At this time, Wang Chao, who was still running back and forth on the court and sweating rain, didn't know that on the Spurs bench, the wise head coach Popovich had set his eyes on him, but even if he knew, he wouldn't feel so excited or excited.

He is well aware that at this stage, the average salary of the Spurs' GDP portfolio has reached a level close to $35 million.

Duncan's annual salary is 17 million, Parker's 10 million, and Ginobili is slightly less, with more than 8 million.

The salary of the three accounts for almost half of the Spurs' total salary, plus a group of role players who play well, the Spurs have almost no salary space, even if they try to trade to make room next summer, at most they can only give Wang Chao a mid-level contract of about 5 million.

If it was last season, if he could get a middle-class contract with an annual salary of 5 million, Wang Chao would have been happy and ecstatic.

But the situation is no longer the case.

Last season's playoffs averaged 21 points per game, which has made his value rise, and this season, if he can reach an average of 20+ points per game in the regular season according to Wang Chao's goals or system tasks, the performance is definitely not a middle-class contract that can match!

Don't look at Wang Chao's current salary is less than $500,000, but he has great ambitions, if he can really play the above data this season, and even go further in the playoffs to help the Suns lead the team to win the championship, he will have the confidence to ask the Suns for a contract extension in the summer.

As a rookie who has played in the league for three years, Wang Chao's top salary is actually not high, at most just over 10 million.

In fact, 10 million, according to the current salary space of the Suns, it is also impossible to give it.

The Suns' current highest-paid player is Marion, who has a six-year, $79 million contract, and a whopping $16.44 million next year.

Below him are the $13 million Stoudemire and the $11 million Nash.

The trio's combined salary has reached an exaggerated $40 million, and the salary space is worse than that of the Spurs.

But the Suns are Wang Chao's home team, and Wang Chao, who was selected by the Suns in the draft in 04, is already in the third season of his career.

It doesn't matter if he played in his rookie season or if he was sent to the Development League, his contract is executed like this.

Therefore, with the end of this season, Wang Chao's years of service in the NBA have officially increased to three years, which just meets the conditions of the Bird Clause, that is, if a player plays for the same team for three years or more, the league allows the parent team to renew the player's contract without the salary cap, and the salary of the renewing player can also be increased by 10.5% per season.

The Bird Clause is a rule introduced by the league to help teams retain talent, and it can only be activated if a team has been with them for more than three years.

Therefore, even if the Suns have reached the salary cap, they can still renew the contract with Wang Chao.

Wang Chao feels that with his current performance on the court and his contribution to the Suns' run-and-bomb tactics, it is completely worth the team's maximum salary to renew the contract, after all, Wang Chao's maximum salary plus Bird's clause is about $12 million at most, with his performance and the age of only 23 years old in the future, this money is definitely worth the money!

Pulling away, the topic returns to the game.

The turnaround that Popovich was hoping for didn't happen.

Duncan came off the court for a few minutes and then re-entered, and despite his caution on the court, he was unfortunately fouled by the Suns, who were staring at him specifically, and eventually fouled out of the court for six fouls.

When Duncan left the court, he shot 9 of 14 and 6 of 9 free throws, scoring 24 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 blocks.

With Duncan's departure, the Spurs also completely lost hope of a comeback, and finally lost to the Suns by 13 points at home, 114-101.

The top scorer on the Spurs' side was Toney. Parker, who played a little poorly in the first half, quickly found his form in the second half, and ended up with 29 points, 2 rebounds and 6 assists on 11-of-22 shooting and 5-of-5 free throws.

Parker 29 points, Duncan 24 points, Ginobili also had 21 points and 5 assists in this game, and the GDP triumvirate all scored 20+ points, but still failed to lead the team to victory.

All Spurs fans know why.

It's all because of Wang Chao!

The Suns' starting small forward Wang Chao didn't play much time in this game, playing 14 minutes in the first half, not playing in the third quarter, and playing about 10 minutes in the fourth quarter, and about 25 minutes when he was full.

But in these 25 minutes, Wang Chao made 18 crazy shots outside the three-point line, hitting 10 shots, with an exaggerated three-point shooting rate of 55.5%, and 30 points and 5 rebounds in the whole game!

In just 25 minutes of play, Spurs fans could see Wang Chao running all over the court almost all the time, and their proud top defensive player Bowen could only run behind his butt, completely unable to form an effective defense.

What's even more terrifying is that Wang Chao can not only score by himself, but he can also rely on his running to involve the Spurs' defensive formation and help other teammates get better offensive scoring opportunities.

This is one of the reasons why a player like Duncan, who is highly intelligent and calm, left the court with 6 fouls at the end of the fourth quarter.

At a press conference after the game, Spurs head coach Popovich said helplessly.

"Our defense in this game is not very good, the Suns' starting small forward three-point shot is really accurate, but the most terrible thing about him is that he seems to run tirelessly on the court, we are not ready to deal with the Suns who play this way, and we were even more made 10 three-pointers by the Chinese player, so we lost."

When asked by reporters what he thought of Wang Chao, Popovich did not hesitate to give praise.

"Wang Chao is a very smart player, he may not be very strong, he may not be flexible, and his skills on the basketball court are not comprehensive, but he can use his off-ball running to his advantage, as long as he can continue his current style of play and maintain that magical shooting percentage, he can definitely become an All-Star like Richard (Hamilton), considering his scoring explosiveness outside the three-point line, he may be better than Richard."

Popovich's wave can be regarded as praising Wang Chao to the sky.

Although Hamilton is not a top star in the league, after all, he helped the team win the championship as the Pistons Five Tigers, and has been the team's scoring champion in the past few years, the most consistent scorer in the Pistons, and an All-Star substitute.

Regardless of Hamilton's highest-scoring season in his 20s, people will never ignore his presence when it comes to the league's famous shooting guards at this stage.

Of course, Popovich is not simply praising Wang Chao's strength, but also has the idea of praising Wang Chao.

This summer, after Wang Chao's contract expires, there are bound to be many teams salivating, even if the Spurs can't compete with Wang Chao, they must not let Wang Chao continue to stay in the Suns, such a top outside three-point shooter is too lethal to give the Suns a run-and-bomb team.