NBA offseason turmoil: Yin-Yang contract and player contract renewal farce

Just one month before the new season's NBA training camp and preseason, the league is changing with all kinds of heavy news coming. Among them, Leonard's Yin-Yang contract incident caused a lot of controversy, and in parallel were the tortuous stories of many players' contract renewals, especially the Warriors' Kumingga's renewal problem, which made this offseason full of drama.

Leonard's Yin-Yang contract storm is undoubtedly the most popular event in the NBA recently. Leonard reportedly received 48 million compensation from Ballmer's third-party shell company with a premium of 50 million yuan, allowing him to take 290 million yuan from the Clippers in the past six years, even surpassing Curry (284 million), the league's top salary in the same period. Faced with such a situation, Ballmer took the initiative to cut with Leonard, and all signs indicate that Xiao Ka is likely to become the ultimate victim. Just as the Leonard incident continued to ferment, many players in the league still faced the dilemma of no ball to play, and stars such as Westbrook, Ben Simmons, and Brogdon have not yet found their next home.

Under this complex situation, the Nets' contract renewal with Thomas Jr. has also attracted much attention. The Nets officially announced a contract renewal with Thomas Jr., and he finally accepted a one-year, 6 million qualification offer contract. It is reported that the Nets once gave Thomas Jr. two options. In addition to the qualification quotation, there is also a 2-year contract of 30 million, but there is only 9.5 million + 1.5 million bonus in the first year, and the veto power must be waived. Thomas Jr. thought he was worth an average salary of 30 million, and was dissatisfied with this contract, so he finally signed a qualification offer. Last season, he averaged 24 points per game and 22.5 points per game in the 23-24 season. Such performance failed to win the contract he liked, which also highlighted the players' helplessness in contract negotiations.

And the Warriors' contract renewal with Kumingga is in a deadlock. Column reporter Singer confirmed that if the Warriors do not raise their quotations next week, the Kumingga team will close the negotiation window and wait for the 7.9 million qualification quotation to be signed on October 1. The reason why the Warriors did not dare to sign people easily before the renewal of Kumingga was because they were worried that other teams would grab people, especially the Nets. After renewing Thomas Jr., the Nets gave Sharp a 2-year contract of $12.5 million. The team's book lineup is special, with a total salary of only $132 million, which is more than 6 million away from the Poor Ghost Line. If the total salary still fails to meet the standards in mid-October, the Nets will face league fines.

There are two ways to put it in front of the Nets, either eat the garbage contract or go to the free market to grab people. There are only three players in the Nets who have a salary of over 10 million, with more than 23 million space under the hat, which theoretically can clear up to 29 million salary space. According to ESPN, the Nets' targets for grabbing players are likely to be Kumingga and Grimes, who are currently holding qualification quotes of 7.9 million and 8.7 million respectively.

For the Warriors, the situation is very passive. If Kumingga accepts a quotation of 7.9 million qualification, although it can be left, it may feel resentful and affect the atmosphere of the team's locker room; if Kumingga is quoted at an average salary of about 23 million and a 3-year price of about 70 million, the Warriors will not be able to match. The Warriors' total book salary on the 10-person roster has reached US$171 million. If the quotation is matched, subsequent operations will be restricted. The first tyrant line will face penalties such as shrinking the middle class's special case, not being able to sign first and then exchange, and being frozen for special case of transactions. If the second tyrant line exceeds the second tyrant line, the middle class's special case will be invalid and cannot be packaged for transactions. All these difficulties stem from the failed offseason operation of the Warriors management. They easily gave Butler a 2-year $110 million contract, as well as their overconfidence in the renewal of Kumingga, and gave an insulting offer to lead the team option and give up the veto.

NBA offseason farce reflects the complexity and cruelty of the league's business operations. In the next week, the Warriors' hopes may be shattered. Kumingga's contract renewal direction not only concerns the Warriors' lineup and prospects of the new season, but also becomes the focus of hot discussion among fans. The entire league is also waiting for the war in the new season to ignite in such a turbulent situation.