The league announced that the salary cap for the new season is $42.5 million, which is a significant increase from last season. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info Wang Yuanfei also breathed a sigh of relief.

The current contract situation for the Rockets is:

Player/Position/Age/Salary ($10,000)

McGrady/Shooting Guard/22/

Williams/Small Forward/31/500

Mobley/Defender/26/441.3

Maloney (Layoffs) 254.4

Curry/Shooting Guard/37/210

Reed/Shooting Guard/22/150

Thomas/Power Forward/24/94.7

Olajuwon/Center/39/Expires, pending contract renewal

Turkoglou/Small Forward/22/124.5 (TBD)

Jefferson/Small Forward/21/152.8 (TBD)

Wallace/Forward/19/106.7 (TBD)

Oku/Center/22 (to be signed)

Parker/Point Guard/19/86.6 (TBD)

(Note: First-round rookies occupy salary space before signing, and their salaries are marked in advance for ease of reading.) Only first-round rookies like Turkoglou last season, who declared that he would not sign a contract, will not be paid to the team's total salary. Oku is a second-round rookie who doesn't occupy space before signing. )

Brad, who was with the Rockets last season, signed with the Hornets as a free agent, while Brendan Rodgers signed with the Pacers.

It is obvious that after a year of work on the far flight, the salary situation of the rocket has greatly improved. There are only 6 players in the existing contract (and they are all main rotation players), and the total salary is only more than 26 million, even if the salary of several rookies is added, there is still a significant gap from the salary cap of 42.5 million. In this way, the Rockets have a huge space to renew Olajuwon's contract and return the first person in team history with a decent old age.

Although Da Meng is old, he still has the power to deter the basket, which has attracted many teams to make a bid for him. Among them, the Raptors, who are the most sincere, offered a high salary of 17 million for 3 years. After many efforts by Yuanfei and Dawson, on August 2, the Rockets successfully renewed Olajuwon with a 1-year, 10 million high-salary contract. At the same time, the team reached an agreement with Olajuwon that Olajuwon will accept a significant salary reduction in the next two years to renew his contract, and the contract renewal will be 4 million and 3.5 million next year. Olajuwon also has no less revenue under a three-year contract than the Raptors' invitation, and the decreasing form makes the available space for the next two years more flexible. It doesn't matter if you spend more money for the upcoming 01-02 season, anyway, there is plenty of salary space and the goal is still bad.

The next job is to renew the rookie, Turkoglu's aid was negotiated as early as a year ago, this year in the middle of the Yuanfei and Tang Shuai many exchanges, Tang Shuai thought that the team needs this comprehensive Turk, so Turkoglu happily went to the NBA, a year late battlefield. Jefferson, Wallace and Parker also signed on rookie contracts.

But Dawson still ran into trouble, and Oku's agent wanted Oku to follow Tekoglu's example and continue to play in the country for another year. Turkey's Effes Bison FC lured Oku to join with a high salary, and the Rockets only wanted to offer Oku a contract with a base salary that would qualify for a second-round rookie, with a measly $333,000.

(Quick fact: The NBA's restrictions on first-round rookie contracts originated in '94 with Glenn. Robinson, nicknamed "Big Dog," had just been drafted by the Bucks when he asked for a huge contract for the poodle. In the end, his rookie contract was 10 years and $68 million. In 94, the salary cap was only 10,000, and the average of 6.8 million in this contract is equivalent to accounting for almost half of the team's salary. The NBA can't stand this, so it has introduced a limit on first-round pick salary, and there is no contract limit on second-round rookies. Also: The big dog appears once in Chapter 6 of this article)

Yuanfei of course can't accept Oku to return to China to play, in order to make room for him, the Rockets gave up Dalem Porter and Randolph and other inside lines in the first round, and now the whole team has two centers and Oku, if Oku doesn't come to the United States, the Rockets may be forced to sign a CBA-level backup center to play, wasting the opportunity to exercise. The Rockets are about to hit the top next season, and of course it's better to let Oku work out in the NBA for a year in advance. So the preparation of both hands began, and Yuanfei began to communicate with Oku's agent on the one hand, and asked Dawson to find other young backup centers in the league to try to make a trade. But the latter has little hope, after all, the young players of the Rockets are all treasures and cannot be sent out, and it is too difficult to send Williams to replace the young center.

"Mr. Oku, please think clearly, you and Tekoglu will be the future pillars of our team, and you will also be the focus of attention of the Turkish fans, which is far higher than your achievements in the domestic league. Fans all over Europe will be watching the two of you and Parker's great performances. The little bit of the wage gap now will be recognizable in your market, and in the future your advertising sponsorship contracts will come in large sums of money. Yuanfei is still trying to persuade him.

But on the other side of the ocean, Oku gave Yuanfei a cold refusal in broken English. This time, Yuanfei's mouth artillery offensive also failed.

***

"What now, Jason? Why is there such a serious flaw in our team-building plan? Alexander questioned dissatisfiedly: "The problem is serious now, the team simply does not have a backup center. ”

"That's right, boss." Yuanfei calmly explained: "We didn't renew Rodgers' contract purely to provide Oku with the opportunity to develop and practice, although he is not in a high position, I am very optimistic about his potential. It is believed that he will join the Rockets next season (Occo did join the NBA a year later). ”

"So what else can we do? Let his compatriot Tekoglu try to convince? ”

"I've talked to Lao Te (in fact, they're just old) about it, and he doesn't have much of a relationship with Oku. And in my opinion, Lao Teh may be happy about it, and he has become the only new favorite of Turkish fans in the NBA. Yuan Fei sighed: "So I suggest that Mobley be replaced with a substitute center." ”

"What? Swap our No.2 for a replacement? Last year, we traded for a backup for the Raptors, but fortunately, Maddy played his value. Now what are your goals? ”

"I have the following goals, all of which are newcomers who haven't played at a high level in the last 2 years, so they are not worth much, so let Dawson try it. Mobley was sold to give Reed and Parker more workout opportunities, and it was worth it. I believe that their future achievements will be much higher than those of the old cats. ”

"This year's rookies: Murphy, Randolph, Haywood, Daillam Porter, last year's rookie ......" Alexander looked at it and felt quite satisfied, so he nodded and said, "I'll tell Dawson to do it now." ”

***

"Jason, there's one player on the list you've given me that I'm almost done." Dawson said with some embarrassment, "But...... This guy looks pretty bad, are you sure he can make a good player? ”

"Which one?"

"Jamal. Magloyle, last year's No. 19 pick, now plays for the Hornets. Last season, as a rookie, he averaged 4.6 points and 2.6 rebounds per game, which looked worse than Rodgers, whom we eliminated. ”

"Old gentleman...... Forgot I told you to convert to every 36 minutes to look at the players? Yuan Fei said helplessly: "He only plays more than ten minutes per game on average, according to his efficiency, he can contribute 11+9 if he plays 36 minutes, not to mention the substitute center, it is enough to play the main force of an average team." Besides, he was only 22 years old last season, so he will always improve a little, right? ”

"Makes sense!"

"By the way, how many people are involved in this deal?"

"It's not quite a good deal yet, but the Hornets are interested." Dawson smiled: "At the beginning, I proposed to exchange Williams, and I was going to hang up the phone on the other side, but as soon as I brought up Mobley, their attitude suddenly turned 180 degrees." ”

"Of course, after all, Mobley was much better than Magloyer last season. The Hornets already have two good guards, Wesley and Davis, will they give us one? Probably not, Wesley's salary is too high for us to accept, and Barang. Davis is at the heart of their plans for the future. ”

"yes, so the difficulty right now is that there doesn't seem to be a suitable player who can catch Magloyer to match the salary. Want Lynch? Or Taylor? ”

"Although the fact that Oku will stay in Turkey has not been made public, people can guess it. Managers across the league know that we don't have a backup center, so we're going to get slaughtered, so don't worry about the little ones. Let's go to Thorpe. ”

"Otis. Thorpe? Dawson was taken aback, "This is an old Rockets player, we know each other well, but he's going to be 39 years old soon." It doesn't make much sense for a rebuilding team like ours. And his contract with the Hornets has expired and he is ready to retire (Thorpe retired after his contract expired in 2001). ”

"Let the Hornets sign him back, trade us by signing and trading, and ask for him." Yuanfei picked up the calculator and calculated, "The old cats' salary this season is 4.413 million, according to the trade ratio regulations, the minimum salary they pay players is 2.876 million, minus Magloyer's 1.048 million, so that the Hornets and Thorpe sign a cheap contract with an annual salary of about 1.84 million." ”

"But why him?" Dawson was puzzled.

"One, he saves money than Lynch and Taylor; Second, we don't have to worry about sending him away next year, just retire directly; Third, he's a veteran Rockets player, he's won a championship, he's a hero of the city, and since we've all left Hakim, why not bring another hero home and retire? Fourth, if you are a fan of the Rockets and the old heroes of the year have come home, will you pay more to watch two games? By the way, the last home court of the regular season will hold a retirement ceremony for him. Ticket prices will be inflated. ”

Dawson silently gave a thumbs up. This small shareholder is worthy of being a businessman, daring to fight in big things, and shrewd in small details no less than Alexander.

***

From Otis. From Thorpe's point of view, having played for the Rockets for six and a half years, he has feelings for Houston, not to mention the fact that he has no ball to play and has received a surprise offer contract. So he accepted without hesitation (Otis. Thorpe, who averaged 20+10 per game at his peak, is a good power forward. He partnered with Olajuwon on the inside to help the Rockets win their first championship in franchise history and was subsequently traded to the Portland Trail Blazers.

Jamal. Magloyle is also happy, everyone knows that the Rockets' starting center is almost 39 years old and only plays just over 20 minutes per game. It's better to be a superstar than a 32-year-old PJ Brown.

The management of the Hornets was happier, replacing a second-tier star in the league with a backup center and an old man who was retiring, which was a pie in the sky. At this moment, Hornets executives may be celebrating at a party, and the stupid Dawson didn't pick an extra backup center in the draft.

With this deal, the Rockets' roster was expanded to 12 (without Oku and Mobley), and just one more bench player would meet the league's requirement of at least 13. Old Dawson did this kind of thing with his hands - Terry. Brown, a defender, 188cm tall, 22 years old, signed on September 26 with a base salary (a real signing in history). The Rockets have at least one Parker off the bench. On the same day the rocket executed Kenny. With Thomas' team option, the starting power forward will remain with the team until the 02-03 season.

After adjustment, the team's total salary this season is about 38.5 million, which has been successfully compressed below the salary cap to save Alexander money. But don't be happy first, you will have more days to spend money in the future.

The new season of rockets, the formation is complete!