The invincible kryptonite of basketball

Kuzma's rookie contract has one year left, Ariza's contract has one year left, Carter officially announced his retirement, and Decker didn't show much.

These two positions are minor repairs like last year, just adding some veterans and benches.

Center: Mitchell Robinson.

The center position is what the Pelicans need to solve most in the summer. Gasol Jr. performed mediocre last season, especially in the playoffs.

If Gasol asks for a high price, there is a high probability that he will not be kept. If the asking price is not high, he is likely to be a substitute.

One Mitchell Robinson alone is definitely not enough.

The previous rookie bonuses were almost the same, and now there are three positions that need to be renewed. This is the most challenging free market for the Pelicans over the years.

The first thousand and 410 chapters of the 2020 NBA free agent market

Compared with last year's free agent market, this year's free agent market is one world at a time.

There were a lot of big names last year, but this year's biggest player is DeRozan, followed by Hayward and Siakam (restricted free agents), and then there are players at the level of Gallinari and Lowry.

The two discussed for a long time, and finally basically had a general idea.

The salary cap for the new season is 1.16 million. Davis and Durant have a combined total of about 8000 million, leaving only about 3500 million for the Pelicans.

However, the Pelicans have a lot of expired contracts that are renewed on the cap. In other words, their maneuverability space can be calculated as 1.41 million yuan in luxury tax, which is the so-called flexible space, which adds up to about 6500 million. .

So the general idea is actually clear. The contract of 2500-3000 million won Holiday, and the remaining 3500-4000 million was used to consider strengthening the positions of center and point guard.

Alexander has grown up last season, and Brogdon can consider not staying.

There are not many high-quality players in the free market. After giving up Brogdon, there is a lot of space, but it is not easy to reinforce.

Tang Tian took a look at the list of free agents, and finally his eyes stopped on a person's name.

"How about signing Ross back?"

When Dempsey heard Rose's name, he nodded without thinking much.

Rose performed well after arriving in the Timberwolves, and he averaged 18.5 points per game in the contract year last season.

Alexander is characterized by defense and organization. Scoring explosiveness is not his strong point, and Rose can just make up for this.

Moreover, Rose only won his first championship in his career when he signed with the Pelicans. Now as a completely free agent, the Pelicans will be his ideal choice.

The most important thing is that Rose is also 32 years old, and the asking price of the contract will not be too high. The Pelicans still have room to strengthen the inside.

Insiders, this year's insiders are quite scarce. In terms of popularity, the most famous is Westbrook's former card forward Adams.

Adams' positioning and rebounding are top-notch, and the Thunder's performance last season was poor, and Adams's statistics have declined, so it will be much easier to sign.

Demps' proposal was also Adams.

Tang Tian also agreed, Durant and Davis need to do dirty work, and Adams is quite suitable.

However, he also gave Demps a salary cap. If it exceeds 2000 million, it is not suitable. Although Adams is only 27 years old, he has been injured before, and his explosive power has dropped a lot. Signing a big contract has the risk of becoming a garbage contract.

In addition to Adams, Tang Tian also gave Demps a candidate, Tristan Thompson.

As a short insider, Thompson can't lose to Adams in both positioning and defense. The key is that his contract will definitely be much cheaper.

There are few big names and few high-quality players in the free market this season. The Pelicans don't completely want to bet on the present, but can focus on next year.

The core goal is these few, and the rest is minor repairs.

In the list of minor fixes, Tang Tian also focused on one person, Iguodala.

Iguodala was basically semi-retired in the Grizzlies last season, but he still has fuel in his tank.

He can play at the second and third positions, which is very suitable for the Pelicans.

Following Tang Tian's instructions, Dempsey began to contact the target person after the free market door opened.

The first to sign in the free market was Drummond, who jumped out of the contract option and directly renewed a 5-year 1.9 million super contract with the Pistons.

This is also expected. After so many years of hard training, Drummond is now a superstar on the same level as Embiid and Jokic.

Lowry finally renewed his contract with the Raptors with a short contract of 2 million in two years, which is basically the rhythm of Toronto.

DeRozan and the Suns reached a 4-year contract extension of 1.5 million. After DeRozan arrived in the Suns, he performed well. The Suns also made it to the playoffs, but they did not stabilize in the end. Their goals for the new season are still firm.

It is worth mentioning that the former Pelicans coach Monty Williams they hired in the second half of last season performed well, and they are very confident in the new season.

Siakam soon also reached a four-year 4 million quasi-maximum contract extension with the Mavericks.

It is reported that Siakam's national teammate Embiid played a key role in the contract extension.

The Mavericks' future salary space will explode, but it can be expected that Embiid, Siakam and Harris will be their three cores in the future.

Holiday on the back line was traded last season, and Conley may be cleared out next season at most.

Hayward renewed his contract with the Bucks for 4 million in 1.3 years, and the Bucks continued to maintain the core lineup.

……

Just when the only few big names in the free market were signing one after another, the Pelicans also made progress.

Holiday took the lead in reaching a four-year 4 million contract extension with the team.

Holiday's first sentence after reaching an agreement: This does not require much consideration for me, this is my home.

As he said, Holiday is finally back home after a stint in Dallas.

The Pelicans also give him enough respect, and a long-term contract allows him to spend the rest of his life with the team.

After Holiday, Rose also agreed to return to New Orleans and reached a three-year 3 million contract with the Pelicans.

Considering his age, this is likely to be the last big contract of his career, and it may end up in New Orleans.

In terms of inside, Adams fully embodies the point that things are rare.

Originally, his market price was less than 2000 million, but in the end he reached a two-year 2 million contract with the Clippers.

Obviously, Doncic's growth has exceeded expectations, and the Clippers management does not want to wait any longer.

Adams failed to sign, and the Pelicans finally won Tristan Thompson, and the two sides reached a three-year 3 million contract.

Thompson faced a buyout last year, and he was able to get another tens of millions of contracts. To a certain extent, he has to thank this year's free market.

Gasol announced his retirement, and Gasol Jr. followed in his brother's footsteps and joined the Spurs for 3 million in three years.

Next season's Spurs will become more and more terrifying.

In the process of minor repairs, Demps also successfully won Iguodala with a one-year veteran's basic salary.

In addition to Iguodala, former Warriors veteran McCaw and shooting center Ryan were also recruited by the Pelicans.

As the free market signings continue, the dust of each team's lineup has settled, and the Pelicans' lineup for the new season has basically been set.

Point guards: Alexander, Rose, Patrick McCaw

Shooting Guard: Holiday, Ding Yanyuhang, Kelden Johnson

Small forwards: Durant, Ariza, Iguodala

Power forward: Davis, Kuzma, Henry (2020th pick in 26)

Centers: Tristan Thompson, Mitchell Robinson, Alex Len

The first thousand and 410 chapters set foot on the Tokyo Olympic journey

With a roster of 15 people, Du Dai's core, plus the third leader Holiday, and a group of good-quality role players, the Pelicans maintained their championship strength.

As for whether the championship will be successful in the end, it depends on the performance and luck of next season.

Tang Tian is not a player, just like last season, that is out of his control.

After solving the team's roster, his focus also shifted from the Pelicans to the national team.

Getting back into shape and looking for game form is what he has been doing.

There is only less than one month left before the start of the Olympic Games. The national team training camps of various countries have already started, and the warm-up matches have also started.

For the Chinese men's basketball team, Zhou Qi, Yi Jianlian, Ding Yanyuhang and Abdu, who have ended their seasons one after another, have all returned to China.

Tang Tian followed closely and prepared to return home.

Just when he was about to leave, he received a call from Lin Yi.

He is ready to give up this year's summer league and return home with him.

Lin Yi, like Tang Tian, ​​is not a player in the system, and whether he wants to play for the national team is entirely up to his personal will.

Especially since this is the first year of his career, summer league is more important.

"It doesn't matter if you fight or not."

But what Lin Yi said when he saw Tang Tian made him laugh.

He almost forgot that Lin Yi was cheating just like him. Although he had just started, it really didn't matter whether he played or not in the summer league.

When they arrived at the national team, the national team was playing a warm-up match against Lithuania.

According to the rules, there are a total of 12 teams in the Olympic Games, namely the host Japanese team, the seven teams with the best results in the seven continents produced by the World Cup, and the 4 teams that were previously screened out through the Olympic Games.

The best teams from the seven continents were determined a year ago, namely Spain and France in Europe, China in Asia, Australia in Australia, the United States in North America, Argentina in South America and Cameroon in Africa.

After that, the four teams produced by the Olympic Games were Serbia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Greece.

It is worth mentioning that after the Canadian team lost the World Cup, most NBA players did not participate in the losing game.

This also makes the four teams that advance to the losing round all come from Europe.

Counting Spain and France before, there are a total of 6 European teams in this Olympic Games, reaching half of the participating teams.

This result is also in line with the purpose of the fiba reform, not to involve all continents as in the past, but to select the 12 strongest teams.

On this basis, this year's Olympic competition system has also undergone very big changes from previous years.

Take the Rio Olympics as an example. The 12 teams are divided into two groups, and the top four of the two groups will play in the quarter-finals in the way of A1 playing B4.

But this year, the 12 teams will be divided into 3 groups, the top two of each group will advance to the quarterfinals, and the remaining two places will be No. 3 in the two groups with the best results.

This competition system is a bit similar to the [-]-meter preliminaries. It can avoid teams that fail to advance to the quarter-finals because they are assigned to the death group, and better guarantee fairness.

And after entering the quarter-finals, they will no longer be matched according to the group rankings as before, but will be drawn by lottery.

3支小组No.1和上一阶段成绩最好的小组No.2（1支球队）将被分在一个半区（D区），另外2支小组No.2的球队和2支小组No.3的球队将被分到另一个半区（E区）。

Then the quarter-finals will be played in the order of D1 vs. E1.

Everything is to ensure the fairness of the game as much as possible.

In addition, according to the rules, the teams in the same group in the group stage will not meet again in the quarter-finals.

Fiba also announced the grouping of the 12 teams in the group stage.

Group A: China, Spain, Australia, France

Group B: USA, Cameroon, Serbia, Lithuania

Group C: Japan, Argentina, Slovenia, Greece

The grouping method is also determined by drawing lots like the previous World Cup. Except China, the United States and Japan are the seeded teams, the other three teams in Group C are obviously weaker than other groups.

Such a result is intriguing, but it's not too surprising, it's more of a routine for Olympic hosts.

However, the Chinese team is obviously being targeted. The remaining two teams in the World Cup semi-finals are there, and the French team is also a team that will go straight to the Olympics.

In the past, when the men's basketball team was not on the rise, they always called their groupings a group of death. This time in Tokyo, it is a serious group of death.

Of course, the host Japan grouped the Chinese team in this way to "respect" the Chinese team. After all, the Chinese team is now the double champion of the Olympic Games and the World Cup.

Without the four major NBA players, the Chinese team did not beat Lithuania.

Although the Chinese men's basketball team has been very popular in recent years, it will take time to get from the bottom of the pyramid to the top. Now these players still rely more on the four major NBA players.

The fans also know this and don't care much about the result of the game.