Just when Lian Dao was quietly happy for the start of the new season, he received the new labor agreement terms from the players union in his mailbox.
Among them, the most sensitive and controversial income sharing ratio has changed from the previous 57% of players sharing basketball-related income to 50% as the basis. For the part above or below the specified value, players share 60.5%, with a floating range of
49-51%.
The fixed share for the first year of the 2011-2012 season is %.
What this means is: the employer benefits, and the player share ratio drops significantly.
Then there is no change in the salary cap, it is still a soft salary cap.
Changes have been made in other terms such as the middle-class exception, biennial exception, etc.
For example, free agent signing contract length and growth rate:
Old agreement: Bird's clause is up to 6 years, with a maximum increment of 10.5%. For other players, the maximum is 5 years, with a maximum increment of 8%.
New agreement: Bird's clause is up to 5 years, with a maximum increment of 7.5%. Other players have a maximum of 4 years, with a maximum increment of 4.5%.
The change in this clause is good for the team and bad for free agents, because the contract length and incremental ratio are reduced, and the purpose is to reduce expenses.
What Lian Dao is most concerned about is the length of player renewal period after the rookie contract ends, which has also been changed.
Old agreement: All rookies on the team can renew their contracts for 5 years at the end of their term.
New agreement: Only maximum-salary designated players can have a maximum of five years, and other rookies can have a maximum of four years. Each team can only have a maximum of one max-salary designated player at any time.
In the Knicks, there is no doubt that Lian Dao is the highest-paid designated player.
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There is also a difference from history. The maximum salary stipulation that was originally supposed to be the Roth clause has now become the low-income clause, and the details have also been changed.
Ross Clause.
If you were elected MVP in the first four years of your rookie contract, or was selected to the lineup in the All-Star Game twice, or was selected to the best team of the year twice, you can trigger the clause.
After the clause is triggered, after the rookie player completes the rookie contract and signs the second contract of his career, he can receive a maximum salary contract accounting for 30% of the team's salary cap.
And the honest rice clause.
The triggering condition adds the Finals Most Valuable Player Award (FMVP).
Another thing that is different from history is the luxury tax collection point:
Old agreement: The portion exceeding the luxury tax is levied at a 1:1 ratio.
Historically, the new agreement: The first and second years are levied at a 1:1 ratio. Starting from the third year, a tiered collection model will be adopted, and additional penalties will be imposed on teams that exceed the luxury tax four times in any five years.
The current new agreement: the tiered collection model will be implemented from the second year, which means starting from the 2012-2013 season.
When Lian Dao saw this agreement, he knew that it was an agreement made by the league for wealthy teams like the Knicks and Heat.
The change in the luxury tax was due to the New York Knicks winning the championship.
If the tiered collection model is implemented in the third year of the new agreement in history, then according to the current salary space of the Knicks, they will still sign two superstars with the maximum salary.
If two superstars are signed to the maximum salary to win the championship, then other teams will have almost no hope of winning the championship, or even any hope in the next two years.
If the Knicks don't win the championship this year, this group of owners can still accept the new terms in history. But now that the Knicks can strengthen and form the Big Four after winning the championship, all team owners are restless.
Lian Dao could tell at a glance that this clause was aimed at the Knicks.
The league drafted this clause because it did not want the Knicks to introduce giant stars, and in this case, the Heat can only be said to be sitting on their guns.
Under the tiered collection model in the second year, even James Dolan, who is stupid and rich, would not dare to play around.
After all, before the end of next season, they need to renew their star player Lian Dao's maximum salary in advance, including Holiday's contract which will also expire.
The current agreement is more beneficial to teams in small ball markets.
After the substantial increase in the proportion of luxury tax collection, the league's existing wealthy teams and players have been restricted. Owners who want to imitate the Heat's Big Three to form a wealthy team must also think carefully.
Of course, according to the current salary structure of the Knicks, Yao Ming can still be signed to the maximum salary.
For the 2011-2012 season, the NBA's salary cap is US$58.044 million, and the luxury tax trigger line is US$70.307 million.
Currently, only Stoudemire has a maximum-salary contract in the entire Knicks. His salary in the 2011-2012 season was US$18.22 million.
Needless to say, Lian Dao, Holiday and Cousins are still on rookie contracts, and the Knicks are still receiving their rookie bonuses.
Paul Millsap's salary is 8.2 million.
Even after completing the contract extension for Danny Green, the Knicks' salary is still very healthy, and they still have a lot of room for maneuver.
At present, the combined salary of all Knicks players only reaches about US$5,662, which has not yet reached the league's salary cap.
After all, Rasheed Wallace retired, and David Lee and Wilson Chandler both tested the free market, which saved a lot of salary space for the Knicks.
The Knicks still have the ability to get a player with a max contract.
But it is said that David Stern personally called James Dolan. It is unknown what was said on the phone. In the end, James Dolan told the Knicks management to abandon the plan to sign Yao Ming with a maximum salary.
On December 8, the free market and training camp will start at the same time.
After the Knicks failed to pursue Yao Ming, what the Knicks need most now is to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of Rasheed Wallace at the fifth position.
In this regard, the Knicks also have a candidate, not Hassan Whiteside, but former Rockets player and Yao Ming's teammate in the Rockets, Chuck Hayes, known as "Haiye".
What the Knicks value is his strong defensive ability, the shortest stature, but he can guard the biggest opponents.
Hayes is very defensively intelligent and has a high basketball IQ. He can be said to be a hard-working and intelligent top defender. He is strong and fast, has a good sense of position, and can compete with tall centers with his lower body strength.
Although his scoring and finishing ability is poor, Hayes is definitely qualified as an inside substitute.
Moreover, Chuck Hayes' contract was not large. As soon as he heard the Knicks' four-year offer of 22.5 million, Hayes immediately agreed.
In fact, what the Knicks management didn't know was that the Kings had also made an offer for him before, at 21.3 million for four years. The offer offered by the Knicks was a full 1.2 million more than the Kings, and it was the defending champion team. Hayes
There is no reason not to agree.
When Chuck Hayes saw that it was D'Antoni who came to lobby in person, he agreed without saying a word, and didn't even bother to read the contract carefully.
Not bargaining at all, this attitude of fearing that the Knicks would not want him made D'Antoni think he had been deceived?
Doesn't this guy have any hidden health problems? If he had known it, he would have quoted 20 million for 4 years.
However, in history, Hayes did have an own incident with hidden health problems.
Historically, at the beginning of the free market, Hayes signed a contract with the Kings once, when he received a four-year, $21.3 million contract from Sacramento.
But when the Kings were doing a physical examination on the players, an unexpected situation occurred. Hayes was found to have a heart problem.
After learning the results of the inspection, the King had no choice but to announce that the contract with Hayes was officially void.
Afterwards, Hayes went to the famous Cleveland Hospital in the United States for a follow-up visit, but it turned out that there was no problem with his heart.
Then in March, the Kings and Hayes signed another contract, which was fully guaranteed for four years and worth a total of US$22.3 million, which was US$1 million more than his previous contract of US$21.3 million over four years.
Originally, before the Knicks introduced Hayes, they had another option, which was Tyson Chandler. Although the Knicks did not have a good relationship with him, there is no permanent feud in professional basketball.
However, this guy knows that the Knicks have plenty of salary space, so he is simply opening his mouth, offering a maximum salary of 65 million in four years.
This directly persuaded the Knicks to quit. For example, if he paid 65 million in four years, it would be impossible for the Knicks to sign him, even if he paid 56 million in four years.
Although the owner of the Knicks is stupid and has a lot of money, he is not willing to use the maximum salary to sign a blue-collar center who only has excellent defense. Besides, the Knicks have Cousins at the fifth position, and they are not as eager for Chandler as they have historically been.
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After the Mavericks approached Yao Ming, they did not accept Chandler's offer.
Subsequently, the Rockets, Mavericks and Kings initiated a three-way trade. The Rockets signed and then traded Yao Ming to the Mavericks, and the Mavericks signed and then traded Chandler to the Kings.
The Mavericks then signed Vince Carter in the free market. Since then, the Mavericks' first lineup has taken shape: Kidd, Carter, Shawn Marion + Nowitzki + Yao Ming, and then the sixth man is Jason Terry!