The Strongest Bishop in the NBA

According to the current performance of Oladipo and Middleton, if they trade during the offseason, they should be able to exchange for some higher-ranked draft picks, or package them for a quasi-All-Star star.

But that's just the normal situation.

It is impossible for the Bucks to trade for draft picks. This has happened several times. How could there be teams that are stupid enough to trade top draft picks to Wang Xiao?

If Wang Xiao is willing to use Antetokounmpo or Thompson as a bargaining chip, it may still be attractive, but Oladipo and Middleton are not exciting enough.

Under this premise, Wang Xiao felt that trading Durant to the team in advance, although it may seem like a loss of two good players, would allow the team to have the capital to win the championship a season earlier. loss.

After this offer was put forward, the Blazers quickly gave an agreed answer.

This is also in Wang Xiao's expectation, Oladipo plus Middleton, this is already a very good offer, he believes that it will be difficult for other teams to make offers with the same conditions.

There are still some small problems in terms of salary in this deal. Durant's annual salary is currently as high as 20 million, while Oladipo and Middleton are still in the rookie contract period, and the two combined are just over 10 million.

But this is not a big problem, because the salary space of the Bucks is very healthy. The team does not have a big contract except for Thompson, and all the bigger junk contracts last year have already been dealt with.

It's a scary place, not to mention eating Durant's contract, even if Antetokounmpo and Embiid Djokic are renewed in the future, there will not be too much pressure!

...

On January 30, 2016, the Bucks and Trail Blazers both started to move.

The Blazers first completed the contract renewal with Durant ahead of schedule, and the two parties reached a five-year 160 million contract. Once the news was announced, it immediately caused a sensation.

This is not because of the renewal of Durant's contract with the Trail Blazers. After all, anyone who knows the business knows that this is just a routine of signing first and then changing.

What shocked me was the 5-year contract amount of 160 million. This is a super contract with an average annual salary of 32 million, and it is also the largest contract in NBA history!

Prior to this, there were only two players in the NBA with an annual salary of more than 30 million in a single season. They were Jordan's 30.14 million in the 96-97 season and 33.14 million in the 97-98 season, and Kobe's 30.45 million in the 2013-14 season.

Durant will become the third player with an annual salary of more than 30 million, and it is also an average annual salary!

With Durant's strength, of course he is worthy of this contract, but even so, the largest contract in league history still makes people talk about it.

Of course, in Wang Xiao's view, this contract is no big deal.

This year, the NBA and the TV station have reached a new broadcast agreement, 24 billion in 9 years! This will also cause the league's salary space to skyrocket in the next few years. Without Durant, the Grizzlies point guard Mike Conley's 5-year 153 million will be the first to break the record this summer. That is a real exaggeration.

Conley is a decent player, but that's about it.

It is crazy that a player who has never been selected as an All-Star in his career can actually get 153 million in 5 years, with an average annual salary of 30 million.

And that's just the beginning.

In another time and space, as of 2020, a total of 5 people have won contracts with a total salary of more than 200 million yuan. 207 million in 6 years, 205 million in 5 years for Westbrook in 17 and 256 million in 6 years for Lillard in 19.

Subsequent salary caps are exploding year by year, and player contracts are also exaggerated one by one. In contrast, Durant’s five-year 160 million contract is actually nothing. Renewing the contract a year earlier is actually worth it. Little loss.

...

Only one day after the Trail Blazers and Durant completed their contract extensions, the Bucks also reached a contract extension agreement with Oladipo and Middleton respectively, renewing their contracts with a value of 84 million US dollars in 4 years and 70 million US dollars in 4 years.

After the contract extension was reached, the Bucks and the Trail Blazers did not trade immediately.

Because the All-Star Weekend is here.

On February 13, 2016, the NBA All-Star Weekend officially began in Toronto, Canada.

The Bucks have two players participating in the All-Star Game, Antetokounmpo and Thompson, both of whom played as substitutes.

Before, Wang Xiao layer helped Oladipo and Jokic to collect statistics, and hoped that the two would also be selected for the All-Star Game, but they failed. There are quite a lot of stars in the Eastern Conference. Less than the standard of an All-Star bench.

The five starting Eastern Conference All-Stars are Curry of the Wizards, Wade of the Heat, George of the Wizards, Leonard of the Wizards and James of the Cavaliers.

The bench lineup is Jeremy Lin, Antetokounmpo, Thompson, Cheng Jie, Wall, Howard, Irving.

The starting five Western All-Stars are Westbrook of the Thunder, Kobe of the Lakers, Harden of the Kings, Durant of the Trail Blazers and Davis of the Pelicans.

The bench lineup is Butler, Cousins, Paul, Griffin, Aldridge, Bosh.

...

Before the start of the main game, the NBA will still hold the Rookie Challenge, Shooting Star, Skills Challenge, Three-Point Contest and Slam Dunk Contest as usual.

In the Rookie Challenge, the world team led by Cheng Jie and Wang Meng beat the American team to a blow. Cheng Jie, who scored 31 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists, was elected MVP.

In the three-point contest, the two who entered the final happened to be Curry and Thompson. The two staged a three-point shootout in the final. In the end, Thompson played better and scored 27 points to win the three-point contest against Curry. Championship trophy.

For the slam dunk contest, Pistons forward Wang Meng signed up for the competition and became the first Chinese player in the league to participate in the slam dunk contest.

However, in the competition, Wang Meng was the first to be eliminated.

There was no other way. The dunk performed by Wang Meng was not simple, and the completion was very high, but it was still the first of the four players to be eliminated. There were some reasons why it was unclear.

To put it simply, Jeremy Lin gave up the American international and returned to Chinese nationality to prepare for the Olympics, which made Chinese players not particularly popular in the NBA. Jeremy Lin and Cheng Jie were selected for the All-Star Game because of their excellent performance and their respective ball The credit for the team working behind the scenes.

It wasn't just Wang Meng who was unfairly treated. In the subsequent All-Star Game, Jeremy Lin and Cheng Jie only got 5 minutes and 3 minutes of playing time respectively. The former only had 2 points and 2 assists, and the latter had 0 points and 1 rebound.

Wang Xiao understood why. Obviously, the United States felt the pressure.

When Jeremy Lin, Cheng Jie, Wang Meng, Hao Peng and others gathered in the Huaxia men's basketball team, the American men's basketball team, which has been criss-crossing the basketball world, finally found that their unbreakable and transcendent status was about to face a severe impact!