The invincible kryptonite of basketball

Tang Tian's next words made the reporters couldn't help stretching out their hands to applaud. After Tang Tian's status in the alliance has risen, he is really a bit tough!

After the press conference was over, Tang Tian and Davis whistled and walked to the locker room. After winning the championship, it was a bit refreshing to have such a public diss.

They returned to the locker room, also threw Xiao Hua and the league aside, and had a carnival after winning the championship with other teammates of the team.

The first championship in team history requires a grand celebration.

They celebrated in the locker room, dousing Stevens with champagne.

Stevens laughed very happily this time. The outside world felt that he was able to catch up with Popovich as a young coach, but he was also under great pressure.

Now that the pressure is released, he also releases himself and celebrates with the players.

The celebration in the locker room was just a small fight. After the end, the Pelicans, including the coaching staff, went to the largest local bar together.

The bar has been taken over by Tang Tian, ​​and all the consumption tonight will be paid by him.

The players in the bar released themselves to their heart's content, Bo Yang hugged left and right, and led his teammates to teach on the base.

It was their best day of the season.

On the second day after the carnival ended, Tang Tian had a long sleep in the manor.

When he woke up, a guest came to the manor, the team's general manager Dempsey.

He came to discuss with Tang Tian about the championship parade.

When the team was 3 to 1, Demps had already prepared several parade plans with the people below.

It's just that after the Cavaliers equalized the big score, those plans were shelved.

Now that the Pelicans have successfully won the championship, it is taken out again.

New Orleans is a port city, and a boat parade is one of Dempsey's plans.

Tang Tian also liked this plan.

When they were in San Antonio, the Spurs did it, but San Antonio is a small river, and the river is only a dozen meters long.

But the Mississippi River is a major tributary, not at the same level as the San Antonio River.

The two discussed for a while and quickly perfected the plan.

Tang Tian will take out the Mars plan. At that time, the team will take a boat down the left bank of the Mississippi River, then upstream along the right bank, until it anchors at the port outside the arena, and finally will give a championship speech outside the New Orleans arena. .

This set of plans includes boat rides, street parades and ports, which are very local in New Orleans.

After confirming the parade plan, Dempsey and Tang Tian chatted about planning for next season.

After winning the championship, the role of the Pelicans has also changed. They have changed from a championship team to a defending champion.

The so-called defending champions, their goal is the same as its literal meaning, to defend the championship.

There are many NBA championship teams, but not many can complete the defense. The last team was the Spurs when Tang Tian played.

Changes in the lineup itself, such as the Mavericks in 2011 and the Heat in 2014, after winning the championship, the lineup changed a lot and failed to defend the title.

There is also a decline in their own strength. For example, in 2013, the Spurs let Tang Tian go. The lineup did not change much, but they still lost to the Heat and failed to defend their title.

Of course, there are also the rise of opponents. For example, this year's Warriors were abruptly defeated by the Pelicans and failed to defend their title.

There are other issues such as injuries, mental inflation leading to poor performance, locker room problems and so on.

All in all, because the NBA regular season spans nearly a year and there are many factors in it, defending the title is not an easy task.

Fortunately, as Tang Tian said in his speech after winning the championship, the Pelicans finally won the championship after three years of hard work, and it avoided many problems.

The Pelicans are a team dominated by young players. There is no such thing as a decline in strength, and the core has won the championship for three years, and there is no psychological inflation. In addition, the atmosphere in the team is harmonious and the core is getting stronger every year. The probability is actually very high.

So it is completely opposite to the situation after the Mavericks won the championship in 2011. What the Pelicans have to do this offseason is to try their best to keep the winning lineup, and then make minor repairs.

Dempsey handed Tang Tian the list of team contracts.

At the end of this season, the team's contract situation.

唐天：2013年夏签的4年4400w合同，2017年夏天到期，下个赛季薪水1486万；

Davis: The 2012 rookie contract expires this summer;

Jokic: The rookie contract in 2014 expires in the summer of 2018, with a salary of 119 million next season;

Holiday, the four-year 2013 million contract signed in the summer of 4, expires in the summer of 4100, and the salary next season is 2017 million;

Ariza, signed in the summer of 2014 for 4 million in four years, expires in the summer of 4000, with a salary of 2018 million next season;

Bo Yang, signed with the Nets in 2014 for 3 million for 1011 years, expires in the summer of 2017, with a salary of 373 million next season;

Dinwiddie: The second-round rookie contract in 2014, 3 million in 310 years, expires in the summer of 2017, and the salary next season is 110 million;

Stephenson: The three-year 2014 million contract signed with the Hornets in 3, and the salary of 2750 million next season, is just a team option;

Aminu: The 2014-year 2 million signed in the summer of 600 will expire this summer;

McGee: The one-year minimum salary contract signed last year expires this summer;

比永博；2015年夏签的2年600万，2017年夏天到期，下赛季薪水300万；

Harrell: The 2015 rookie contract expires in the summer of 2019, with a salary of 109 million next season;

Joe Harris: Signed with the Cavaliers in 2014 for 3 years and 233 million US dollars, expires in the summer of 2017, 81 next season, but the team option;

Ci Shiping: The one-year salary contract signed last year expires this summer;

Bryn Forbes: Undrafted in 2015, signed a 3-year non-guaranteed contract, which expires in the summer of 2018, with a salary of 53 next season;

"Mehta has already communicated with me that he will choose to retire in the summer."

Dempsey said.

Tang Tian nodded, Ci Shiping had expressed this idea more than once in the locker room before, this was expected.

Now that the team has Bo Yang in the locker room, it can be regarded as a new locker room leader.

After reading the list, if Stephenson's contract option is not implemented, the salary of the Pelicans' contract next season will only be 4781 million.

Even with the basically determined Davis maximum salary contract (starting salary of 2200 million), it is only 6981 million.

This is too far from the 2016-2017 season salary cap (9414.3 million) and luxury tax (1.132 million) announced by the league not long ago.

There is still a distance even from the poor line of $8472 million.

The salary structure of the Pelicans is really too healthy, a healthy level that makes other teams red-eyed.

But they also have a problem, they have too many players in contract years.

Tang Tian, ​​Holiday, Bo Yang, Dinwiddie, these are the core rotation players of the team.

The NBA is a business league, and the ultimate goal of most players playing is to earn a big contract, especially after winning the championship.

The body has been gilded, and the player will definitely perform in the contract year to strive for the next big contract.

Especially for young players like Bojan and Dinwiddie who have never won a contract of more than [-] million yuan.

This will be a huge ticking time bomb.

Historically, the Celtics in the 2018-2019 season, because many people were in contract years, caused the team's performance to be far below expectations.

To solve this problem, what the Pelicans have to do is to renew the contract in advance.

"We want to renew your contract early."

Dempsey was planning the future of the Pelicans with Tang Tian. Of course, as the general manager, the most important thing he had to deal with was Tang Tian.

Chapter 854 The Pelican's Championship Parade!

Tang Tian nodded.

As the core of the team, he must stand up and set an example.

And he's already bought real estate in New Orleans, plus a team on the right track and his growing influence in New Orleans.

He has no reason to leave New Orleans.

"I'm going to sign a three-year deal with a player option in the final year."

For his own contract, Tang Tian didn't need Feigen, he already had his own plan.

As a time traveler, he knows that if history does not change, the league will introduce veteran designation terms in October this year.

This clause is for players who have not changed teams (or are traded in rookie contracts). After playing for 7 years, they can sign a contract extension with a starting salary of 35% of the salary cap.

Because according to the existing labor agreement, only veterans who have played for more than 10 years are eligible to sign a contract with a starting salary of 35%.

So this move can be regarded as greatly increasing the income of superstars, especially young superstars.

It's just that the league introduced this policy to prevent stars from clumping together. Those who have changed teams are not covered by this clause, so Tang Tian can't enjoy it.

In this case, what he can sign is the ordinary maximum salary.

但即便是普通的顶薪，年薪也和年薪有关，0~6年的顶薪上限是工资帽的25%，7~9年就是30%。

He is in his fifth year after playing this season, and signing a two-year contract can trigger a larger contract.

Dempsey agreed directly.

To put it bluntly, with Tang Tian's current status in the alliance, as long as he is willing to stay, he has the final say on what kind of contract to sign.

Tang Tian's problem was settled, and then came Holiday, Bo Yang, and Dinwiddie.

Especially Holiday, as a low-key high-quality combo guard, as long as the price is not ridiculously high, contract renewal is inevitable.

"Shall we try to chase Russell?"

Demps tried to ask, Westbrook has player options this season, and if he jumps out, the Pelicans can definitely chase them.

With Westbrook, Holiday naturally doesn't need it.

Tang Tian shook his head immediately.

Although he has a good private relationship with Westbrook, and Westbrook is also the kind of player with high spiritual attributes.

But both of them play with the ball, and their styles of play conflict.

The Pelicans already have him and Davis, and with Westbrook, that one goal is not enough.

On the contrary, retaining the current lineup, a lineup with the ball and without the ball will be more reasonable, not to mention their mature tacit understanding with each other.

"I understand."

Dempsey probably knew it.

Then his goal for the summer, in addition to renewing Davis and Tang Tian in advance, is to keep the core rotation of Holiday, Bo Yang, and Dinwiddie.

Of course, there is also the draft.

The Pelicans have a first round this year, but they are the 30th pick in the first round.

Tang Tian knew that there were quite a lot of high-quality first-round picks at the end of this year's draft, so he gave Demps some investigation targets, and then told him to trade as many picks as possible at the end of the first round or early in the second round.

The current salary space of the Pelicans is still very healthy, but in the future, if he, Jokic and Davis are the core, with three maximum salaries, supplemented by tens of millions of high-quality role players, a rookie contract is very necessary.

He is a traverser, and if he has the right to speak, the rookie contract is a benefit to his team.

Even if the player's progress is not as expected due to playing time issues, or fails to meet expectations, low-level Taobao is not a loss.

The draft, the free market, player planning, these are all things this summer.

After Dempsey chatted with Tang Tian, ​​he was making plans in advance. After all, according to his past experience, Tang Tian's convenient judgment here has always been the most correct.

Three days after the Pelicans won the championship, the Pelicans' championship parade started as scheduled in New Orleans.

New Orleans is empty, and no one can sit still at home on this historic day.

Just like the moment when the Saints won the championship, it is an incomparable honor for them to witness the championship of the four major leagues after 6 years.

The spirit of this hurricane-battered city was once again inspired like never before.

It's just that this time the fans didn't gather on the street, but by the river embankment along the bank. They waited for the arrival of the Pelicans at a position outside the one-meter cordon of the guardrail.

This is definitely an ingenious game to win the championship, and it can be called an enhanced version of the original San Antonio River game.

Upstream on the Mississippi, Pelicans boarded Project Mars to the cheers of fans.