Basketball's No. 1 Anti-Fan

Chapter 326 Durant's Decision
The day after the Sombor horse race, Hansen flew back to Cleveland.

Going to Serbia with Jokic is a reward for myself with a short vacation after winning the championship.

He, who had previously vowed to start a new dynasty, would also start preparing for the new season.

It was already early July at this time, and the NBA's new year's free market had already opened.

This year's free market should be the most lively since 2014.

Just on the Heat side, the contracts of Durant, Wade and Deng all expired at the same time, and Gasol has also opted out of the final year of his contract.

James also opted out of his player option after the free market opened.

In addition, there are DeRozan of the Raptors, Howard of the Hawks, Horford of the Celtics, Bill of the Wizards, "God of Zhuang" Drummond of the Pistons, Whiteside of the Timberwolves, etc. They are all considered to be the kind of players who can change the strength of a team.

Of course, the most critical person among them is Durant.

Because James left social media before, no one knows what he is thinking at the moment, but from a business point of view, he has no reason to leave Los Angeles, especially after Kobe retires, he can also legitimately become the new face of the Lakers.

But the possibility of Durant staying is very slim, and his whereabouts may even directly change the league's landscape.

Before this, a lot of news had already broken out.

The Rockets are trying every possible way to deal with Chris Bosh's contract. They want to create salary space to sign Durant.

The Celtics are also firing on all cylinders because Horford's contract has expired and they have no salary space issues, so they are trying various methods to attract Durant to join.

Even Ray Allen, who had conflicts with the Celtics in the past and has not played for a year, publicly stated that if Durant joins, he will eventually choose to return to the Celtics and play for another year.

Popovich is also trying hard to persuade Durant to join the Spurs.

In Popovich's plan, if Durant joins, Duncan will choose to play for another year at the minimum salary.

The Spurs' starting lineup at that time will be Parker, Green, Durant, Leonard, Aldridge, with Duncan and Ginobili on the bench.

This will be a lineup that will decide the championship in the offseason.

The Warriors are also taking action. Harrison Barnes, who performed poorly in the Western Conference Finals last season, will become an unrestricted free agent this summer. If they can sign Durant as a replacement, they will create an epic team.

Even the Lakers are working hard. Kobe's retirement has freed up salary space for them, and with a little work they can sign Durant.

By then, the combination of Durant and James, plus Love and a group of role players, will be the most terrifying presence in the league.

Although Durant did not make any live broadcast decisions like James did in 2010, his decision has a greater influence than James did back then.

Even other players, including James, are waiting for Durant's decision.

Of course Hansen knew that if nothing unexpected happened, Durant would still go to the Warriors.

The Cavaliers have also begun their summer operations.

But when the free market opened, they encountered a big problem.

JR directly asked for a 4-year, $6000 million contract.

At the time Hansen renewed his contract, this was already a contract close to the maximum salary.

However, with the new broadcasting contract taking effect this year, the maximum salary for players has directly reached 2000 million.

In addition, there are a limited number of players in the free agent market, and the league has a minimum salary cap, also known as the poverty line, so there is a shortage of players.

For example, Allen Crabbe, who has signed a four-year, $4 million contract with the Trail Blazers, averaged 7500 points and 10.3 rebounds per game last season.

For example, Solomon Hill, who transferred from the Pacers to the Pelicans for 4 million over four years, averaged only 5200 points and 4.2 rebounds per game.

还有鲁迪·盖伊和国王队达成4年6400万的续约合同，猛龙队的比永博拿到了魔术4年7200万的合同、黄蜂给巴图姆开出的是5年1.2亿的合同等等，这个夏天注定是个溢价合同满天飞的时代。

JR eventually signed a four-year, $4 million contract with the Cavaliers.

This time, Griffin did not ask Hansen for his attitude towards JR's contract renewal, because just like last year when TT renewed his contract, Hansen's attitude was actually the same.

The Cavaliers kept JR, but Mo Williams left the team after reaching a two-year, $2 million contract with the Trail Blazers.

For Williams, he returned to the Cavaliers because the Cavaliers had better opportunities. Essentially, he wanted to show his value and pursue a bigger contract. Now that he has won the championship and even his wish has been fulfilled, of course he will pursue a bigger contract.

In addition, the Cavaliers also retained Cunningham with a four-year, $4 million contract.

Unlike JR, after Cunningham received the offer from the Pacers, Griffin chose to match it directly.

Among the Cavaliers, the one who has the best relationship with Hansen is Cunningham, so there is no need to hesitate at all.

The same night Hansen returned to Cleveland, Griffin came to find him.

There's a guy who wants to come to Cleveland.

The reason why Griffin came to see Hansen alone was because that person was Deron Williams.

Deron chose to go to the Lakers last season because he wanted to rely on the exposure in Los Angeles to increase his value and win a championship at the same time.

As a result, as everyone saw, he did not win the championship, but instead got himself into trouble and completely destroyed his own reputation.

"He can still fight." Han Sen gave an affirmative answer.

It is easy to draw the conclusion from last season's finals against the Lakers: Deron is indeed easy to be targeted when he starts, but he is still completely sufficient when he comes off the bench.

In comparison, his current pure strength is definitely stronger than Williams.

This in and out will improve the Cavaliers' strength.

After getting Hansen's consent, the Cavaliers reached a two-year, $2 million contract with Deron, with the second year being a player option.

The interesting thing is that just after Deron reached a contract with the Cavaliers, many Lakers fans attacked Deron on social media.

The biggest comment among them was that Deron had surrendered to the enemy.

The Lakers were defeated by the Cavaliers in the finals last season, but Deron turned around and joined the Cavaliers. He has no spine at all.

Moreover, Kobe fans and James fans have reached a consensus on this point, and the voice of public opinion is quite loud.

However, this public opinion did not last long, because when the freeze-up period in July was about to end, Durant finally made his decision.

Durant's decision was also very interesting. He did not do a public live broadcast like James, but chose to rent a house in Hampton, Virginia.

This house is located right on the banks of the James River.

In this house, Durant met with seven teams interested in signing him.

It's a bit like a job interview, except it's the person interviewing the company instead of the company interviewing the person.

After seven rounds of interviews, Durant made his decision. He will join the Celtics with a two-year, $2 million contract, with the second year being a player option.

Han Sen learned the news only after receiving a call from Griffin.

He was taking a nap at the time, and being a little groggy from just waking up, he thought he had misheard.

He was stunned when he confirmed that Durant was joining the Celtics instead of the Warriors.

Why didn't Durant go to the Warriors?

For Durant, there should be no better choice than the Warriors.

Especially since he hasn't been beaten by the Warriors as in "history".

Han Sen thought a lot and even logged on to social media to check the reactions of the outside world.

Just after Durant announced his joining, Horford and the Celtics reached a four-year, $4 million contract extension.

And Ray Allen also fulfilled what he said before, he will come back and join the Celtics on a minimum salary contract.

Then the Celtics fans were partying.

Thomas, Bradley, Durant, Horford, Towns, and the bench also includes Ray Allen, Pierce, Smart, Crowder, Olynyk...

Three All-Stars, a No. 3 pick, plus a top D player on the outside that the team has been cultivating, and high-quality role players.

There is no water in what Ainge said before. The Celtics have not only completed the reconstruction, but have directly become a favorite to contend for the championship.

Of course, there were curses from other fans.

Among them, the Warriors and Lakers fans cursed the most fiercely.

Because for those two teams, not being able to get Durant to join was a huge blow to them.

The Warriors have to consider re-signing Barnes, and the Lakers are even worse off.

DeRozan, who was born in California, was very interested in returning to his hometown to join the Lakers, but the Lakers management preferred Durant, so they asked DeRozan to wait.

DeRozan is an All-Star player after all, so he was unwilling to be a backup and eventually chose to return to the Raptors with a maximum salary.

Now the Lakers have neither signed Durant nor lost DeRozan, so their efforts have been in vain.

But this is the level of the Lakers management. If it weren't for Nike's push behind the scenes, they wouldn't even be able to form the previous Big Three lineup.

After reading the content on social media, Hansen thought about it for a while and he seemed to understand why Durant did not go to the Warriors.

After all, the Warriors were a team that won 73 games last season. Joining them is essentially no different than when James formed the Big Three with the Heat.

In other words, just as Wade said back then, it is the "hardest road" with no way out.

James has demonstrated the fate of those who take the most difficult path perfectly.

At this point in "history", James has won three championships by relying on teamwork. It is normal for Durant to think, "Why can you win but I can't?"

But now, James still has no championship and has become a nomadic chief. So by the same token, he must be worried that he will become the next James.

What's also different from "history" is that Thompson has already joined UA. The Warriors are a team that is full of UA labels. Durant, as Nike's top star, joins a UA team. What's the difference between that and the most heated remarks about surrendering to the enemy on social media right now?
So it is understandable that Durant did not choose to join the Warriors when there were other options.

And if Hansen remembers correctly, next season will be Thomas' peak season, a season in which he will play in the top five of the MVP rankings. This Celtics team may not be weaker than last season's Heat team.

Next season, the Celtics will replace the Heat as the Cavaliers' top rival in the Eastern Conference.

Durant's decision has a series of consequences.

The Heat were the first to be hit.

Durant's departure means that the last possibility of maintaining the team has been completely wiped out.

Wade then hoped that the Heat would give him a three-year, $3 million retirement contract similar to Kobe's, so that he could achieve one man, one city.

Wade's request was not excessive.

Although his personal strength has declined due to age issues, his performance last season was still at the All-Star level.

Moreover, the new broadcasting contract came into effect this year, and the players' contracts are all at a premium. Wade's market value is 2000 million.

Before this, there were rumors that both the Bucks and the Nuggets were interested in Wade and were willing to offer him a contract with an annual salary of around 2000 million.

In fact, Griffin of the Cavaliers had previously offered Wade nearly 2000 million dollars, but Wade's personality made him directly refuse the idea of ​​defecting to the enemy.

But Riley did not agree to Wade's request. He was only willing to sign a short contract of 2 million for two years.

It is obvious that Durant's departure made Riley decide to rebuild, and he obviously no longer needs Wade.

Signing a long-term contract with Wade at this time is just blocking your own way. There is no humanity in his heart.

In the end, Wade left in anger and returned to his hometown of Chicago with a two-year, $2 million contract.

In the end, Wade left where James left off.

Also traveling to Chicago with Wade is Pau Gasol, who has signed a two-year, $2 million contract with the Bulls.

Gasol will become the Bulls' starting center in the new season to replace Noah who left the team.

The Bulls changed their coach last season, with Hoiberg replacing Thibodeau as the team's new head coach. Noah failed to gain his trust after returning from injury, so he joined the Knicks with a four-year, $4 million contract.

At the same time, the Bulls sent Rose to New York shortly after the free market opened.

The Knicks' starting lineup for the new season is expected to be Rose, Courtney Lee, Ingram, Porzingis and Noah.

The Bulls' starting lineup for the new season is expected to be Wade, Butler, Covington, Gibson, and Gasol.

The Heat began to rebuild after losing Wade, Gasol, and Joe Johnson (who joined the Jazz for 2 million in two years).

It was only after the situation developed to this stage that Riley announced that there would be a flag-raising ceremony for Hansen's No. 77 jersey during the new season's game against the Cavaliers.

It is obvious that Riley has finally behaved himself after Durant made his decision.

Some other players have also signed contracts one after another.

Like DeRozan, "God of Zhuang" Drummond, Howard, and Whiteside all chose to renew their contracts with their parent teams with maximum salaries.

With Durant's decision and a series of subsequent chain reactions, the curtain of the free market seems to have fallen.

(End of this chapter)