Gong Feng and Kwame didn't say a word after that, and for the two smart people, these words are enough to show that most teams in the league are now facing the Knicks' true and most thoughts!

Yes, all Kwame wants is a champion! But the championship is not so easy to get, and there is still a certain gap between Kwame's own strength and the peak Duncan and peak O'Neal, which has already determined that Kwamei needs good teammates, at least teammates who are no worse than the main players such as the Knicks.

But how can this be so easily achieved?

If they want to do that, unless Kwame doesn't want a max contract, the Wizards will have to pay the price of the luxury tax, but Kwame doesn't want a max contract, is this possible? The most important thing is that the Wizards, who have paid such a price, don't know if they can beat the Knicks in the Eastern Conference and win the final championship!

The Mavericks, who are bound to pay the luxury tax this year, may not even be able to pass the first round of the playoffs, so what should Pauline, whose main income is the Wizards? Washington isn't a small market, but Pauline isn't one of those big-money bosses!

This type of owner is definitely not a small number, the owner of the Spurs has made it clear that his team doesn't care about anything, but the team can't pay the luxury tax, such a team owner is responsible, and it is also the majority of options in the league.

But that's nothing, some cities where there are no stars, wins attract fans' attention to the game, and the market is still small, that requires the team to hover around the salary cap, and not paying the extra penny is what these owners want to do, such as the Hawks, Bucks, SuperSonics, Warriors, Clippers, Cavaliers (the ownership of the Cavaliers will change soon after.) That's the arrival of the big boss) all belong to this nature.

In that era of '04. Willing to pay luxury tax for the team. There are only four team owners: the Trail Blazers, Mavericks, Knicks, and Lakers.

I'm afraid many people are thinking that a team like the Lakers, which has two superstars, is the big one who pays the most luxury tax, right? But what everyone doesn't know is that in the 00 to 01 season when the Lakers won the championship, the team's total salary was 55.02 million, followed by 5899, 5427, 6315, 6412, 6507, yes, the Lakers with Kobe, O'Neal, and Payton in 04 only had a salary of 65.07 million.

Although this figure will still pay a certain amount of luxury tax, the amount paid is definitely not as high as everyone thinks, but this is the current situation of the Lakers at the beginning of the century. It is also the 'price' of getting O'Neill.

The current Knicks are more reasonable than the Lakers in the 00-01 season, which is what many teams are very afraid to see.

The present of '04 can't be compared to the later NBA, and later, especially after the start of the superstar huddle era, your team will win the championship unless you have Popovich and Duncan, or you still obediently pay a certain amount of luxury tax.

Not much, but at least on the verge of paying luxury tax to trigger the bottom line.

The current situation faced by the Wizards is that Kwame's salary will be 12 million in the first year after the increase, plus Arenas's 10 million, Carter's 12 million, and Jerry's salary will be close to 10 million. Coupled with the salaries of major rotation players such as Haywood, the main salary of the Wizards has reached more than 50 million salaries. That's not a lot of money, but if you want to continue to pursue the championship......

Either you can attract some powerful veterans to join, or you can only sign some powerful substitutes and main players, so that 60 million can't stop. And the 60 million in the 05-06 season has definitely triggered the luxury tax payment line, but just like Kwame said, even if I have the dominance and strength of O'Neal, I still need good teammates to work hard for it.

The duo of Carter and Arenas now seems to be obviously impossible to coexist with Kwame, not even a defensive gate on the outside, and Kwame is not omnipotent, and can turn the team into a defensive powerhouse by himself.

Therefore, Kwame is not determined what to do now, but also wants to see what kind of choice Pauline will make this summer.

Regardless, Kwame still has a year left on his rookie contract.

……

Sure enough, in the fourth game, the Wizards were extremely desperate at the beginning of the game, trying their best, and the Knicks also put defense in the most important position at the beginning, resulting in the first half of the game, the two teams only played a low score of 40-40.

However, the Knicks bench lineup in the second half took advantage of the period when Kwame had to rest, and suddenly opened up the game in the third quarter, the Knicks' scoring situation, especially the Knicks' main force only Gong Feng played alone, and the Wizards had two major scoring points that could not tie the score, especially after seeing the Knicks lead by more than ten points, the emotions of many Knicks players became extremely unstable, which did not have the demeanor and resilience that a Finals team should have.

When such a team is in a good wind, it will naturally win when it is in a good wind, but in the face of adversity, it has not found the attitude it should have and what it should do...... Of course, the failure of the Wizards, injuries, the gap between the players, the degree of tacit understanding between the players, and the lack of players who experienced the championship back then, these can all be considered reasons for the failure...... But failure is failure!

In the second year, the Knicks used their own strength to defeat the Wizards for the first time to 'take revenge', and they succeeded in a sweeping posture, which made the playoff managers who paid attention to the Knicks in the league frown tightly.

……

After the first round of battles on the Wizards' side, the playoffs of other teams have also become hot.

The Timberwolves and the Rockets unexpectedly battled to a 2-to-2 battle!

Van Gundy's team is not to mention the rest, just let him get the type of defensive player he likes, it's really a good playoff team, center Cato, Randolph, Francis plus Mobley, if this team really wants to rely on individual scoring, to work hard defensively, no team will feel good.

Both teams are heads-up matchups, but Randolph vs. Garnett can become offensive and defensive, which is indeed the work of Van Gundy's guidance, especially after Cato sent away from Camby, he fully showed everything that a blue-collar interior line should have, and the salary of seven million a year is really not in vain.

But celebrities can also see that this is already the super long play and ability of the whole Rockets team, and the Timberwolves have gradually improved, as long as the Rockets' heart is relaxed, this round of the series will naturally end.

The Spurs had nothing to say about the Grizzlies, who were swept 4-0.

The series match between the Suns and the Kings is the most watched group of games, although it seems that the Kings have a certain advantage, but the first thing for the Kings to do is to ensure their shooting percentage.

The Kings are the kind of team where you are strong and he is stronger, you are weak, and when he feels bad, he is not much stronger, and the Suns' loss is mainly because the team's interior defense ability is too poor, although Xiao Si is already learning how to defend, but in a season, Xiao Si has had injuries, has had early difficulties, has had late glory, and has been taught a lesson, it is too early to put everything on him.

In particular, D'Antoni has been with the Suns for less than a year, and the tactical aspects have not yet been fully developed, although the team is 3-1 behind, but the glory of the Suns should be next year.

In the end, everyone thought it would be, the game between the Lakers and the Mavericks that you fought for was a different kind of competition, and this series was indeed a direct battle between Nelson Sr. and Jackson.

After experiencing the defeat in the first game, Kidd began to defend Kobe Bryant himself, which directly led to Kobe Bryant's abnormal play in the second game, and the tactics that operated with him as the core were directly cracked.

But the elder Nelson didn't smile after the victory in this game, because he saw Phil Jackson's calmness, especially when he saw Kobe Bryant bowing his head in annoyance, while O'Neal walked towards the passage in good spirits.

Nelson had anticipated that Jackson had taken advantage of the Mavericks' prowess and, in particular, all the potential of a team that could never lose again, to do one thing that Jackson had always wanted to do. (To be continued.) )