NBA: Two hands can’t carry championship rings

Regarding Yue Yi's contract renewal, Warriors General Manager Jack and agent Yue Xiafei had a preliminary communication.

Jack offered a six-year contract with a total value of 50 million.

Limited by the salary cap and Arenas clause, this is the maximum amount that the Warriors can offer Yue Yi.

The salary cap for the 2008-09 season is 58.68 million US dollars. Although it is more than 3 million more than last season, the salary space within the Warriors is not optimistic.

The NBA's contract years have been revised several times. The current maximum contract period in the league is seven years instead of five years after the salary cap increased.

Yue Yi has not yet reached the conditions for signing a seven-year contract. The maximum term of the new contract is six years. Jack immediately offered a long-term contract with an annual salary of nearly 10 million, and used all the remaining salary space of the team on Yue Yi. This operation was considered sincere by others.

However, Yue Xiafei was instructed by Yue Yi to not accept any long-term contract.

The salary space of the Warriors is the Warriors' own business, but the Arenas clause has actually suppressed the upper limit of the amount that Yue Yi can currently get.

In 2001, the Warriors used the second pick in the second round to select Arenas. As a second-round pick, Arenas signed a two-year contract with the Warriors. In his rookie season, Arenas played 47 games, averaging 10.9 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game, which was a remarkable performance.

In his sophomore year, Arenas played all 82 games, averaging 18.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game. He can score, organize and is talented. He is only 21 years old, an absolute superstar seedling.

So all the major teams in the league have extended olive branches to him. At that time, the Wizards offered him a 5-year, $51.22 million contract.

The Warriors certainly wanted to match it, but due to the lack of bird rights and insufficient salary space, they could only watch the Wizards poach Arenas.

The excellent young people they have trained themselves are not eligible for contract renewal, which will obviously hit the team's training of young people, and the draft system will also have problems.

Therefore, the NBA introduced the Arenas clause, which stipulates that the starting salary of a new player who has played in the league for 1-2 years cannot be higher than the middle class of the year. It can be increased by 8% in the second year and significantly increased in the third year.

In this way, the parent team can more easily renew the contract of outstanding young people.

The Arenas clause is aimed at rookies who only sign 1-2 year contracts to prevent them from leaving after they become famous.

Because of the Warriors and Arenas as examples, NBA teams usually choose to offer 3-4 year contracts when signing rookies, and add team options to the contracts in the third and fourth years. In this way, they can have bird rights and take the initiative, and there will be no problems.

But the Warriors have problems again this time.

Other first-round picks are still struggling for playing time. Who would have thought that a product that no one wanted would become a treasure after playing for a year?

Fortunately, the Warriors suffered losses in the past, so they don’t have to suffer too much this time.

With the Arenas clause, Yue Yi can’t sign as he wants even if he doesn’t have a contract.

When signing last year, Yue Xiafei suggested that Yue Yi accept the two-year, $2 million contract offered by the Warriors and put the money in his pocket.

But Yue Yi turned around and became worth tens of millions that season.

This time Yue Xiafei no longer gave any advice. His vision was only at the fan level, not professional at all. He just treated it as a show of face and errands for his nephew, so it was better to stop nagging.

Jack showed Yue Xiafei the detailed salaries of the Warriors players.

The team's highest salary next season is Kidd's 18.54 million.

Kidd undoubtedly got a maximum salary contract. Due to the advantage of his playing age, Kidd's maximum salary is higher than the average maximum salary in terms of amount.

Generally speaking, players who have played in the league for no more than 6 years can only get a starting salary of 25% of the salary cap when signing a new contract.

Players who have played between 7 and 9 years can get a starting salary of 30% of the salary cap.

Players who have played for 10 years can get a starting salary of 35% of the salary cap when signing.

When Kidd signed this maximum salary, he had been in the league for more than ten years, and next season will be his 14th season.

There are still two years left on his big contract.

Of course, Kidd's performance is worthy of the big contract he got.

It's just that in the next two years of the big contract, Kidd will get older year by year. It is unknown whether he can maintain his condition. After all, he is about to turn 35 years old.

The second highest salary in the team is Biedrins's 10.11 million.

Biedrins is still very young. Due to his excellent performance in the black eight last year, the former Warriors management offered him a 6-year 62 million.

If it were Jack this year, he would definitely not give Biedrins this big contract again, at least not so much.

This season, with the departure of Davis and Ellis, the team gave him the core position in the heart. When the number of shots has obviously increased, the data increase is not obvious. When the team needs him to stand up, he can't lead the team to open up the situation.

Biedrins is a qualified starter, but he can't be a core. For the Warriors, this contract is a bit overpriced and the signing period is a bit long.

This will greatly affect the team's future operational space.

Captain Jackson and Harrington both have middle-class contracts, with annual salaries of around 5-6 million. This price is still worth it.

The captain can defend and attack, has no dead angle in the shooting area, has a sense of oppression on the defensive end, can fight hard battles, and is willing to do dirty and tiring work for the team.

Harrington has a three-point shot, which is very important for the team's run-and-gun tactics, and at the same time, he is not weak on the defensive end. The reason why he was abused in the playoffs and seemed to be inadequate in ability was because he was facing the All-Star West, and Harrington was not a pure No. 4 power forward. Before he came to the Warriors, he played more as a small forward.

Letting him face West was a bit difficult for his ability. It was normal that he couldn't defend. If he did, Harrington would not be priced at 6 million.

Jason, who was traded from the Bucks, his contract was a bad contract, although his annual salary was only 3.5 million.

At the beginning, Ellis was traded for him mainly for the two draft picks given by the Bucks. Jason was actually just a bonus. The Bucks also took the draft pick to get rid of this bad contract.

Jason's performance is not even qualified as a substitute, and this contract is what Jack will deal with next. The remaining salary space of the team was divided up by the substitute players, and a team has 12 people. If the Warriors give Yue Yi an annual salary above the middle class, it will exceed the salary cap and will soon trigger the luxury tax.

In terms of sincerity in renewing Yue Yi's contract, the Warriors management still gave enough.

But Yue Yi knows that he will not be worth only a few million in the next few years, and it is impossible to lock himself up with a six-year contract.

The Arenas clause is aimed at newcomers who have been in the league for 1-2 years, but after playing for two years, this clause has no restrictions on himself.

After the second season, as long as he performs well enough, he can sign any contract he wants, and he can't escape the maximum salary.

Yue Xiafei proposed that the contract requirement is to sign a one-year contract for 5 million.

Jack couldn't understand why Yue Yi only signed a one-year short contract. He was so confident in himself?

There are many variables on the court. Even the performance of young players may not get better and better. The fans' attention is on the stars. In fact, most players can't play in the NBA for a few years.

The court is full of variables. Which player doesn't want a long contract.

But Yue Xiafei was determined, and then he slowly talked about the invitations from other teams. The management of the Mavericks, Rockets, Suns, Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Hawks, 76ers, etc.

, have contacted Yue Xiafei and wanted to discuss Yue Yi's signing with him.

Yue Yi is now a free agent without any restrictions.

His performance last season is obvious to all, and he is only 20 years old, with unlimited possibilities in the future. As long as the performance in the new season is not worse than now, the Warriors will not be the only team that will offer a maximum salary contract in the future.

Jack asked Yue Xiafei if this was what his uncle, the agent, meant, or what Yue Yi meant himself?

If it was Yue Xiafei's own idea, Jack said he would propose to Yue Yi to fire him as an agent and introduce a professional new agent to Yue Yi.

Yue Xiafei smiled and admitted that he was not a professional agent. He used to sell wine and hoped that Jack, the general manager of the Warriors, could take care of his wine shop business.

Yue Xiafei said that if the Warriors bought in groups, he could give Jack a 20% discount, and Jack could also get kickbacks. Jack was a little speechless. He found that Yue Yi's agent was much more lively when talking about wine than when talking about player contracts.

When talking about contracts, he was like a tool man, without eloquent words, no reasoning analysis, only reporting the price and conditions, and then holding on to them.

When talking about wine, he was in high spirits, and various plans and benefits emerged one after another, which were quite attractive. Jack was a little moved when he heard it.

In the end, Yue Yi's new contract was not finalized, but Jack ordered 100 boxes of red wine from Yue Xiafei.

In fact, Jack had no idea that Yue Yi had already told Yue Xiafei what kind of contract the Warriors would give him and what his bottom line was before finalizing the new contract. Both parties were willing to renew the contract and were very sincere.

Except for the number of years, Yue Yi had a firm demand. The contract amount was almost the same. Yue Xiafei had no room to maneuver except telling Jack that Yue Yi did not want to renew the long-term contract.

Not long after the two finished talking, Yue Yi received a call from the team owner, Arthur Noah, the father of Jack and Penny.

On the other end of the phone, he invited him to dinner at his home.