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In the offseason of 1999, although Zhuang Fei lived an isolated life in Los Angeles, several major events in the NBA still made Zhuang Fei very sideways.

The first is that the league will implement the luxury tax system in the 2001-2002 season, although the NBA introduced the salary cap in 1984, but the salary cap is not very binding on the major teams, since last year out of Garnett's 6-year 120 million, the owners of other teams in the league have quit, and must use a clause to stop such irrational contracts and the advantages of some big cities, it can be said that the most important result of the labor negotiations that were suspended in 1999 is to reach a "third-party escrow." "The core content of the agreement, the escrow agreement, is that a team's salary exceeds 55% of the league's total revenue, then the money beyond this range needs to be charged a luxury tax according to the ratio of one-to-one, which is equivalent to a fine, and it also makes it a little difficult for those owners who are irrational to open contracts or teams who like to pile up stars.

In fact, at present, this regulation has no big impact on the Timberwolves, take the 1999-2000 season as an example, the league's salary cap is 35 million, and the Timberwolves have a guaranteed contract in addition to Garnett's amazing 19 million is O'Neal Jr.'s 5.5 million and Nash's 4 million, everyone else is in the rookie contract period or the lowest million guaranteed contract, although it seems that the Timberwolves must now exceed the salary cap's 35 million, But Zhuang Fei is still not worried about the problems of these players in the team, because according to the league's own estimates, when the luxury tax system was officially implemented in 2001, the league's salary cap would reach 45 million that year, and the bottom line of the luxury tax would also reach 56 million, so the Timberwolves' salary structure still has a lot of room for flexibility, in fact, this new regulation is mainly to limit teams like the Trail Blazers and Lakers and Knicks. As long as Zhuang Fei does it right, the Timberwolves' lineup won't be affected too much. And according to Glenn Taylor's trust and attention to Zhuang Fei, it doesn't matter if it will exceed a part.

In addition to the league will implement a new collective bargaining agreement, the biggest event this offseason is naturally the Magic boss finally settled in the Felix Suns under the Phoenix Suns' fierce pursuit and the Orlando Magic's cold drop, and for a time the league's most terrifying outside combination was born, according to the words of the Los Angeles media.

"This is a guard combination that can contribute an average of 30+15+15 per game, we can call him the New Century 2000 combination" For a while, the Phoenix Suns became the focus of the league again, and on the other hand, Grant Hill, whose contract is about to expire, has also been chased by all teams, among which the sincerity of the Magic is the highest, and they even abandoned Hardaway for Grant Hill.

For Zhuang Fei, this is the first normal offseason after he came to the NBA, if he follows the head coach of other teams, he should have been coaching the players in the team now, although the head coach does not bring summer league in the NBA offseason, but generally in early September, it should return to the team, and Zhuang Fei has been delayed until the end of September, which is also his special situation, NBA players with guaranteed contracts to report to the team is also at the end of September, and the Timberwolves have also held some training camps, But the players in the training camp are basically of little use.

"It's still a sunny day in Los Angeles, and it's already snowing in Minnesota," Zhuang Fei sighed to his two assistants as soon as he returned to the Timberwolves' office, to some extent, the geographical difference in the United States is greater than that of Shenzhou, which prides itself on being a big land, and it is still a little difficult to adapt to staying in a place like Los Angeles for 2 months and returning to Minnesota. The contrast is just too great.

"Zhuang, we often see from TV and newspapers that you are quite laid-back in Los Angeles, and there will be beautiful women every day, not like me and Green" D'Antoni said with a smile like Zhuang Fei, Zhuang Fei's leisurely price is the busyness of his two assistants, such as Green, who is now in charge of the team's summer league, he is the head coach of the Timberwolves summer league and is also in charge of the team's news scouting tasks, and D'Antoni is responsible for completing Zhuang Fei's arrangement to open the team training camp, and then for the new Wang Zhizhi, O'Neal Jr., Ginobili, Bowen and others explain the idea of running and bombing, these four people can be said to be very suitable for the running and bombing system, but they can't help but adapt first, so they are different from other Timberwolves official players, they came to the team in July, Ginobili and Bowen also participated in the Timberwolves' summer league, even Wang Zhizhi, who came to report late, returned to the team after the Asian Championships, also in early September, and Xiao Ao came to the Timberwolves in mid-August.

"The coach, Ginobili and Bowen have adapted well, they fit well with the team and in the summer league these two guys have been very good. Especially Ginobili, his breakthrough is very special, even in the NBA regular season can be of a great effect" Green said to Zhuang Fei with a smile, although he was optimistic about Ginobili but did not think that Ginobili would be worthy of the Timberwolves to come up with a first-round pick to sign him, and he once touched some nails in Ginobili, but after the summer league, Green's impression of Ginobili has changed a lot.

"Ginobili's breakthrough can bring some changes to the team's second lineup, and if he adapts well, it can also affect our first lineup" Zhuang Fei nodded and said, the Timberwolves have three good breakaways, Nash cruising lightly near the free throw line, Pierce's back turn to break through the atmosphere, and Mobley's speed in a straight line, it can be said that the Timberwolves' breakthrough ability is not low, but it lacks a breakthrough player who can break through vertically and change direction, and now Ginobili's arrival makes up for this shortcoming of the Timberwolves, Now that the Timberwolves' four players are completely different in their style of breaking, and they can complement each other completely, Ginobili and Mobley's second-team guard line will be a nightmare for all teams in the league if all goes well. Of course, the premise must be that Ginobili can adapt to the NBA.

"Zhuang, now that our lineup for this season is basically confirmed, do we need to add it?" D'Antoni asked, the players who are now on the team's guaranteed contract are Xiao Ao and Wang Zhizhi in the center position, Garnett and Dean Garrett and Lewis in the power forward position, Lewis can play the No. 3 and No. 4 positions, Pierce and veteran Mitchell at the small forward position, and the scoring guards are Jackson and Ginobili and Mobley, of course, Ginobili will be pushed to the No. 1 position by Zhuang Fei in the second team, and there is only Nash as the organizational guard. In Anthony's opinion, the Timberwolves should also sign an experienced playmaker just in case.

"That's enough, after the training camp is over, we can add some players on non-guaranteed contracts to fill the league's fifteen slots, these people are enough to cope with the next season," Zhuang Fei said with a smile to D'Antoni, who nodded at the end.

"By the way, how is Wang Zhizhi's situation now" Zhuang Fei asked Green, Wang Zhizhi represented the Chinese team in the Asian Championships at the end of August this year, so compared to Xiaoao, they must have been much later in running-in, and even basically did not integrate into the system well. But Zhuang Fei is not asking Wang Zhizhi now whether he is integrated into the team, but whether Wang Zhizhi has completed the tasks he assigned in the summer.

Wang Zhizhi is 2.14 meters tall and weighs 122 kilograms, it can be said that he is not very light, on the contrary, he is fatter than Garnett, who is about his height, for many players who enter the NBA, gaining weight is the first thing, but for Wang Zhizhi, what he needs is to lose weight, Wang Zhizhi's fat content is too high, although it looks very blocky, but it lacks strength, and it also affects speed, so the first task assigned by Zhuang Fei to Wang Zhizhi is strength training, let's remove the fat and train the muscles. For this reason, Zhuang Fei also specially sent a nutritionist and trainer to follow Wang Zhizhi. Because of Zhuang Fei's current status in China, it is easy to insert a few people into the national team, and Wang Zhizhi is one of the most important reincarnation players of the team this season, so Zhuang Fei is also very concerned about him.

"Wang Zhizhi is doing quite well now, but, coach, I think he has to change his previous eating habits in China, he must eat more beef now, but it seems that he seems to be a little resistant" Green said helplessly, in fact, what he meant was that in his opinion, Wang Zhizhi was not qualified, but because of Zhuang Fei's face, he said it more tactfully, Green has been to China this year and knows that Chinese food tastes much better than American food, and now he himself has fallen in love with authentic Chinese food, It's much better than what you find in a Chinese restaurant like Windsor, but the same Chinese food is absolutely deadly for athletes, with too much salt and oil to stir-fry. Long-term consumption will make the athlete's physical fitness worse.

"It should be better to come to Minnesota" Zhuang Fei said with a smile, of course he knew what Green meant, but this thing must be improved slowly, a person's habits are not so easy to get rid of, Zhuang Fei believes that changes in the environment can make people change with them.

"By the way, how is Jermaine O'Neal" Zhuang Fei was a little curious, these two assistants have been talking about Ginobili and Bowen, and O'Neal Jr., the team's most important signing, is a little evasive.

Hearing Zhuang Fei ask, Green and D'Antoni looked at each other, and then said with a wry smile.

"That kid is having a hard time right now"