monta Ellis to a three-year, $3 million contract.
June 7.

Alliance transactions have come to an end one after another.

The Pelicans signed up for the July 7-July 13 Las Vegas Summer League.

Including Orlando Magic, Golden State Warriors, Chicago Bulls, Phoenix Suns, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards, Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Memphis Grizzlies, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, Atlanta Hawks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Charlotte Bobcats and NBDL (NBA Development League) selection teams.

A total of 21 teams participated.

Since Du Feng has returned to the Chinese women's team, this summer league will be led by Stevens.

In the team training hall, Stevens frowned and was in a bad mood. He looked at the Pelicans' summer roster for this season, and shook his head at Li Laizhi.

"We're going to have a really bad record."

(End of this chapter)