On July 1, the NBA free agent market officially opened.

Howard's whereabouts remain the focus of everyone's attention, but it obviously won't happen overnight.

Just like a palace drama, there is a high probability that there will be twists and turns.

Even because many teams with space are waiting for Howard's selection, there are not many signings after the free market opens this year.

The first player to agree a contract extension was a bit of a surprise.

Yi Jianlian and Mavericks reached a two-year, 5 million verbal contract extension, with a player option for the second year.

Yi Jianlian successfully stayed in the NBA with half a season's outstanding performance, and signed a 1+1 contract, which also shows that he is now very confident in himself.

"German Yi Jianlian" praised the signing at the first time.

This shows that Yi Jianlian's performance last season was also recognized by his teammates.

In the days that followed, small contracts were made in the free market.

The Hornets re-signed Eric Gordon, the Nets re-signed Gerard Wallace, and the Timberwolves made a four-year, $45 million offer to the restricted Batum.

Everything was going on in an orderly manner.

But when the free agency market came to day 5, the Rockets suddenly jumped out and attracted everyone's attention.

They offered Jeremy Lin from the Knicks a four-year, 2,880 contract.

It's a very special contract.

Back in 2003, the rules of the alliance were still not fully regulated.

As a second-round pick, Arenas received a six-year, 65 million contract offer from the Wizards after his two-year rookie contract with the Warriors expired.

At the time, the Warriors were over the salary cap, and they could only offer Arenas a contract extension with a starting salary of 4.9 million at most.

The gap between the two contracts was so great that the Warriors would end up watching Arenas, who had become a quasi-All-Star, leave Washington.

This caused the Warriors to lose a lot of money at the time and plunged into a very long period of turmoil.

Since then, the league has introduced the famous "Arenas Clause".

The Arenas clause stipulates that in the NBA for 1~2 years of restricted free agents, the first year's salary in the invitation contract offered by other teams shall not exceed the middle class clause of the current year.

In this provision, it is also stipulated that the salary for the following year is subject to a maximum increase of 8 per cent.

The third year salary can be significantly higher, and it can be the maximum salary that a team can offer to exercise the option, and is not subject to the average salary rule.

At the same time, the salary offered in the contract must be guaranteed and does not include any other form of bonus.

And if the increase exceeds the 8% standard in the third year, the league will put an additional limit on the team: in order to be able to determine the scale of the maximum salary that the team can pay, they must not only confirm that the salary in the first year is acceptable, but they must confirm that the average salary for the entire contract period is lower than the maximum salary.

The Arenas clause is very long, which roughly means that the first two years can only be a middle-class contract, but the third year can directly provide a maximum salary.

But when making this offer, you must have enough salary space, and the average annual salary cannot be higher than this space.

For example, if a team is $8 million away from the maximum salary, it must guarantee a contract total of $24 million for three years, $3,200 for four years, and $40 million for five years.

If this space is 11 million, then the maximum contract can only be 55 million for 5 years.

The contract that the Rockets offered Jeremy Lin is a contract for 4 years and 3200.

5 million in the first year, 5.4 million in the second year, and the average annual salary in the last two years is 9.3 million.

The Knicks were quickly matched.

General manager Glenwald has publicly stated that the Knicks will match any offer for Jeremy Lin.

The meaning of this sentence, "Lin Crazy" is an integral part of the Knicks.

The NBA is a business league, and when Yao Ming helped the poorest owner of the Rockets explode more than ten times in value, the Chinese market made many teams rush to it.

After Jeremy Lin's crazy season, Knicks management said such things, apparently aiming at the huge Chinese market.

However, not long after the Knicks matched the contract, the Rockets offered another three-year, $25.1 million contract.

This contract is similar to the previous offer contract, but the difference is that it is the largest three-year offer the Rockets can offer.

Jeremy Lin's third-year contract will reach the maximum salary, which is 13.8 million!

What is the concept of 13.8 million at this time?

Also in the Knicks, Tyson Chandler, who just won the best defensive player last season, has a salary of 13.6 million in the new season!

has just reached a contract extension with the Thunder, and Ibaka, one of the team's four less, has a salary of 12.25 million in the first year of the new contract!

And even the absolute core of the Pacers last season, All-Star Danny Granger, his contract salary next season is only 13.69 million!

Jeremy Lin's performance last season was crazy enough, but to renew his contract with the maximum salary, he must have a hand shake when he agrees.

Originally, the huge Chinese market behind Jeremy Lin could make the Knicks, who have always been tyrants, not hesitate.

But the Knicks have now extended long-term contracts with Anthony, Stoudemire and Chandler.

If you match Jeremy Lin's offer, then in the 2014~2015 season, the team's salary space will be directly blown up.

Then it's not a question of how much luxury tax to pay.

In the end, the Knicks chose to give up the match and watched Jeremy Lin be poached by the Rockets for nothing.

The Rockets previously traded Lowry, and Dragic, who became a free agent, has just opted to sign with the Suns, and getting Jeremy Lin is a big addition to them.

However, that wasn't all, after acquiring Jeremy Lin, they offered the same contract to the Bulls' backup center, Omir Asik.

Asik averaged 3.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game for the Bulls last season and performed well as a backup center in limited playing time.

The Bulls also gave up on matching.

They have more salary space than the Knicks, and there's no way they're going to match such a contract for a role player.

So, relying on the Arenas clause, the Rockets got their starting point guard and center together in one fell swoop.

Darrell Morey also became the focus of the league because of these two contracts.

"It's a poison contract."

After the two signings were reached, ESPN columnist Chad Ford was the first to comment.

"The original intention of the Arenas clause was to help the parent club keep the player, but many people may not have noticed that the clause protects the interests of the player, and there is an additional condition: if the team makes a successful offer, the player will only occupy the salary space of the average annual salary of the contract.

What does that mean?

Take Jeremy Lin as an example, he will only occupy about 8 million salary space per year with the Rockets, but in the Knicks, he will occupy 13.8 million salary space with the Knicks in the final year.

With such a contract, it will be difficult to trade.

So for the parent team, this is a cup of poisoned milk, and the team that stays will be under completely unbearable salary pressure in the third year of the contract. ”