Cousins had a brilliant half season after being traded to the Lakers, averaging 21,6 points, 13 points, 7 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game during the regular season, a top-tier interior statistic. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In the playoffs, that statistic rose to 23, 4 points, 14, 6 rebounds and 2.3 blocks, which was still a super inside performance although he lowered his average in the Finals.

This also makes him the biggest dark horse and star of this offseason.

If you want to renew his contract, no matter which team it is, what you need to pay is a contract with a maximum salary.

Under the NBA's collective bargaining agreement, the player's maximum salary renewal is divided into two types, one is related to the player's annual salary in the previous year, and he can be increased to 105% of last season's maximum, take Cousins as an example, his salary in his contract last season was 18.06 million yuan, so the maximum starting salary of his new contract is 18.96 million yuan.

The other is calculated according to the NBA playing age, a certain proportion of the salary cap, take Cousins as an example, because he has been in the NBA for eight years, his proportion is 30%, and the league's salary cap next season is 108 million (the actual maximum salary cap is only 94% of this salary cap), which means that the maximum starting salary he can get is 30.45 million!

In general, the two algorithms are the greater of the two, because the NBA salary cap skyrocketed in the 2016 offseason, so most of the contracts expiring this year are basically calculated according to the second method, which means that if the Lakers want to keep Cousins, the biggest contract they need to pay is a super contract with a 5-year starting salary of 30.45 million, an annual increase of 7.5%, and a total value of 177 million!

This is actually not the crux of the problem, the crux of the matter is that after the end of last season, Tang Shuai has been in the league for three years, has met the requirements for early contract renewal of the rookie, and because he has been selected as an All-Star twice and twice elected as the regular season MVP, he has met the requirements of the "Rose Clause", his maximum contract starting salary can reach 35% of the league's maximum salary cap, and his total contract is larger than Cousins's, if the contract is renewed for 5 years, this will be a starting salary of 37.8 million yuan, 5 years 220 million super super big contract.

In this way, even if it is Westbrook, who renewed his contract before (next season's salary is 30.9 million), the salary of their big three alone will add up to 99 million yuan, and then counting Yi Jianlian, Stephenson and others, who already have contracts, have exceeded the salary cap of 108 million.

Although, the renewal of the two can wait until the reinforcement is completed, but because it will occupy the reserved space, as long as these two renewals are reached, the Lakers will directly overtake them, so this offseason, not to mention the reinforcement, it will become very difficult to retain the main contract from last season.

In this case, the ideal situation is of course for all the players in the team to make concessions on contract extensions, so that everyone can stay with the team.

However, this situation is clearly unrealistic.

Basketball games are a visual pleasure for fans and a joy of life, but for professional players in the league, this is a profession, no different from ordinary people going to work, so money is naturally the first thing they consider.

So when it comes to salary cuts, no one will be willing, and even if they do, the magnitude cannot be too large, which is tantamount to a drop in the bucket.

After the free agent market opened, all teams began to negotiate with players, but the Lakers were the only ones who fell into a kind of stalemate.

This phenomenon is also very popular with other teams.

If the Lakers really fall apart, or if the main players leave, the competitiveness will naturally decrease, and the threat to other teams will naturally be smaller.

In particular, the Lakers' two main rivals, the Warriors and the Cavaliers.

The Warriors have previously renewed the contracts of Green and Thompson in advance, so although they already need to pay extravagance, their main structure is there, and the same is true for the Cavaliers, as long as Anthony's contract extension is completed, the team will have no problems.

At this time, some general managers even expressed their mockery of Kupchak through anonymous means, saying that his contract extension for Westbrook and trading for Cousins last season was completely to quench his thirst, regardless of future gambling behavior, and it is simply impossible for the team to remain competitive in the case of a significant increase in player wages.

Of course, Tang Shuai didn't pay much attention to all this, and Duffy helped take care of the contract renewal, as long as he devoted himself to training.

The intensity of the training also paid off quickly, and after synthesizing the Eagle King's Back Pack and the Truth Turn Back Pack, he was able to upgrade him from blue to purple in a week's time, which made him another layer of threat on the offensive end.

On this day, he is still immersed in the stadium and looking forward to improving his strength even further before his fourth season begins.

He was fully engaged in training, not paying much attention to his surroundings, and when the training was over, he saw that Duffy had come to the arena at some point.

"Why are you here?" Tang Shuai wiped his sweat with a towel and walked over to ask.

"I've been here for an hour, and you've been training very hard." Duffy spoke, his brow furrowed, clearly bothered.

"What's wrong?" Tang Shuai walked to Duffy and sat down, grabbed the water next to him and drank a few sips, and then asked.

"There is something wrong with the contract renewal." Duffy didn't have any ink, so he said directly.

"Let's talk about it, though I don't know much about it." Tang Shuai leaned back in his chair and said.

"The general situation is like this...... Duffy told him roughly about the Lakers' predicament of contract renewal, and finally added, "Doug's (referring to Mike Dermott) contract extension is basically about 20 million, and the Lakers can't provide it at all, let alone Trevor, Norris, and Jamie to renew their contracts." ”

"That's a real problem." Tang Shuai's math is still good, simple calculations know that don't say 20 million, it's 10 million, the Lakers don't necessarily give it, this is the limit of the salary cap, not all contract renewals can be operated under the risk, even if it can, the part that exceeds the luxury Rui also makes the team owner prohibitive, because if you give 20 million, and then pay 20 million Luxury, this is equivalent to a 40 million contract.

used 40 million to renew a role player, except for Cavaliers owner Gilbert who was forced by James to do it (the year before last, when the contract was renewed, he still renewed JR Smith with a contract with a starting salary of 15 million, because of luxury, the actual salary required for this contract is 30 million), even Bass Jr. does not have the courage.

"What if I choose to take a pay cut?" Tang Shuai thought for a while and said.

"It didn't work." Duffy said without even thinking about it.

"Yes, indeed." Tang Shuai thought about it for a while and understood, even if he was willing, Cousins was probably unwilling, and Mike Dermott estimated that it would be difficult, this kind of thing that couldn't be slapped in the face was really not easy to do, not to mention that this salary cut was limited.

"No, there is another way, at least for a long time." Tang Shuai suddenly thought of something, and then stood up.

"You mean......" Duffy quickly guessed what he was thinking.

"I've got to go find Mickey, you can make an appointment with me." Tang Shuai thought of it and walked directly in the direction of the locker room.

(To be continued.) )