64 million in 4 years, with an average annual salary of 16 million, in this era when the salary cap skyrocketed after the new broadcast contract came into effect, this salary is actually not particularly high, after all, the salary cap of 99 million in the 17-18 season is calculated, even if it is a rookie player, the maximum salary contract starts at 20 million.

But for a blue-collar center who was just a backup center for the Rockets last season, averaging less than 15 minutes per game and only five points and six rebounds, that's already a pretty high offer.

After Gobert's rookie contract expires, as a restricted free agent, the Rockets have the right to match any team's offer contract and force Gobert to stay.

However, with a four-year and 64 million contract extension for a backup center, the Rockets are not wronged, and they already have Whiteside, who is similar in function to Gobert and more athletic.

Therefore, when the Nuggets officially made an offer to Gobert, the Rockets did not even hesitate, and directly and decisively chose to give up the matching contract and let Gobert leave.

But what the Rockets management didn't know was that the Nuggets' offer of Gobert was made at the behest of Wang Chao.

After some consideration, Wang Chao's final choice was to join the Denver Nuggets.

There are several reasons for this choice.

First of all, after the Nuggets finished the 16-17 season, a number of players on the team expired on their contracts, including Daniro, who was paid $15 million a year. Gallinari, which makes the Nuggets' total salary only 60 million, according to the salary cap of 99 million in the 17-18 season, they have close to 40 million salary space, with good operability.

Secondly, perhaps because of the butterfly effect, the Nuggets selected Donovan this season. Mitchell didn't trade him directly to the Jazz as a chip as he did in the original history, but kept him, so that the Nuggets have two potential players on the roster, 16-year rookie Jamal . Murray with 17-year rookie Donovan. Mitchell.

Although both players are rookies, they have performed quite well on the offensive end.

Mitchell averaged 20.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game in his first season with the Jazz, becoming the team's leading scorer, and in the playoffs, he averaged 24.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game to help the Nuggets reach the second round.

Jamal. Although Murray's performance in scoring statistics is not as explosive as Mitchell's, he can also contribute 16.7 points in the 17-18 season, which is the second season of his career, and then became the team's leading scorer, the most effective right-hand man next to Jokic.

Regarding Mitchell and Murray, Wang Chao remembers most that in the 19-20 playoffs, the Denver Nuggets and the Utah Jazz met in the first round, which was also a battle between Mitchell and Murray, two new stars in the basketball world.

In the whole series, the two teams fought 7 games, Mitchell and Murray scored 50+ points in two games, including one game in which both scored 50+ matches, and the super offensive ability and scoring explosiveness amazed the whole league. It also overshadowed the two teams' own teams, Jokic Sr. and Gobert.

And now, the two offensive masters are on the Nuggets, and Wang Chao doesn't need to worry about the second and third scoring points at all.

The only drawback of these two players may be their height, Mitchell is 1.85 meters tall, Murray is 1.91 meters, both of them are shorter players among the guards, and the problem on the defensive end is slightly bigger, but with the Nuggets signing Rudy for 4 years and 64 million. Gobert, the problem is not a problem at all.

With a height of 2.16 meters and an astonishing 2.35 meters in reach, it is this exaggerated static talent that has helped Gobert win the Best Defensive Player award three times.

Gobert and Wang Chao teamed up to build the Nuggets' defensive system, and it's entirely conceivable what that concept was.

And Gobert is only the first of Wang Chao's reinforcement targets, but not the last.

When Gobert officially announced his four-year, $64 million signing, the Nuggets followed suit with another signing, agreeing to a four-year, $32 million contract with free agent PJ Tucker.

32 million in 4 years, with an average annual salary of 8 million, in this era of tens of millions of annual salaries, this contract can be regarded as a low-cost contract.

Tucker played 81 games between the Suns and Raptors last season, averaging just 6.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, and shooting just over 40% from the field.

Referring to Tucker's performance, the 4-year 3200 may still be a premium contract.

But only Wang Chao knows how valuable Tucker is.

While not as good as a statist, Tucker is a hugely underrated defensive specialist, a standard 3-and-D player.

In the two seasons when the Rockets were the strongest, and the seasons when they won the Best Courage Award, PJ Tucker was the absolute main force in the Rockets' lineup, and he was the absolute defensive gate of the Rockets' forward position in the magic ball theory.

It's ridiculous to say that with Tucker's defensive ability, he hasn't even made the All-Defensive Team once, which shows that the league and the media underestimate him.

When Wang Chao found out that Tucker had become a free agent, he decisively asked the Nuggets to poach him.

As a result, only 2 days after the free market opened, the Nuggets' main lineup for the new season has been built.

Mitchell and Murray are both two-way guards, and the two can appear at the guard position at the same time, serving as point guard and point guard respectively, with the 1.96-meter-tall PJ. Tucker as a small forward, Wang Chao as a power forward, and Gobert as a center.

This lineup will not be particularly exaggerated in terms of strength, but it is not bad, and more importantly, except for Wang Chao, none of the five players are All-Star level players.

This is also the last and main reason why Wang Chao will choose to join the Nuggets, the lineup of the Nuggets team is definitely very weak in the eyes of the outside world, but the actual combat effectiveness is very strong.

I, Wang Chao, have been able to lead a group of rookie rookies and dragon players to win the championship, who is not convinced?

It's just that after the Nuggets signed Gobert and Tucker one after another, the team's salary has reached 80 million, and due to the salary cap of 99 million, there is no way to make a maximum salary offer for Wang Chao.

No matter which team he joins, Wang Chao will never give up the top salary, Lao Mi's money must be earned, so what the Nuggets need to do next is to clear the salary space.

At present, in addition to Gobert's starting salary of 14.5 million and Tucker's starting salary of 7.59 million, the Nuggets also have relatively large contracts, including Kenneth Brown with $12.92 million. Farid, $12.02 million of Wilson. Chandler and $7.46 million Darrell. Arthur.

The above three players are not of much value in Wang Chao's opinion.

Half-orc Farid was one of the main players of the Denver track and field team, 2.03m as a power forward, extremely athletic, and a good player for offensive rebounds, but his role was limited to that.

With a height of 2.03 meters and a weight of only 103 kilograms, such a figure is a food delivery to the inside, and anyone who comes can beat him, you must know that even Tucker, who is 1.96 meters, weighs 118 kilograms.

In Wang Chao's impression, Farid has declined rapidly since the 17-18 season, and has fallen into a situation where there is no ball to play in just a few years.

Compared to him, Wilson. Chandler was a little stronger, but only at the level of fifty steps and a hundred steps.

If these two players have a contract of about 5 million, Wang Chao may still be able to tolerate them staying in the team, but the total salary of the two is close to 25 million, so why wait if they don't send them out?

As for Darrell, who has an annual salary of 7.46 million. Arthur...... To be honest, Wang Chao has no impression of this player at all, it turns out that there is still such a No. 1 person in the Nuggets team?

At this stage, Farid and Wilson. Chandler's 12 million contract is not a garbage contract, after all, the two players are still very young, and at the current stage of salary inflation, the 12 million contract is not particularly expensive in the eyes of many teams, so the two still have some trade value, but there are not many teams that want to find enough salary space to take over and are willing to use trade exceptions to close the salary gap.

In the end, the Nuggets could only take the draft picks as bargaining chips and pay the price of one first-round pick and two second-rounders before they had to take Farid and Wilson respectively. Chandler sent away.

Even so, they had to trade back two role players with annual salaries of around $5 million in the trade.

As for Darrell. Arthur, because he really couldn't find a home, the Nuggets chose to cut him outright, according to the league's rules, only need to pay a portion of his salary within the scope of his guaranteed contract, and in the end only $3.5 million salary was included in the salary cap.

A series of operations allowed the Nuggets to save nearly 20 million in salary, and finally had enough salary space to sign Wang Chao.

——

In the days when the free market opened, the Nuggets became the most jumping of all teams, first signing Gobert and Tucker with high salaries, one for 4 years and 64 million, and the other for 4 years and 3200, referring to the performance of the two last season, it was completely a premium contract, and two blue-collar players were signed with 24 million.

The signing was not over yet, and then the Nuggets successively transferred Farid to Wilson. Chandler traded away, and in order to send the two away, the team did not hesitate to post draft picks, making a completely loss-making transaction.

The Nuggets' abnormal performance makes people extremely puzzled, is the Nuggets management taking the wrong medicine? Flip the table and stop playing?

But for some well-intentioned people, the Nuggets' unusual performance is revealing a bad message.

The free market has been open for several days, but the biggest fish, Wang Chao, has not yet said which team he wants to join.

But many teams have already made efforts to make enough salary space to provide a maximum salary offer to Wang Chao's agent.

Who knows if the Nuggets are trading players upside down to free up salary space to pursue Wang Chao? Although the Nuggets' lineup looks very average, the whole team does not even have an All-Star, which is completely at the bottom of the league.

As a result, I was really afraid of something.

On July 5, the fifth day of the free market, Wang Chao finally made a move.

He reached an agreement with the Denver Nuggets to sign a 1+1 contract of 71 million for two years and a starting salary of $34.65 million in the first year.

It's a super-max contract, and it's a bit of a shame that $34.65 million isn't the league's highest-paid deal.

In the 17-18 season, the league's No. 1 highest salary belonged to the Warriors' Stephen. Curry's $34.68 million is only $30,000 higher than Wang Chao, but even if it is only $30,000 more, it is more.

In fact, with Curry's playing age, according to the maximum salary rule, the salary is not comparable to Wang Chao.

However, after the league's collective bargaining agreement, a new designated veteran clause was added, which stipulates that players who have been between 7 and 9 years of football, have not changed teams and have not only changed teams in the first four seasons of their careers, and have received some hard honors in the last three seasons, can renew their contracts with the team at a maximum salary of 35%.

Under the original salary cap rule, players with more than 10 years of playing were required to renew their contracts at 35% of the salary cap.

Curry has previously won two consecutive MVPs, which fully meets the designated veteran clause, so he can renew his contract for 5 years and $201 million, and because the renewal period is longer than Wang, the starting salary is $30,000 higher than Wang.

This is only the first year, and by the next year, which is the 18-19 season, Curry's salary will reach $37.46 million, while Wang Chao's annual salary will only be $36.35 million if he exercises the player option, and the gap will reach $1.11 million.

Wang Chao, who has long been a billionaire and is conservatively estimated to be worth more than 20 billion at the end of this year, certainly doesn't care about just one or two million, but Curry's annual salary is higher than his, which still makes him a little uncomfortable.

The news of Wang Chao joining the Denver Nuggets swept the world in one day.

This is really unexpected.

Everyone was stupid.

Joining the Nuggets? What does Wang Chao think? Does he really think he's invincible?

Take a look at the Nuggets' current lineup, Gobert, Murray, Tucker, Mitchell, what kind of stinky fish and shrimp are these? Is there one that can be hit?

After signing Wang Chao for 34.65 million, the Nuggets' salary space was directly filled, and they didn't even have the opportunity to sign other players.

Who gave Wang Chao the confidence that gave him the idea that a team like the Nuggets could win the championship? You know, even in the Nets, didn't he wait for Durant to join in before winning the championship?

The news of Wang Chao's joining the Nuggets made other non-championship teams cry and faint in the toilet, and the most disappointed of them was the Charlotte Hornets.

Before Wang Chao confirmed to join the Nuggets, the league generally believed that the Hornets were the most suitable next home for Wang Chao to join.

First of all, Charlotte's three Jays are outstanding, especially Davis, who averaged 28+12 per game last season, and was selected as the best team and the best defense at the same time, and his strength is enough to rank in the top ten in the league.

Oladipo and Kemba. Walker is also an All-Star caliber player.

As long as Wang Chao joins the Hornets, he will be the biggest favorite to win the championship in the first year.

After the finals, when he heard that Wang Chao officially announced that he would jump out of the contract and leave the Nets, Qiao Gang Leader immediately expressed his position, welcoming Wang Chao to join the Hornets and win the first championship trophy in team history for this team, and promised that if Wang Chao can win the championship for the Hornets, no matter how many years Wang Chao plays in the Hornets, he will retire Wang Chao's jersey and create a statue for him.

This sincerity can be described as full, and the Hornets salary space is also quite abundant, although Oladipo's rookie contract expires, but there is no rush to renew the contract, just waiting for the team to sign Wang Chao, and then use the Bird term hat to renew Oladipo, even if the Hornets will pay a certain luxury tax for this at that time, Jordan is ready to grit his teeth and survive.

After Jordan made a public statement, the Hornets became the biggest favorites to get Wang Chao.

How perfect is it to be able to get three All-Star teammates as soon as you join the team, one of whom is still a top superstar, and you can go straight to the championship goal and skip the development period? James next door was crying.

But Wang Chao just said that I won't, I'm going to go to a bad team to prove how NB I am.

The Nuggets' lineup is really bad, even worse than when Wang Chao first arrived at the Nets two years ago, after all, the Nets at that time still had an All-Star level Brooke. López, but also former key player in the team, Delon. Williams and Joe. Johnson and his wife successfully joined the team with a new base salary after reaching a buyout agreement, and it was a little bit like that.

What about the nuggets now? The only one on the team who was a bit of a gimmick was Jamal who won Rookie of the Year last season. Murray, but Murray, the best rookie, is purely a big one among the short, and he can be the best rookie with an average of 10 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists per game, which is simply funny.

Looking back more than ten years, there is no best rookie with such poor statistics, and Mike Miller, who averaged 11.9 points, 4 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game in the 00-01 season, is close to him in statistics.

Can Wang Chao lead such a team to win the championship? Are you kidding?

Barkley, a well-known commentator on TNT TV, was the first to jump out.

"The Nuggets team joined by Wang Chao, I don't want to say that they won't win the championship, if he can lead the Nuggets to break through from the West to the finals next season, I will eat a whole bowl of horse manure live!"

This bet should have been said by Barkley in the 21-22 season Finals, when he was sure that the Celtics would beat the Warriors to win the championship in the Finals, so he released this bold statement, and the Warriors defeated the Celtics 4-2 to win the championship.

Then Buckley, who cheated on eating and drinking in the live broadcast, selectively forgot about this bet.

No way, it would kill Barkley to eat a bowl of horse manure.

This time, though, Barkley was full of confidence.

What kind of garbage lineup is the Nuggets? Even if there is Wang Chao, it will be considered a breakthrough if he can break into the playoffs or even the Western Finals.

After all, the western side is also full of heroes and powers.

Even if the Warriors lose to the Nets in the finals, they are still one of the three major aircraft carrier teams in the league, with a terrifying lineup and strong strength.

There are also Butler in the West, led by Howard, the Spurs who can fight the Warriors in seven games in the West, and the Rockets led by Leonard.

In addition, the Thunder traded for Paul. After George, he is currently actively looking for opportunities to form the Big Three, and once the Big Three are successfully formed, they will also become a force to be reckoned with in the west.

When the Nuggets only have one Wang Chao, why should they fight their way out of the encirclement in the west where there are many strong enemies?

Barkley didn't believe it, and neither did other basketball commentators or veteran fans.

They all have only one feeling now, Wang Chao, who has eight crowns in his hand, is really floating, and he feels that he can really 1v5, if he doesn't use the cruel reality to educate him, he can't wake up.

At the end of the month, I asked for a wave of monthly passes

(End of chapter)