When he woke up and learned the news, Wang Zelin was a little dumbfounded.
Is history so corrective?
Going full circle, history has returned to a familiar turning point.
It is no exaggeration to say that except for the Trail Blazers, the other 9 teams want Durant.
After all, he is the top two small forward in active service, and everyone is definitely clamoring for a superstar of this level.
"Is Kevin Durant really planning to leave the Thunder and go to the Golden State Warriors?"
When Coach Terry showed up belatedly in the general manager's office and learned the news from Orsi, he almost cursed on the spot.
Wang Zelin shook his head. Even he, who knew the trajectory of historical development, was shocked just now, let alone Coach Terry, who was unprepared.
Although after the Thunder were eliminated by the Lakers at the end of April, there was news that Durant wanted to test the trading market this year, but at that time he did not say that he wanted to join the Warriors!
What's more, judging from the intensity of the Thunder's training of Durant since his rookie period, the possibility of Durant continuing to sign with the Thunder cannot be ruled out.
As expected, Durant really plans to leave, and they are likely to join the Golden State Warriors, who will play the Trail Blazers in seven games in this year's Western Conference finals.
No wonder Coach Terry is so nervous.
"Yes, the news is very reliable. As soon as the free agent market opens, within two or three days at most, Durant's agent Kleiman will announce the news."
Hearing this, everyone in the office fell silent.
Once this transfer is completed, the Trail Blazers will face an extremely terrifying opponent next season!
Orsi is very worried that the golden era that the Trail Blazers have just ushered in may very well end here!
Everyone knows that the Trail Blazers can't always win the championship. Even Wang Zelin knows very well that they can't keep winning. Losing will be a matter of time, and it will be a matter of time for other teams to defeat the Trail Blazers and win the championship.
But when this kind of thing is really about to happen, it is destined to not be so easy to accept.
"Shetter, why is it so popular now..." Coach Terry shook his head. In the past ten years, since the Celtics and Heat started the Big Three model, the "team-building" approach to winning championships has become popular in the league.
stand up.
In the past, NBA stars fought on their own, dominating each other, and the final winner was determined through relatively evenly matched contests.
But now, the stars who are playing well are discussing how to get together to achieve a team monopoly and then better compete for the championship.
For a team like the Trail Blazers, which slowly relies on the draft to accumulate talent and then achieve team building and rise, star teaming is undoubtedly a "shameful" shortcut.
…
Time flies so fast and it’s July 1st in a blink of an eye.
In 2016, the door to the NBA free trade market opened as scheduled.
Due to the new labor agreement, the NBA salary cap has skyrocketed by more than 30 million in this season. In this way, many free agents have seized the opportunity and ushered in a great opportunity for their value to skyrocket.
The sharp increase in the salary cap has raised the poverty line. In order to fill the poverty line, many teams naturally offer prices that are much higher than the normal market conditions.
Coupled with the stimulation of Durant, a super big fish, this year's free agent market has become particularly interesting.
That is to say, on the first day of opening, many huge contracts broke out in the outside world.
The first team to attack was the Memphis Grizzlies. They first reached a 130 million-year super maximum salary extension with team point guard Mike Conley, and then reached a deal with the Dallas Mavericks and Mavericks player Chandler Parsons.
Signed a four-year, 94 million maximum salary contract.
Then came the Los Angeles Lakers, who signed a two-year contract extension agreement with their star, NBA legend Kobe Bryant, on a special 1+1 basis with a total value of more than 60 million, including a player option in the third year.
Kobe's salary in the new season is as high as 3 million, once again becoming the league's highest salary!
Of course, considering Kobe's unparalleled traffic and his huge global commercial value, the high salary offered by the Lakers is destined to be a sure profit.
Afterwards, the Lakers also reached a two-year contract extension worth over 30 million with Pau Gasol. Together with Chris Paul, who is already under contract, the Lakers will continue to compete for the championship next season around the aging trio.
They still have strong competitiveness in the Western Conference.
There is also DeRozan of the Raptors. He chose to jump out of his contract as soon as the door to the trade market opened and signed a super-maximum contract extension with the Raptors as a free agent worth 139 million yuan per year.
The emergence of super contracts again and again, with huge amounts beyond everyone's previous understanding, has also greatly stimulated the majority of fans and media, making people exclaim:
NBA doesn’t treat money as money this time!
However, cases like this are just typical of this year's free market.
As for the Wizards, they have just reached an offer contract with Bradley Beal worth 180 million per year;
As for the Pistons, just after Andre Drummond's rookie contract expired, they reached an annual maximum salary appointment of 130 million;
The veteran giant Celtics also reached a deal with the Hawks, signing a four-year, 113 million maximum salary contract with Hawks player Al Horford;
Subsequently, the Eagles reached a deal with the Mosaic team and signed the Mosaic team's main center Dwight Howard with a three-year, 70 million contract;
These contracts were previously only available to superstars. After the salary cap skyrocketed, the money in the free market seemed to have turned into a bunch of boring numbers, being squandered by the general managers of each team.
These unfavorable operations inevitably resulted in many contracts with obvious premiums.
For example, Tyler Johnson, who played 36 regular season games for the Heat last season and averaged only 8.7 points, 3 rebounds, assists, 0.7 steals and 0.4 blocks per game, has now received a four-year, 0 million contract.
Became another multi-millionaire in the NBA.
Similar situations include Luol Deng and Mozgov, who were quoted by the Lakers for 7 million and 6 million in four years respectively.
Even the little-known Kent Bazemore received a four-year, 70 million offer from the Eagles.
The unparalleled quotations are so jaw-dropping that this year's free agent trading market has only been open for one day, and the transaction amount has already exceeded 1 billion.
And this situation not only did not decrease the next day, but intensified.
The Magic reached an 8 million-per-year contract offer with Evan Fournier;
The Raptors and Magic reached a deal, and the Magic management signed Bisman Biyombo with a four-year, $7 million offer;
Hassan Whiteside jumped out of his contract and became a free agent, and then reached a contract extension with the Heat. The contract is about 98 million for four years;
…
There is only one main theme this summer, and that is that as long as you make a name for yourself last season, you can earn a lot of money.
A multi-million contract is no longer a dream, and a maximum-salary contract extension is not out of the question!
Overnight, money seemed to really no longer be money.
