NBA: James wants to team up with me

Once the rumor was released, it immediately attracted widespread attention from the entire league.

Because after the shock, everyone realized that this possibility was not impossible.

After all, the Los Angeles Lakers are the strongest team in the league. The natural geographical advantage and the fact that the team owner never skimps on spending have allowed the Lakers to maintain extremely strong competitiveness over the past few decades, with superstars emerging in large numbers.

Wang Chong wants to join a big city, and his family is currently in Los Angeles, so joining the Lakers is obviously the best choice.

As for the Lakers' current poor roster structure, is it something that needs to be considered?

To put it bluntly, even if Wang Chong does not win a championship in his future career, it will not affect his current position as the number one player in the league's history. Wang Chong can already start his retirement mode in advance.

Besides, with the experience of the Bulls and the Cavaliers, is there anyone who still doubts Wang Chong's ability?

Whichever team he joins, that team will win the championship. If he joins the Lakers, why can't the Lakers win the championship?

Besides, Kobe will return from injury next season. Although Kobe will be 37 years old by next season and will be suffering from serious injuries after recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon, his level will definitely decline significantly, but that is Kobe after all. In the eyes of Kobe fans, contributing around 20 points per game should not be a problem.

Of course, this is just wishful thinking on the part of Kobe fans.

After Kobe recovered from his injury, his strength has declined significantly.

The original 15-16 season was the last season of Kobe's career. The Lakers organized a massive retirement tour for Kobe this season. However, Kobe averaged only 66 points per game in 17.6 games. This score was piled up by the number of shots, but the cost was a 35.8% shooting percentage and the worst record in the Lakers' history of 17 wins and 65 losses.

But of course no one knew this at the time, as many were still looking forward to Kobe's return from injury and his triumphant comeback.

Once Wang Chong and Kobe team up again, the Lakers will once again become the biggest favorite to win the championship.

And this matter was confirmed just a few days later.

On July 7, the first day of the free market, the Lakers began selling players in large numbers, even their star player Chris Bosh was put on the shelf.

Although he will be 31 years old next season, Bosh is still an All-Star level power forward. In the just-concluded season, he averaged 21 points and 8 rebounds per game for the Lakers. His trading value is still very good. Many teams are interested in him and have made offers to the Lakers.

The Lakers' extremely abnormal behavior was naturally linked to previous news.

Wang Chong may really be going to the Lakers, so the Lakers will send players away at all costs in order to free up salary space. After all, if Wang Chong wants to join the Lakers, his starting salary will be at least 2500 million US dollars.

The Lakers currently have Kobe and Bosh both earning over 2000 million, so the salary space is a bit stretched.

But even so, no one expected that the Lakers would be so determined to get Wang Chong.

On July 7, just three days after the free market opened, the Lakers successfully sent Chris Bosh away.

The team that reached a deal with the Lakers was the Golden State Warriors.

The details of this transaction are that the Los Angeles Lakers sent Chris Bosh, the recently selected third pick D'Angelo Russell and next year's first-round pick to the Warriors in exchange for Klay Thompson.

This is actually a three-for-one deal!

If Bosh and Thompson were swapped, the Warriors might suffer a little. Although Bosh is an All-Star power forward averaging 21+8 per game, Thompson has already made his mark on the Warriors, especially without Curry. This season, Thompson averaged 24 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists per game in the regular season, making him an absolute core player.

Considering the age difference between Bosh and Thompson, Thompson is definitely more valuable.

But when Russell is also included in the deal, it is completely different.

As a top three draft pick, Russell's potential is widely regarded, and he is definitely a player expected to become an All-Star or even a superstar in the future.

In a two-for-one trade, the scales have already tilted towards the Lakers, and when the deal also includes the Lakers' first-round pick next year, if the Warriors hesitate even for a moment on this deal, it would be considered incompetence on the part of the management.

Lakers fans have complaints about the team's nearly half-sale, half-gift deal, but anyone with a discerning eye can see that the Lakers are clearing salary space.

Bosh's salary is 2200 million, Thompson's rookie contract ends this summer, and the deal with the Lakers was a sign-and-trade deal. Even with the maximum salary of the new contract, the starting salary is only 1550 million.

Combined with Russell's rookie contract with a starting salary of $500 million, this deal alone frees up $1150 million in salary cap space for the Lakers.

This is also thanks to the Warriors' ample salary space, which allows them to match the deal even if there is a huge salary gap.

This deal was of course Wang Chong's suggestion, but when he proposed the deal, even Wang Chong himself felt a little reluctant.

He was really ruthless in fleecing the Warriors.

They poached Curry and Draymond Green before, and now they want to take Thompson away. Especially when they knew that Bosh only had one season left in his career, they still sent him to the Warriors as a bargaining chip. This is really a bit inhumane.

However, this deal also includes Russell and a first-round pick, which can be considered a small compensation for Wang Chong.

Signing Thompson is just the first step of the Lakers' offseason moves.

The Lakers then signed free agent Draymond Green for three years and $3 million.

After three years of an obscure career with the Bulls, Green finally became a free agent, but was also directly abandoned by the Bulls.

Although Green was the player selected by Wang Chong, the Bulls team could not see any excellence in him. He was completely useless except for defense.

Originally, if no other team made an offer, the Bulls planned to keep him for 3 million for three years to use as a blue-collar bench player.

Faced with the Lakers' offer of 3 million over three years, with an average of 1800 million per year, the Bulls hesitated for a moment before decisively letting the player go.

Even though they know that Green was most likely requested by Wang Chong, he might really perform well in a way that would make the Lakers regret their decision when he arrives.

But for this possibility, it is still unlikely that they will match the three-year, $3 million offer from the Lakers.

After signing Green, the Lakers used their 2018 first-round pick to trade for the signing rights of Nikola Jokic from the Denver Nuggets.

After the Nuggets selected Jokic in last year's draft, they did not sign him on the grounds that he was overweight and too fat. The latter played in the European League for another year and successfully lost weight.

According to the original situation, Jokic would sign a three-year rookie contract with the team and scored 10 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists in his first season, quickly becoming the Nuggets' star. He would win the regular season MVP three times in the future, win a championship for the Nuggets, and become the most successful second-round pick in NBA history.

But the Nuggets obviously didn't know Jokic's value at that time. When the Lakers came and expressed their willingness to trade a first-round pick for Jokic, the management did not hesitate too much and agreed to the deal very simply.

At this point, the players Wang Chong needed were all in place, so on July 7, the Lakers officially announced that they had signed Wang Chong for 7 million for two years. In the new season, Wang Chong will wear the Lakers' purple and gold jersey to compete in the league.

The lineup that Wang Chong built for the Lakers consists of of course him, Thompson and Jokic as the main players.

In terms of combat effectiveness, the Lakers are actually much weaker than the Cavaliers.

Jokic needs time to grow, at least two to three years to become a truly effective combat force.

Green's situation is rather special. After wasting several seasons with the Bulls, Wang Chong is not sure whether he can show enough fighting power as soon as he joins the Lakers.

In addition, the Lakers also have Kobe, who earns 2500 million dollars a year and is basically of negative combat effectiveness on the court.

Taking these aspects into consideration, Wang Chong did not expect to lead the team to win the championship in his first year with the Lakers, so he could give the team a year or two to develop.

Wang Chong is really not in a hurry now.

After completing the system's ultimate mission, his career lifespan was greatly extended, and he estimated that he could not be worse than James.

At the age of 39, James can still average 25+7+8 per game. The length of time he can maintain his competitive state is truly unprecedented in NBA history.

Although the price of these data is that James almost gave up on defense, and was criticized for not returning to defense and his eye defense.

But the undeniable fact is that other players who reach James' age and do not play defense will not be able to achieve the same statistics as James even if they just try hard.

James' career has many black spots, and many of his behaviors are simply not acceptable to Wang Chong, but his ability to strictly discipline himself and manage his body is really impeccable.

Before this, who could have imagined that a player who was almost 40 years old could still run all over the court and run faster than everyone else during fast breaks? Who could have imagined that an old man who was almost 40 years old could still dunk on the court?

Even if Wang Chong uses James as a reference, at the age of 31, he still has at least 5 to 8 years of peak period. If he plays until he is 40, he still has 9 full seasons.

Even if he just does a casual job in these nine seasons, it would not be difficult for him to win more than 9 championships before retiring and surpass Bill Russell to become the player with the most championships in NBA history.

So Wang Chong doesn't need to worry at all.

Moreover, with the chips currently available to the Lakers, it is already very difficult to piece together the current lineup. You can't expect the Lakers management to use these scraps to exchange for a helper of the level of Anthony Davis from the Pelicans to assist Wang Chong in winning the championship, right?

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The news of Wang Chong joining the Lakers was already known to everyone because of the paparazzi's reports.

But when the Lakers released the announcement, the entire league was still shocked.

Wang Chong's return to the Lakers will undoubtedly pull the Lakers, which have been sinking for two years, out of the quagmire and make them the biggest favorite to win the league's championship again!

Wang Chong's partnership with Kobe has made many Lakers fans exclaim that their youth is back.

Let’s go back in time to the summer of 2003. As a freshman, Wang Chong was traded to the team by the Lakers. He teamed up with the OK combination to win the 03-04 NBA championship and won the first championship of his career.

From that time on, Wang Chong's magnificent career officially began.

In the blink of an eye, 12 years have passed.

Today, Wang Chong has won eight championships and has become the undisputed strongest player in NBA history.

"Welcome home!"

This was the slogan most shouted by Los Angeles Lakers fans after learning that Wang Chong returned to the Lakers.

In the summer of 05, Wang Chong chose to leave the team and was traded to the Bulls by the Lakers. This year happens to be 2015, and it has been exactly ten years since Wang Chong left the Lakers.

When other teams learned that Wang Chong joined the Lakers, they were first extremely disappointed and regretted that they missed the opportunity to sign Wang Chong, but then they were also relieved.

Because the Lakers' current lineup doesn't look like they can win the championship. With such a bad lineup, they finally have a chance to compete for the championship... Why does this sound familiar? It seems that everyone said the same thing when Wang Chong just joined the Cavaliers?

No, although the Cavaliers were not favored at that time, the team had Irving who had already played well. What do the Lakers have now? An old Kobe who is destined to be a burden, a Thompson who can only shoot and has mediocre skills. The team currently has no strong inside players. How can they compete for the championship?

For several days in a row, the front-page headlines were all about various reports about Wang Chong joining the Lakers, which shows Wang Chong's influence and popularity.

However, Wang Chong is not the only big name in the free market this summer.

In addition to him, the contracts of several superstars are expiring.

Among them, James of the Heat is naturally the first to bear the brunt.

Like Wang Chong, James also signed a 1+1 contract with the Heat last year. Then after the free market opened, James chose to opt out of the contract as soon as possible.

He no longer has any plans to stay with the Heat, as he sees no hope of winning a championship here.

In fact, James has already picked out a next home that he thinks is perfect, and after discussion, the other party is also very interested.

On July 7, five days after Wang Chong announced his official joining of the Lakers, James made his decision 12. He wanted to bring his talents to the Windy City and join the Chicago Bulls!

Once this news was announced, the sensation it caused was even bigger than Wang Chong joining the Lakers!

The Bulls themselves are a super team whose record was second only to the Cavaliers last season. They are also the only team that has won two games against the Cavaliers in the playoffs. They are recognized as a top team whose strength is second only to the Cavaliers with Wang Chong.

Now they have the added James, which is like adding wings to a tiger. The partnership of James and Curry will undoubtedly become the biggest favorite to win the championship in the new season!

But what will Butler do if James joins the Bulls?

The summer of 2015 was Butler's contract year. Butler, who averaged 20+ points per game this season, was already a rising star. It would be a pity to give up on him.

But there is no way. The Bulls have limited salary space. They already have two top-paid players, Curry and Gasol Jr., and the team can only keep one of James and Butler.

The Bulls are not the Warriors who signed Durant in 2016, and Curry did not sign a four-year, $4 million child labor contract with the team due to injuries. There is no possibility for them to emulate the other side and form a five-star Bulls.

So after going around in circles, Butler was actually abandoned by the Bulls. Although the time periods were slightly different, Butler was originally traded away by the Bulls in 17, and now he left two years earlier.