Cousins ​​played a wonderful half season after being traded to the Lakers, averaging 21, 6 points, 13, 7 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game during the regular season, and a top insider's data.

By the playoffs, this data even rose to 4 points, 14, 6 rebounds and 2.3 blocks. Although it lowered his average in the finals, it was still a super insider performance.

This also makes him the biggest dark horse and star in this offseason.

If you want to renew your contract, no matter which team you need to pay, it must be a maximum salary contract.

Under the NBA's labor-management agreement, there are two types of players' maximum salary renewal. One is related to the player's annual salary in the previous year. He can be increased to up to 105% of last season. Take Cousins ​​as an example. His salary for the contract last season was 18.06 million yuan, so the maximum starting salary for his new contract is 18.96 million yuan.

Another type is based on the NBA's age. The salary cap is certainly the proportion of the salary cap. Take Cousins ​​as an example. Because he has been playing in the NBA for eight years, his proportion is 30%, and the league's salary cap next season is 108 million (the actual maximum salary cap is only 94% of this salary cap), which means that the maximum starting salary he can get is 30.45 million!

Generally speaking, both algorithms are big, because the NBA salary cap surged during the 2016 offseason, so most contracts that expire this year are basically calculated according to the second method. This means that if the Lakers want to keep Cousins, the biggest contract they need to pay is a super contract with a 5-year salary of 30.45 million, an increase of 7.5% per year, and a total value of 177 million!

This is actually not the key to the problem. The key to the problem is that after the end of last season, Tang Shuai has played in the league for three years, and has met the requirement of a rookie's early renewal. Moreover, because he was selected as the All-Star twice and was elected as the regular season MVP twice, he has met the requirements of the "Ross clause". His maximum contract starting salary can reach 35% of the league's maximum salary cap. His total contract is even greater than Cousins's. If the contract renewal is over 5 years, it will be a super big contract with a starting salary of 37.8 million yuan and 220 million yuan in 5 years.

In this way, Westbrook, who had previously renewed his contract (the salary next season is 30.9 million), will add up to 99 million yuan for the three of them. Including Yi Jianlian, Stephenson and others who already have contracts, they have exceeded the 108 million salary cap.

Although both of them can wait until the reinforcement is completed, because they have to occupy the reserved space, as soon as these two contract renewals are completed, the Lakers will be super popular. Then, let alone strengthening this offseason, it will become very difficult to retain the main contract of last season.

In this case, the ideal situation is of course that all the players of the team make concessions in renewing the contract so that everyone can continue to stay with the team.

However, this situation is obviously unrealistic.

Basketball games are a visual enjoyment for fans and the joy of life, but for professional players in the league, this is a profession, which is no different from ordinary people going to work, so money is naturally what they consider the most.

Therefore, when it comes to salary cuts, no one will be willing, and even if they are willing, the range cannot be too large. This is tantamount to a drop in the bucket.

After the free agent market opened, all teams began negotiations with players, but the only one of the Lakers was in a stalemate.

This phenomenon has also made other teams happy.

If the Lakers really run away or the main players leave, their competitiveness will naturally decline and the threat to other teams will naturally be smaller.

In particular, the Lakers' two main rivals, the Warriors and the Cavaliers.

Because the Warriors renewed their contracts in advance, although they already had to pay Luxury, their main structure is in place, and the Cavaliers are the same. As long as Anthony's contract renewal is completed, the team will have no problems.

At this time, a general manager even expressed his mockery of Kupchek by anonymously, saying that he renewed Westbrook's contract last season and came to Cousins ​​to quench his thirst. He ignored future gambling behavior and the team could not maintain its consistent competitiveness despite the sharp increase in the salary of players.

Of course, Tang Shuai didn't pay much attention to all this. Duffy helped him take care of the contract renewal. He just needed to devote himself to the training.

The high-intensity training also gave him a quick gain. After synthesising the Eagle King Back Pack and the Truth Turning Back Rear Pack, he raised him from blue to purple in a week, which made him feel a little more threatening on the offensive end.

On this day, he was still busy practicing hard in the stadium, looking forward to further improving his strength before his fourth season came.

He devoted himself to the training and didn't pay much attention to the surroundings. When the training was over, he saw that Duffy had come to the stadium.

"Why are you here?" Tang Shuai wiped his sweat with a towel and walked over and asked.

"I've been here for an hour. You're very dedicated to training." Duffy said, frowning, obviously having something to worry about.

"What's wrong?" Tang Shuai walked to Dafei and sat down, grabbed the water next to him and took a few sips, and asked.

"There is something wrong with renewal." Duffy said directly without any trace.

"Tell me, although I don't understand this very much." Tang Shuai said leaning on the chair.

"This is the general situation..." Duffy roughly explained the difficulties of the Lakers' contract renewal to him, and finally added, "Doug (referring to Mike Dermott)'s contract renewal is basically about 20 million, and the Lakers cannot provide it at all, let alone Trevor, Norris, and Jamieri are going to renew the contract."

"This is indeed a problem." Tang Shuai is still good at math. Just simply calculate it and know that not to mention 20 million, even 10 million, the Lakers may not be able to give it. This is the salary cap limit. Not all contract renewals can be operated under risk. Even if it is possible, the part beyond the Luxury Rui will discourage the team boss, because if you give you 20 million and pay another 20 million Luxury Rui, this is equivalent to a 40 million contract.

For a role player who used 40 million yuan to renew his contract, except for the Cavaliers boss Gilbert who worked under pressure from James (when he renewed his contract for a very powerful contract the year before yesterday, he still used a contract with a starting salary of 15 million yuan. Because of his luxury, the actual salary required for this contract is 30 million yuan), even Buss Jr. did not have this courage.

"What if I choose to cut my salary?" Tang Shuai thought for a while and said.

"That's useless." Duffy said without thinking.

"It's true." Tang Shuai thought for a while and understood. Even if he was willing, Cousins ​​probably wouldn't. Mike Dermott probably wouldn't. It's really hard to do such a thing that can't be slapped, let alone the salary cut is limited.

"No, there is a way, at least I can delay it in time." Tang Shuai suddenly thought of something and then stood up.

"You mean..." Duffy quickly guessed what he thought.

"I have to go find Mickey, you can make an appointment with me." Tang Shuai thought about it and walked directly to the locker room.
Chapter completed!