am i proud?

Chapter 112 The Pistons are all here (today's first update)
After getting Clifford Robinson, Dumars continued to seek gold in the free agent market. He first signed combo guard Damon Jones for $3 million in three years, and then signed blue-collar center Victor Alexander with a non-guaranteed contract with a basic salary of $196 in one year.

Including Rodney White, who was selected by the team with the 9th pick in the first round this year, and former veteran players, the Pistons have 14 players on their roster.They are:

Center: Ben Wallace (No. 3, annual salary of $470 million), Victor Alexander (No. 9, annual salary of $47);

大前锋：克里弗德.罗宾逊（30号，年薪766万美元）、米基.摩尔（31号，年薪253万美元）、罗德尼.怀特（5号，年薪169万美元）；

小前锋：王大林（8号，年薪1063万美元）、科里斯.威廉姆斯（34号，年薪400万美元）、布莱恩.卡迪纳尔（35号，年薪47万美元）；

得分后卫：理查德.汉密尔顿（32号，年薪211万美元）、迈克尔.库里（12号，年薪240万美元）、琼.巴里（20号，年薪318万美元）；

控球后卫：昌西.比卢普斯（1号，年薪248万美元）、查基.阿特金斯（7号，年薪330万美元）、达蒙.琼斯（14号，年薪57万美元）。

The roster allowed by the NBA is 15 people, and the Pistons are still short of 1 player. Carlisle clearly asked Dumars to find a meat shield center, but it is not easy to find such a center in the league now.

Due to the strength of the Lakers and O'Neal, coupled with the aging of the excellent centers in the 90s, the meat shield centers in the league are not only rare, but also very expensive.

Some people may ask: Haven't the Pistons already exceeded the $4250 million salary cap?Why do you still want to sign players?Aren't you afraid of paying the "luxury tax"?

As mentioned earlier, the NBA will officially implement the "luxury tax" system at the beginning of this season, so many teams dare not be extravagant when signing contracts.However, no matter in the original time and space or in this life, no NBA team paid the "luxury tax" in the 2001-2002 season. Why is this?

Here is a popular science.

To put it simply, the establishment of the "luxury tax" is because most NBA team owners do not want players' salaries to exceed a certain percentage of the team's total income. The main reason is that they are afraid that the super rich like Paul Allen will directly burn money to "buy" championships.

First of all, there is a so-called "contract ceiling" in the NBA's labor terms, which is 55% of "Basketball Business Income (BRI)".

Secondly, according to the league's "luxury tax" regulations, a part of the player's salary (not exceeding 10%) will be temporarily withheld by the league every year.

If the player's total salary exceeds the contract limit after the settlement of the year, the withheld salary will first be used to compensate the team owner.

The amount of compensation is greater than the amount of the salary exceeding the contract ceiling, and the remaining money is returned to the player, and the equal amount is just equal.

If the withheld salary is not enough to compensate, then the NBA will start to levy a "luxury tax".

比如2001-2002赛季的篮球事业收入是26.67亿美元，契约上限（55%）就是14.67亿美元，而球员工资和红利总共15.98亿美元，联盟暂扣的球员工资（不超过球员工资总额的10%）1.53亿美元，球员收入超出契约上限的部分就是1.31亿美元。

You can see that the part of the player's income exceeding the upper limit of the contract does not exceed the part withheld by the league, so the league will not impose a "luxury tax".

According to calculations, the luxury tax will only be triggered when the total player income in the league exceeds 61.11% of the BRI. Player revenue was 2001 percent of the BRI in 2002-59.8, so no team is subject to the luxury tax -- even with the Knicks making a staggering $8500 million this season.

(Old Wang: In order to understand this, I have been studying for a long time!)
Closer to home, Dumars did not find a suitable tank-type center after many inquiries. He even asked Wang Dalin about Ernest Brown, the second-round rookie who was cut off by the Heat last year.

Wang Dalin suddenly remembered something, slapped his forehead and smiled, "Joe, I know a powerful center forward, you must be very satisfied!"

Dumas hurriedly asked, "What's your name? Are you an American?"

Wang Dalin said with a smile: "His name is Gates. I don't know if he is an American, but I know he is tall and very strong... His body size should not be smaller than Shaq's!"

"What? No smaller than Shaq?...Wait!" Dumas was taken aback, then thought for a moment and suddenly said, "I know who you are talking about, it turned out to be Gates Joseph!"

Gates' full name is Gates MacArthur Fitzgerald Joseph. He was born in Dominica, but he studied in the United States.

The "St. Rose College" that Gates attended that year is located in Albany, the capital of New York State, and is a comprehensive private university.

In college, Gates played in the NCAA-D2 league. With his huge body and unparalleled strength, he performed very well in college.

However, since Gates did not play in the NCAA-D1 league, he did not participate in the NBA draft. Instead, he played in the Greek League for a year, and then mixed in low-level leagues such as IBA, USBL, and IBL.

In the 2001-2002 season, he played for the Toronto Raptors and the Denver Nuggets, both of which were waived after only playing 2 games.

Gates is indeed very strong, comparable in size and strength to O'Neal, but his speed is too slow, and he often can't keep up with the team's rhythm in the game, so he failed to gain a foothold in the NBA last season.

However, Wang Dalin believes that as long as the head coach is willing to give him a chance, he will be able to perform well, because the performance of this guy in the CBA league in the previous life really left a deep impression on Wang Dalin.

This 218cm tall, 143kg inside behemoth has shown terrifying dominance in the CBA league. His record of 38 rebounds in a single game will not be broken until 2021, not even our Chairman Yao.

Gates is recognized by fans as one of the strongest foreign aid centers in the history of the CBA. Due to his large size and rough appearance, Chinese fans nicknamed him "Tarzan the Ape".

In fact, Wang Dalin has a better candidate in his mind, and that is Battelle, but this guy is currently the star of the Beijing Shougang team, and it is not easy to get him.

After Wang Dalin thought of Bateer, he immediately thought of Gates, so he recommended it to Dumas.

Dumars pondered for a while, then asked: "I know Gates, he performed poorly last season, he is not qualified to play in the NBA at all?"

Wang Dalin said with a smile: "Joe, don't you look at how long he played in total last season? If I remember correctly, he played a total of 4 minutes in the 16 games between the Nuggets and the Raptors, right? What can you tell from this time?"

He really couldn't believe that Bateer could gain a foothold in the NBA in the future, so couldn't Gates?You must know that in the CBA arena, Gates has never lost against Bateer.

Admittedly, Battelle's mid-range shot is pretty good, but Gates is useless when he leaves the paint.

But at present, the Pistons don't need a center who is good at attacking, they just need to find a meat shield... It's really more than a meat shield. In this period, who in the entire CBA league can match Gates?

The 2001-2002 season of the CBA League will not start until December. Gates probably doesn't know where he is doing nothing. It should be easy to find him.

Dumas was still hesitant, so Wang Dalin could only say, "Joe, what do you think of this? You should contact Gates for a trial training first. If it works, at least take a look first?"

Dumas nodded and said, "That's right, whether it works or not, let him try it first!"

……

Dumars' work efficiency was very high, and it took only one day to contact Gates, who was idle at home. Gates was very happy when he heard that the Pistons wanted him to try out, so Pidianpidian brought his agent.

When he came to the trial training, all the players of the Pistons had assembled and were undergoing recovery training under the leadership of the assistant coach. Carlisle first let Gates complete the static test.

This guy is 218cm tall and doesn't have any moisture, but he weighs 148KG, and his body fat rate is as high as 16.8%. It seems that he has gained a lot of weight during the period of not playing.

With a wingspan of 233cm, even considering his perverted shoulder width, his arm length is already quite good; his standing height is 293cm, 1cm taller than Chairman Yao, standing under the basket like an iron tower.

And his palm length is as high as 29.8CM, what a pair of big hands!

运动能力方面：原地垂直起跳65CM，助跑起跳垂直高度72CM，3/4场冲刺4.8秒，百米跑14.6秒……跑跳能力确实很差。

However, Gates' strength is really unimportant. He easily completed 30 12KG bench presses in just 84 seconds, and the maximum bench press reached 190KG. Wang Dalin observed that he has not yet reached his limit.

After the physical test, Carlisle asked Gates to play a one-on-one match with Alexander, the backup center. As expected, Alexander was blown out by Gates.

Alexander is only 206cm tall. Although he weighs 120KG, he is considered "full tonnage", but it is obviously not enough for Gates, a giant insider.

Carlisle then had Big Ben try to guard Gates, who struggled this time.

Big Ben doesn't just rely on his body when defending. His inside defensive skills are among the top in the league.Gates can only rely on his body to fight hard at the basket, and his offensive skills are very rough. Of course, this trick alone can't make a big profit.

In the end, Coach Carlisle also arranged a three-on-three game, and Gates' trial training was all over.

After the trial training, Coach Carlisle believed that Gates' advantages and disadvantages were outstanding, but he was undoubtedly qualified as a tank center, so he told Dumars his opinion.

After careful consideration, Dumas talked with Gates' agent for more than an hour, and finally gave a one-year non-guaranteed basic salary contract of 1 US dollars.

With Gates joining, the Pistons' roster of 15 players this season is finally complete...

　Thanks to "Feng Shao Qinghua" for the reward of 100 starting coins!Thank you very much!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)