This news was truly shocking!

The league's best small forward joined forces with the league's second-best small forward!

Fans had only jokingly envisioned this LeBron-Durant pairing after last year's All-Star Game, and now it was really happening!

Unbelievable!

Social media completely crashed that day.

This was definitely the most incredible free agent signing in the NBA in the last two decades!

Of course, what caused social media to crash wasn't just the signing itself, but also how sudden it was.

Warriors fans contributed greatly to the social media meltdown.

Everyone knew that various sources had reported Durant would stay with the Warriors!

After being down for nearly two hours, social media finally returned to normal, and the content was more exciting than ever.

"Traitor Durant, trash Durant, stupid Durant, disgusting Durant, *cao ni ma*, get lost!"

"Durant is a big idiot, an idiot wherever he goes! *Cao*! The most disgusting player!"

"Durant, you big dummy, show yourself on your alt account, and see if I don't roast you to death! How can you do this to the Warriors? *Cao*!"

…

Clearly, these were Warriors fans at the peak of their anger.

"Support Durant, let's rule the league with my King!"

"I just want to shout to the world, Lakers are the champions!"

"So who's next? Paul and Harden? Destroyed! George and Leonard? Destroyed! Tang Tian and Davis? Destroyed! Lakers are the champions!"

"Hey! Everybody get hyped! So what if we're bad, we messed up! So what if the Lakers are the champions, so what if Los Angeles is the champions!"

…

These were ecstatic Lakers fans.

"This is the first time I've praised Durant, his sneaky move is kind of cool. Didn't the Warriors treat him like a Warrior? He's going to screw them over with this move!"

"Truly sneaky and skillful, now there's no one left on the free market, the Warriors have really been screwed over!"

"The Warriors treated Durant like a child, giving him a beating and then a piece of candy, thinking that would solve the problem, but it turns out Durant isn't stupid after all!"

"The Pelicans have also been screwed over, Walker and Butler have both left. Tang and Davis have at best a fifty-fifty chance against LeBron and Durant, and the Lakers will definitely make more moves!"

"Durant has fooled the whole league! But he's really been able to endure this time!"

"No choice, he's been crushed by Tang too many times, he has to endure, and LeBron has gone through the same thing, they sympathize with each other!"

"This is really awesome, the suspense for the championship in the new season is really big!"

…

Besides these, there were also many fans gloating.

Of course, there were also many fans hoping the league could intervene in Durant joining the Lakers.

But just like the Pelicans' hard-training quartet last year, because it was a free agent signing, and didn't violate any rules, Tatum couldn't intervene.

The Lakers' strongest duo in the league was now unstoppable.

And, as some fans mentioned on social media, the Lakers had more moves to make.

But what was different from the fans' expectations was that it wasn't Ben Simmons who was put on the market, but Lonzo Ball.

It seemed that in the eyes of the Lakers' management, Simmons was more worthy of developing than Ball, and they also believed that James and Simmons could be compatible.

There was even an unspoken point, that Simmons was known as the second coming of James, and could grow up by James's side.

When James got older, he could officially take over the baton.

Ball was last year's second overall pick, and although his performance in his rookie season wasn't very dazzling, his talent was there.

Although he wasn't as attractive as Simmons, the trade market was still sizable.

And shortly after being put on the market, the Lakers' targets gradually became clear.

Beal of the Wizards, McCollum of the Trail Blazers, Devin Booker of the Bulls, Oladipo of the Thunder, and Middleton of the Pacers.

A very obvious message was that the Lakers still wanted to form a Big Three.

Although James and Durant could both sign supermax contracts, Durant's 1+1 contract gave them the space to do so.

And the targets they chose were also young All-Stars or near All-Star players, so the salary pressure in the future would be smaller.

Where there's a will, there's a way. The Lakers are really good at reading the fine print.

But the difficulty for them was that these were mostly talented players that knowledgeable people could see, and other teams wouldn't give them up just because they wanted them.

And that was indeed the case.

The Wizards quickly announced that Beal was not for sale.

The Trail Blazers also issued a statement, saying that they would not trade McCollum under any circumstances.

The Bulls also said that Booker and LaVine were the team's future, and they would not trade away either of them.

The only ones who didn't say anything, and who could make a trade feasible for the Lakers, were Oladipo of the Thunder and Middleton of the Pacers.

Oladipo had just signed a contract last year, 4 years for 84 million, with a full 3 years left, and an annual salary of 21 million, which would be a bargain this year.

However, the Lakers would need a third-party team to join in order to complete this trade, after all, the Thunder already had Westbrook, and wouldn't want Ball.

Middleton performed valiantly for the Pacers last season, but his cheap contract only had one year left, which was the Lakers' Plan Z.

The free market continued, and the remaining talented players completed their signings one after another.

Rose signed a 2-year, 20 million contract with the Timberwolves.

After completing the signing, Rose thanked the Pelicans at the first opportunity, saying that his year in New Orleans had really helped him a lot.

Gay signed a 1-year, 15 million contract with the Warriors.

The Warriors were screwed over by Durant, and the biggest name player they could sign on the free agent market now was Gay.

Ariza signed a 1-year, 15 million contract with the Suns.

The Suns now had Dennis Smith and Jaylen Brown on the perimeter, and Porzingis and Ayton in the paint, and signing Ariza would complete their starting lineup.

Ariza had the strength and experience, and the Suns would also want a piece of the pie in the hellish Western Conference in the new season.

Redick joined the Bucks on a 1-year, 10 million deal.

The Bucks had a big problem with outside shooting last season, and signing Redick made up for this.

They were really the only dominant team in the East in the new season.

The Pelicans signed Jeff Green to a 1-year, 5 million deal.

Green was one of the most inspirational players in the NBA, but he had a strange phenomenon after his return.

Apart from a 15 million contract he signed with the Magic two years ago, he had mostly been signing minimum salary contracts.

This year, he had once again encountered a cold market in free agency.

Being able to defend, shoot threes, and attack with the ball, Green still had the ability to play rotation minutes in the NBA.

After the Pelicans signed Green, his friend, Dwyane Wade, who was still a free agent, also praised the Pelicans on social media.

In his opinion, the Pelicans' signing was like Rose's last year, in addition to the signing, there was also respect.

However, the competition for the Pelicans' backup forward spots would be quite fierce.

In addition to Siakam being solid, Crowder, Kuzma, and Green would be competing for a rotation spot.

Just as fans were still discussing this, Lakers fans received another good news.

Wade, who had just praised the Green signing, also announced that he had signed a minimum salary contract with the Lakers.

Wade went from Miami to Cleveland, and then from Cleveland to Los Angeles, his love for James was true.

Wade was still sharp as ever, and the Lakers' chances of winning the championship had increased by one point!