NBA: Top 3D talents to start

Chapter 341 Leonard and Durant's Destinations
In early July, the Lakers officially announced that they had reached an agreement with forward Jimmy Butler and signed a four-year, $7 million maximum salary extension contract.

As soon as this news was announced, the alliance was a little confused.

During the period when the free market opened, the Lakers' intentions should not be too obvious, and they made it clear that they wanted to pursue one of Leonard or Durant.

Some media in Los Angeles even broke the news that the Lakers management had contacted the agents of the two stars and that Butler's contract renewal plan was temporarily put on hold.

For Lakers fans, this is obviously good news.

Butler is not as good as Leonard and Durant. This is the consensus of everyone. It is also the top salary. Why not the other two who are better?

Many fans have even imagined that the Lakers have gathered the two strongest scorers in the league, Wang Feng and Durant, or the super perimeter defensive combination of Wang Feng + Leonard seems to be quite good.

But what they waited for was Butler's contract renewal news.

"Huh? Butler? 4 million in 1.42 years? Is he worth the price?"

"It's okay to average 18 points per game in the regular season. In the playoffs, he averaged only 19 points per game. He just followed Wang Feng and won a championship. He actually had the cheek to sit on the ground and raise the price."

The Lakers fans were quite angry, because Butler's contract extension was completed, and the Lakers' salary space was completely locked, and they did not have the ability to sign another star with an annual salary of more than 2000 million.

Of course, some people are optimistic.

"It's good to be able to renew Butler's contract successfully. I think Wang Feng and Butler's partner have a good understanding, otherwise they won't win the championship. It's hard to say whether Leonard and Durant are willing to come to the Lakers. They can try to maintain It’s good to stay with the original championship lineup.”

Under such circumstances, a few days later, a local Los Angeles media broke out that the reason why the Lakers successfully completed the contract extension with Butler was because of Wang Feng's pressure.

According to the media, they have an informant who is the sanitation personnel of the Lakers arena. He saw with his own eyes that Wang Feng came to the general manager's office of the Lakers a few days ago, and in front of general manager Ervin Johnson, Call the Lakers owner Jenny Buss and bluntly say that if Butler cannot be kept, then he will also be traded away from the team.

The Lakers finally chose to renew the contract with Butler in advance due to pressure from Wang Feng. Originally, according to their plan, they wanted to pursue one of Leonard or Durant as much as possible before renewing Butler.

Once this news was announced, it immediately caused repercussions in Los Angeles and even the league.

Whether the source of the news is true or not, no one knows except the person concerned, but judging from the previous behavior of the Lakers, it is likely to be true.

There is a high probability that the Lakers will not take the initiative to disclose such things, and of course Wang Feng will not.

Based on the team, it is not a good thing for its own star to threaten the team.

As far as Wang Feng is concerned, threatening the team's management and forcing the team to make a signing decision that is not the management's will is not a good reputation.

Therefore, it is certain that the partition walls in the Lakers arena have ears. Whether the Lakers management can find and remove this nail is a matter for the team and has nothing to do with Wang Feng.

But after this incident, Butler specially invited Wang Feng to a meal to express his gratitude.

Butler knew very well that if Wang Feng hadn't put pressure on him, he might really have left the Lakers.

Although with his coffee position, it is not impossible to play without the ball, and it is not particularly difficult to get a maximum salary offer, but the second largest city in the United States like Los Angeles, the City of Angels is far away from him, and similarly, in other teams It is much more difficult to continue to win the championship.

Although in the Lakers, Butler's position is only Pippen's second-in-command, but he is quite satisfied with it. After all, he has received the maximum salary. tangled up in these issues.

Overall, Wang Feng's forced palace successfully kept Butler, and his relationship with Butler became closer, the advantages outweighed the disadvantages.

……

Not long after Butler completed his contract extension, the whereabouts of Leonard and Durant, the two biggest fish in the free market, were also settled.

Like another time and space, Durant chose to join the Brooklyn Nets, but the difference is that he did not choose to sign first and then change, but directly joined the Nets with a 4-year $1.64 million contract.

Prior to this, the Nets had signed the Celtics' free agent Kyrie Irving with a maximum salary of 4 million over four years.

The combination of Irving + Durant allowed the Nets to leap into the ranks of the league's top teams, but this is not over yet.

Immediately afterwards, the Nets traded All-Star point guard D'Angelo Russell, plus three future first-round picks, in exchange for forward Paul George from the Thunder.

Russell, who was supposed to be signed first and then exchanged for Durant, became the bargaining chip for the Nets to chase George because of the butterfly effect.

In this way, the Nets directly formed the Big Three configuration of Durant + Irving + George, which will directly become the favorite to win the championship next season!

The big news isn't over yet.

After Durant teamed up with the Nets, Leonard was not idle.

On July 7, the Los Angeles Clippers officially announced that they signed All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard with a three-year, $11 million contract.

James got the strongest helper as he wished. Although the Clippers did not form the Leonard + George striker ace combination like another time and space, the James + Leonard combination is obviously more successful!

Although the Clippers' lineup is only dual-core and did not meet the Nets' Big Three standards, it is a combination of James + Leonard after all, and the Clippers' ranking has also risen.

And one day later, the Clippers once again officially announced that they would sign back the original Clippers center DeAndre Jordan, who was intercepted by the Lone Ranger last season for 4 million in 4000 year, for 1 years and 2290 million US dollars.

Although Jordan's current state is no longer the same as the period when he was selected to the best team and the best defensive team consecutively a few years ago, his strength is still there. He still averaged 11 points and 13.1 rebounds per game last season, which can barely be counted as the Clippers. The team's third giant.

After the two signings, the strength of the Clippers has risen, and it has reached almost the same level as the Nets, becoming one of the favorites to win the championship in the new season.

In contrast, the five-star Warriors just renewed their star Klay Thompson's contract with the top salary last season. Without Durant, the Warriors only rely on the combination of Curry + Thompson + Green , In terms of book strength, it is already significantly weaker than the Nets and Clippers.

(End of this chapter)