"Wang Chao, isn't it inappropriate for me to sign this contract?"

After completing the signing of the new contract, Da Yao was still a little apprehensive in his heart.

90 million in 4 years, an average of 22.5 million US dollars per year, which is equivalent to 140 million Chinese dollars! Even Da Yao, who has become the boss, is quite a fortune.

Of course, what Da Yao is worried about is not that he makes too much money, and his annual commercial endorsements can almost reach this figure.

The key is still the problem of the Rockets, as analyzed by the outside world, Wang Chao and Da Yao's two top salary contracts directly give the Rockets a full salary space, and there is no room for reinforcements.

When the Rockets management talked about renewing the contract with Da Yao, they played the emotional card, hoping that Da Yao could take into account the team's situation and appropriately choose to reduce his salary and renew the contract to help the team tide over the difficulties and compete for the championship.

At that time, Da Yao actually agreed, and he was willing to sacrifice some of his personal interests for the benefit of the team.

However, his idea was met with the help of Team Yao and Bill. Duffy's strong opposition, as Da Yao's agent, the meaning of their existence is to maximize the interests of Da Yao.

Da Yao has been in the Rockets for many years and has made great contributions, and it is foreseeable that this contract will be the last big contract of Da Yao's career, so it is natural to fight for the maximum amount.

The management of the Rockets, who can't do work on Da Yao's side, can only find Wang Chao, hoping that Wang Chao will lobby from it to persuade Da Yao to choose to reduce his salary.

However, on Wang Chao's side, they also hit a nail.

"Salary cuts? Why take a pay cut? "Wang Chao's attitude is very clear." You can try to let Da Yao ask for a round of price in the free market, I believe that there are many teams willing to offer him the highest salary, whether it is personal strength or the huge Chinese market interests behind him, Da Yao is completely worthy of the maximum salary to renew the contract, I will not persuade people to reduce their salary for the ridiculous excuse of the team's victory. ”

Salary cuts? Are you kidding?

Wang Chao will not, and will not agree with the so-called salary cut in the future.

To put it bluntly, the NBA is a commercial league, everyone is here to make money, what championships, what team honors are all fake, and when the players are old and uncompetitive, more than 90% of the teams will mercilessly sweep the players out of the house, and even leave the team as a bargaining chip.

Players like Nowitzki and Cuban have only a handful of relationships with their owners in the league, and even Cuban is only good for Nowitzki, and he is not so good for Nash, Terry and other players who have also played for the Mavericks.

Putting this aside, what is wrong with Wang Chao and Da Yao, as Chinese people, rolling up the money of capitalists in the United States? Even if you earn this money and go back to China to donate more to Hope Primary School, it is more realistic than talking about loyalty and team honor with these capitalist vampires.

Besides, if you take 10,000 steps back, what kind of qualitative changes can Da Yao's salary cut to free up a salary space of several million for the overall strength of the team?

As a traverser, Wang Chao has exerted his prophetic ability to the extreme, and the current Rockets lineup is already quite good in Wang Chao's opinion, a little run-in, let Leonard, Butler and other rookies practice and sharpen in NBA games, as well as the bonus effect of Wang Chao's sparring potion, at most one season, the Rockets will become the strongest team in the league, there is no one!

——

After Da Yao renewed his contract with the Rockets, the Rockets' roster has reached the level of 14 people.

Defender 5: Aaron. Brooks, Courtney. Lee two team Aboriginals, as well as Jimmy. Butler, Isaiah. Thomas's two newcomers who just got the draft, plus Korver, who sent Scola in exchange.

One of the more noteworthy is Aaron. Brooks, who was supposed to be a trade chip, was traded to the Suns after the 09-10 season in exchange for Dragic.

However, due to the butterfly effect brought by Wang Chao, Dragic was cut off to the Magic team, and the Rockets did not have Kyle in the lineup. Lowry, so Brooks didn't face a situation where he was replaced by Lowry after an injury and was waived by the Rockets.

After his contract expired this summer, because of the suspension, Brooks did not reach an agreement with the Rockets to renew his contract as soon as possible, and the former chose to run to the CBA for money as in the original history.

After the shutdown ended, the Rockets, who were seriously short of people at the point guard position, chose to recall Brooks and offered a two-year, $6 million contract with an average annual salary of $3 million.

For a point guard who has been suffering from injuries for the past two years, this contract is not bad.

Of course, Brooks's strength is no longer enough to serve as the main point guard, but with an annual salary of 3 million, it is not a special loss for this guy to exist as a fixed-point shooter, and Brooks, who will return to the NBA in the future, can maintain a three-point shooting rate of about 38% to 40%, but it is barely passable, although the defensive end is completely at the level of a black hole, not much better than Thomas Jr.

Strikers 5: Wang Chao, Ke Huai. Leonard, Chandler. Parsons, Rice. Bardinger, Patrick. Patterson.

There's not much to say about the forward position, with the combined salaries of the two aborigines, Battinger and Patterson, being cheap bench substitutes, while Leonard and Parsons are the future main rotation players at the small forward position.

There are four people in the center position, Da Yao, George. Hill, Omir. Asik, Hashem. Thabit.

In the center position, Wang Chao is not very satisfied with Tabit.

As a well-known all-time best in the league, Tabit does not have any combat effectiveness, and his future career will not improve, but such a garbage player has an annual salary of 5.13 million US dollars, and his current salary in the Rockets is second only to Wang Chao and Da Yao, and 130,000 higher than the 5 million Korver.

Tabit has two years left on his contract, which will not expire until the summer of '13, and Wang Chao definitely can't bear to have such an expensive and worthless player in the team, but after asking around in the free market, this guy has never been cared for, even if a team is willing to take over, it is required to take at least one second-round pick before he is willing to take over.

Therefore, Wang Chao can only keep this guy in the team, after all, even if Tabit is laid off with amnesty regulations, the team still has to pay this guy's salary, for the current total salary has exceeded the salary cap, but it is still far from the luxury tax for the Rockets, whether to cut Tabit is only related to the team's 15-man squad.

The current roster of the Rockets is 14 people, so it doesn't hurt to continue to keep Tabit, after all, this guy is 2.21 meters tall, and it is quite deterrent to look at it with Da Yao on weekdays.

——

On December 24, the Rockets officially took makeup photos for the new season.

All fourteen players of the team were present, and during the filming, Wang Chao and Da Yao stood in the C position without suspense, and Wang Chao occupied even more space than Da Yao.

This can't be helped, although Da Yao is the benchmark of the Rockets, the newly joined Wang Chao is the real hope for the team's rise, and the achievements and status of the two in the league at this time cannot be compared.

As Wang Chao's predecessor, a representative figure of Chinese basketball, and a big brother-like existence, Wang Chao must be very respectful to Da Yao, and he said before that the reason why he joined the Rockets and helped Da Yao win the championship is one of the important reasons.

But outside of Da Yao, Wang Chao wants to establish his prestige in the team, or rather, to establish for everyone that he is a ball bully, and he must listen to his prestige.

This is still very important, especially in the next new season, although the team has Leonard, Butler and other potential players, but they still need a period of growth and experience after all, plus this is a shrinking season, for the sake of Da Yao's health, you can't expect the other party to give you too much help in the game.

Therefore, before the start of this season, Wang Chao has roughly decided the team's tactical playing system...... To put it simply, in the new season of the Rockets, Wang Chao is ready to imitate the Rockets' style of play during the Harden period, concentrate the ball in his own hands to the extreme, and completely take over the offensive system of the entire team.

In one of Harden's wildest seasons with the Rockets, he had an exaggerated 40.5 percent possession rate, second only to Westbrook's 41.7 percent of triple-doubles per game in the 16-17 season.

Almost all of the ball was concentrated on Harden alone, and as a result, Harden averaged 36.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game.

That season, the Rockets finally ranked fourth in the West with a 53-29 record, and the performance was much worse than the previous season's 65 wins, but you must know that at the beginning of the season, the Rockets lost consecutive games due to various factors such as injuries to Paul and other main players and incompatibility within the team, and once ranked at the bottom of the West.

That season, Harden scored 2 60+ points, 9 50+ points and 28 40+ points, and his crazy scoring performance shook the entire league.

And Wang Chao plans to imitate the future Harden and use his personal scoring ability to drive the whole team forward.

This is not impossible, in terms of scoring ability, the current Wang Chao is definitely stronger than Harden in the 18-19 season.

In the four years of the Magic team, Wang Chao can easily achieve an average of 30+ points per game, but the Magic team has a lot of scoring points. Crawford and other ball-handling players.

After all, the team is not Wang Chao's alone, even if he has the ability, he must give other players the opportunity to play and perform, this is a very simple reason, just like Kobe Bryant and James last season, both of them definitely have the ability to score an average of 30+ or even higher points per game, but in fact, both of them only maintain an average of about 25 points per game, and they will focus more on assisting their teammates to score and improve the team's overall offensive ability.

But in the following season, Wang Chao in the Rockets will not have any worries, measured by the combat effectiveness of the team's current young lineup, it is easier to win by focusing all the ball on him alone.

"It's just right, the opportunity is rare, you can take this opportunity to brush up on those 100 ability points breakthrough conditions as much as possible."

——

On December 25th, Christmas Day, the NBA officially started, and on the first game day, the league arranged five games, namely Heat vs. Celtics, Clippers vs. Warriors, Bulls vs. Lakers, Magic vs. Mavericks and Thunder vs. New York Knicks.

The first game of the Rockets will be played the next day, December 26.

The league's scheduling staff is indeed a genius, and the Rockets' first game was an away game against the Magic in Orlando.

Rocket vs Magic, Wang Chao's return to his old club is indeed full of gimmicks.

On the 26th, the Rockets arrived in Orlando by plane.

"Boss, I'll help you carry your bag."

Before he got off the plane, Leonard ran over and took the initiative to carry Wang Chao's bag.

On the other side, Butler and others were also familiar with helping Da Yao carry the bag.

The rookies who have newly joined the league have to carry bags and water for veterans, which has long been an unwritten rule, and even Da Yao, who was the champion, was no exception.

But the difference is that they are willing to carry bags for Wang Chao and Da Yao.

After all, there are very few rookies like them, who have already hooked up with the team's boss and trained together for a few months before they officially joined the team.

At that time, Leonard and others had already identified Wang Chao as the eldest brother, and Wang Chao had to call the eldest brother Da Yao.

But even so, a few days ago, when the team officially reported, they finally saw Wang Chao's domineering on the court.

For the first gathering, after head coach McHale and the new team captain Da Yao finished speaking, it was Wang Chao's turn to speak.

And Wang Chao's speech was short and direct, but everyone couldn't help but hold their breath and widen their eyes.

"Hello everyone, we're going to play together in the new season, some of you may not know me very well, but it's okay, just remember to hand me the ball in the game and I'll lead you to win and win the championship."

Mad! It's crazy!

But no one would question the authenticity of Wang Chao's words.

Championships, MVP, FMVP and scoring champions and other honors are the confidence of Wang Chao to say this.

In the short training days after the team gathered, the players of the Rockets gradually noticed Wang Chao's transcendent status in the team.

The team's training arrangements and matters were first drawn up by the assistant coaches, and then submitted to head coach McHale for review, but after approval, it was finally given to Wang Chao, and it would be implemented only after Wang Chao nodded and approved, and whenever Wang Chao questioned the content of the training, the training plan would be modified according to Wang Chao's requirements.

This TM is even better than the head coach!

Since then, all the players have a consensus that they can mess with anyone in the team, and they must not mess with Wang Chao!

After the team checked into the hotel, head coach McHale called Wang Chao and Da Yao to his room to discuss the starting lineup for tonight's game.

"Wang, how about you see the starting list?"

McHale naturally handed the starting list to Wang Chao, and the corners of Da Yao's mouth twitched slightly.

McHale's coaching style was an eye-opener for the veteran who had been in the league for nine years.

It was the first time he had seen a manager so weak in the face of a player.

Whether it's Da Yao's first NBA head coach Rudy. Tom Janovic, second coach Jeff. Van Gundy and later Adelman are both managers with their own ideas, and none of them are as weak as McHale.

In less than half a month of contact, Da Yao has already begun to seriously doubt whether a character like McHale can really hold the locker room?

Wang Chao took the starting list and glanced at it.

This starting list should have been drawn up by McHale and the coaching team.

The starting point guard is Brooks, who has just been recruited from the CBA, and he has performed very well in the past few months in the CBA, and he has maintained a relatively good form, and the start game is a matter of course.

The shooting guard is Courtney. Plum.

Last season, Courtney. Lee averaged 81 minutes per game for the Rockets, scoring 8.3 points and shooting 40.8 percent from three-point range.

The Rockets are at the point guard position, and Kyle. Korver & Jimmy. Butler.

The former played with the Bulls last season with Courtney. Lee is similar, but he doesn't have the opponent's defensive ability to move from the side, which is why McHale decided to let Courtney after consideration. Lee's reason for starting.

As for Butler...... This first-year rookie was too tender in McHale's opinion.

Starting small forward Kawai. Leonard, the gap in the pick is indeed the gap in strength, and Leonard's advantage in static talent makes him significantly more rated than Butler on the defensive end.

And at this stage, Leonard's three-point shot is more accurate than Butler's, and after Wang Chao's hard training in the summer, he has fully equipped with the ability to start.

The big forward is naturally Wang Chao, although McHale is also skeptical about whether Wang Chao can be qualified for the position of power forward, but this is what Wang Chao took the initiative to ask for, and he has no way to change.

There is no suspense about the center, as long as Da Yao remains healthy, the starting center of the Rockets cannot be anyone else, especially if the opponent in this game is still the Magic team, Da Yao's favorite thing to do in the league is to eat, sleep and fight Warcraft.

"Yes, that's how it goes."

Wang Chao nodded and said: "Don't look at the Magic team is the defending champion, in fact, it is very easy to deal with, they rely too much on three-point shots, as long as our outside players can block the outside projection space, and then Da Yao holds Howard on the inside, forcing them to make inefficient mid-range jumpers, and the game is won by hand." ”

McHale: "......"

Will things really be as simple and easy as Wang Chao said? At least not that way for him and the assistant coaches.

Every time they see the current lineup of the Rockets, they don't see hope at all, except for Wang Chao and Da Yao, the Rockets are all some role players or rookies who are not very strong, even if there are Wang Chao and Da Yao, can such a Rocket team have combat effectiveness?

Don't look at the Magic team now without Wang Chao, Jamal. Crawford was also just traded through a multi-player to get Chris. Paul's Clippers snatched it away on a three-year, $36 million contract, but they brought in Kevin. Martin and Sharad. Lewis, even if his strength has declined, is still one of the favorites to win the championship in the new season.

Just a few days ago, ESPN announced the ranking of the team power rankings for the new season, and the defending champion Magic ranked fifth, behind the Heat, Bulls, Spurs and Lakers, and slightly better than the Celtics.

The Rockets, who got Wang Chao, are only ninth in the power rankings, ahead of them are the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Los Angeles Clippers.

This is the reality.

(End of chapter)