Basketball's No. 1 Anti-Fan

Chapter 258 Nike's Layout
James' decision instantly caused an uproar.

During the Stern era, people were committed to creating 23VS24, but unfortunately they failed in the end.

Now, Stern has just retired, and it’s not good to fight so hard, just 23+24!

"The game is over, the Lakers will win more than one, more than two, more than three..."

"This will be a true king bomb combination, and they will dominate this league until the day Kobe retires."

"Fuck, Han just left Memphis and you guys did this, didn't Silva stop it? This is crazy!"

"This is a free agent joining. Why should Silva stop it? It's a lifetime series!"

"So who is the boss of the Lakers now?"

"Little known fact: LeBron doesn't have a 'wife'. He has never been married to anyone, so this long post is useless. I might as well say I'm going to hug Kobe."

"Look, he's getting anxious. You must be KD's alias, right?"

"Little-known fact: Okafor and Gasol's contracts both expire this summer. If the Lakers trade Jeremy Lin, they will have enough salary space to sign another top-paid player in addition to Kobe and James."

"The real league finale, let's create another dynasty before Kobe retires!"

……

Coincidentally, just after James made [Decision 2], Knicks owner Dolan cursed James, just like Gilbert did back then.

After all, as a proud Knicks owner, he has made great concessions to James, but James still chose to leave after playing in New York for a year.

He called such behavior betrayal.

Of course, the outside world’s reaction this time is nothing new. After all, this is like cheating. If it happens the first time, there will be a second time.

Why did you choose to believe James, who had already betrayed you once?

However, James' decision will also cause him to lose a lot of money. After all, Dolan is not Gilbert. With his personality, it is impossible for him to cooperate with James to do a sign-and-trade. At worst, the team will just play badly. Anyway, no matter how bad the Knicks are, there will be people who pay for tickets.

Han Sen was also very shocked when he saw the news.

Of course, he was not shocked by the strength of the team formed by the two. After all, as fans said on social media, the question of who is the boss between the two is a difficult one.

He was shocked that James would choose to team up with Kobe, and Kobe didn't object!
But if you think about it carefully, it seems that this is indeed the only way for James to return to the spotlight.

The topic of 23 plus 24 is very big, even bigger than the Heat's Big Three.

As for Kobe, he still finds it a little hard to understand. Even though he had previously stated that he was willing to sacrifice, Kobe's personality should be very disdainful of this kind of group behavior.

Maybe there is something unknown here.

However, the combination of these two people made him see an opportunity, because... Kobe fans and James fans have joined forces!
This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime series.

Han Sen immediately logged into his social media and posted a status:
"23+24＜77"

Before, Han Sen could only target one of the two groups, James fans or Kobe fans, because the two groups were hostile to each other.

Now it’s good, he can output together in the future.

Shortly after he posted this status, his social media went viral.

"Last season he said he would be the best of all time, this season he said Kobe and James together were not as good as him, next season will he say he can win the championship alone?"

"You are so arrogant. You think you are still with the Grizzlies. Without the protection of that team, you are nothing!"

"Fuck, I want to see the new season start and see Han get ravaged by the Lakers. I can't wait!"

"When it comes to attracting hatred, you are the real GOAT."

……

Han Sen's anti-fan value is increasing at a crazy rate.

Before, whether he was criticizing James or Kobe, because it involved the players' personal abilities, those remarks were generally only criticized by die-hard James or Kobe fans.

But this time, even rational James and Kobe fans couldn't tolerate his remarks.

Based on this wave of remarks, the attention on the matchup between the Cavaliers and the Lakers will skyrocket after the start of the new season.

While Hansen was attracting hatred, Griffin continued to move forward.

He contacted the Knicks immediately.

The Knicks' lineup last season was at the playoff level. James' choice to leave means the team's reconstruction, which means the opening of the Knicks supermarket.

The two teams quickly reached a deal, with the Cavaliers sending Varejao and Jarrett Jack to the Knicks in exchange for Andrea Bargnani, JR Smith and a second-round pick.

With Hansen returning to the Cavaliers, it is inevitable that the Cavaliers will deal with Varejao.

Varejao is now a glass man, but fortunately, the contract that James had obtained for him before only has one year left, and his attendance rate last season was unexpectedly good. He played 65 games, with 8.4 points and 9.7 rebounds, and has a certain trading value.

Of course, the main player they traded back this time, Bargnani, is not much better.

Bargnani is not the worst among the NBA No. 1 picks, but he should be the one with the weakest presence.

Perhaps many new fans don’t know that this guy is actually the No. 1 pick.

He played for the Raptors for three seasons before he showed some of the strength to match the No. 21.4 pick, averaging 5.2 points and rebounds per game.

But it was also during that season that he began to suffer from injuries, and his attendance rate declined year by year.

The Knicks' decline in performance in the latter part of last season was also related to his season-ending injury due to a torn elbow ligament.

However, the Cavaliers traded for him to serve as a substitute for Hawes, which can avoid his injuries to a certain extent.

Of course, the Cavaliers are interested in him because of his stable three-point shooting ability as a big man. His career three-point shooting percentage is over 35%.

Moreover, his contract, like Varejao's, only has one year left, which is acceptable to the Cavaliers.

By the way, they also freed up Jack's contract. After signing Williams and West, the Cavaliers' backcourt now looks a little bloated.

As for JR Smith, he is purely a gift, or even a product of negative value in the transaction.

Fans have a saying, "If JR doesn't have crazy moves, he'll be an All-Star every day." This means that he has outstanding talent, but it's impossible for him not to have crazy moves.

He often does some out-of-line things on the court and gets into trouble off the court. The Knicks have long wanted to get rid of him.

The Cavaliers are willing to take him because of his good three-point shooting ability and the lack of a bench player who can score in the team's lineup.

At this point, the new Cavaliers' lineup has basically taken shape.

Point Guard: Irving, Mo Williams, Dellavedova
Shooting guards: Hansen, JR, West
Small forward: Tucker, James Johnson, Sergey Karasev (2013 No. 19)

Power forward: TT, Cunningham

Center: Hawes, Bargnani

The Cavaliers' roster is basically finalized, but the free market is not over yet.

In other words, James joining the Lakers is just the beginning.

Because on the second day after James joined the team, a seemingly impossible news appeared. Gasol joined the Heat with a 3-year, $3000 million contract (the last year is a player option).

Han Sen was also stunned when he saw the news.

Why did James go to the Lakers while Gasol ran away?

So the real strong player of the Lakers is Gasol, who disdains to form a team?
That statement is obviously a bit ridiculous.

Or is this the reason why Wade agreed to take a pay cut to renew his contract?

If he takes a pay cut and the team adds Gasol, the Heat will go straight to a Big Four lineup next season.

But the Heat owner is also notoriously stingy, so this doesn't make sense.

Just when he was still puzzled, the following news directly burned out his CPU.

The Heat signed Bosh to a five-year, $5 million contract and then sent him to the Rockets in exchange for Vucevic and a $1.18 million trade exception.

Riley has become a great philanthropist? !
This is obviously impossible.

The only explanation is that Bosh himself wanted to leave the Heat and go to the Rockets.

But this makes even less sense.

Because after the Grizzlies weakened, the Heat are the team most likely to win the championship.

Of course, with this move, the Rockets have become a favorite to win the championship. The Big Three lineup of Paul + Harden + Bosh is, in a sense, no weaker than the Lakers' Kobe and James.

Moreover, after the Heat renewed Wade's contract at a low price, signed Gasol, and got Vucevic for free, they still have 10 million in salary space.

From a competitive perspective, Riley's move was the key to the Lakers' breakthrough after they formed a 23 plus 24 score.

The Lakers have no rivals in the West? I'll build one for you.

And if the Heat renew Bosh's contract, the lineup will be completely locked and will not change much from last season.

But in this way, they can use the remaining 10 million space to strengthen the outside line.

After all, the fundamental reason why the Heat lost the finals last season was that Wade could no longer defend Hansen.

Although the Grizzlies are not as strong as before, Hansen has not retired like Jordan, so the Heat must strengthen their outside line.

They wouldn't be able to do that if they signed Bosh.

In fact, on the same day that Bosh was sent away, the Heat made a follow-up move and offered a four-year, $4 million contract to the Celtics' restricted free agent Avery Bradley.

Bradley can organize, shoot three-pointers, and is strong on defense. He is much stronger than Chalmers.

But the Celtics quickly chose to match.

This match was expected. Bradley was a player that the Celtics focused on developing, and they gave up Ray Allen for him.

After being matched, the Heat did not stop their moves and signed Deng with a two-year, $2 million contract.

At the same time, they sent Perkins and two second-round picks to the Knicks.

After this operation, the Heat's salary is below the luxury tax, which allows them to have the mid-level exception instead of the mini-mid-level exception.

It was after that that they used most of the mid-class exception and signed the "Swiss Army Knife" Sefolosha with a three-year, $3 million contract.

The Thunder previously traded for Afflalo and then selected Robertson. Sefolosha was gradually marginalized in the Thunder.

But his personal strength has not actually weakened much.

Durant, Wade, Gasol, Luol Deng, Vucevic, Sefolosha, Chalmers...

You can't call this lineup a Big Three lineup, but it is obvious that this lineup has better lineup depth than the previous Big Three lineup, and Spoelstra is more flexible in deploying the troops.

Of course, the most important thing is that Gasol's arrival fills the Heat's most lacking organizational ability.

Although Gasol's assist data is not very impressive, compared with Wade and Durant, he has real organizational skills.

His arrival can liberate the scoring ability of Wade and Durant.

Although his low-post offense and defense are not as good as Bosh, they are not much different.

It can be said that this version of the Heat is a more reasonable and stronger team than last season.

The Lakers are also strengthening their lineup at the same time.

They signed Channing Frye to a four-year, $4 million contract.

It is not difficult to see from this operation that the Lakers should not be in a hurry to form a Big Three team now.

On the one hand, there are no suitable inside players in this year's free market. A suitable player like Aldridge surprisingly did not opt ​​out of the player option and did not reach an early contract extension with the Trail Blazers.

On the other hand, Jeremy Lin's contract is also difficult to handle.

The reason why the contract that the Rockets offered was called a poison contract was because the contract price skyrocketed in the third year, and his salary that year was 1489 million.

Although Jeremy Lin's performance in the Lakers was pretty good before, it was obviously not commensurate with such a salary.

Subsequently, the Lakers reached a one-year, $1 million contract extension with Jordan Hill, and then traded for Varejao from the Knicks along with next year's first-round pick.

Finally, they reached a two-year, $2 million contract extension with Chris Kaman, with a team option for the second year.

"It's not easy to win the championship with the Cavaliers." When Rondo showed Hansen some selected real estate resources, he talked about the changes in the free market.

Although both are on the Cavaliers, the external environment that Hansen faces now is much worse than that of James back then.

"But there is nothing we can do about it. If Nike doesn't fight back, UA will really take over the market." Rondo then mentioned his opinion.

Han Sen didn't pay much attention to Rondo's first sentence, but his eyes lit up when he heard the second half of it.

Many things that were incomprehensible seemed to be explained at this moment.

There are many changes in this free market, but it is mainly concentrated on three teams: the Heat, Rockets and Lakers.

The stars of these teams, Kobe and James of the Lakers, Paul, Harden and Bosh of the Rockets, Wade, Durant and Gasol of the Heat, they are all from Nike!
Nike has made a big plan this summer and implemented the strategy of "not putting all eggs in one basket".

In the West, the Rockets and the Lakers are both in the top tier, so whoever comes out on top in the end will win.

In the Eastern Conference, the Heat are the first line of defense to stop the Cavaliers. Even if they can make it out of the Eastern Conference, they will still face the Lakers or Rockets who are like "raising poison".

Especially in Hansen's first year with the Cavaliers, there will be issues with lineup and running-in, so their chances are very great.

This was before Hansen completed his dynasty with the Grizzlies. UA continued to grow and put Nike in a desperate situation.

“They overlooked one person.”

Just as Han Sen said this, they all received news push from ESPN on their phones.

The Warriors decided to part ways with Mark Jackson and hired TNT commentator Steve Kerr on a five-year, $5 million contract.

(End of this chapter)