Chapter 154 Free Market Chaos

Butler, George, Walker, Jokic…none of them had made a move yet, but James was the first to make a decision.

He even skipped the process of meeting with other teams.

The news broke really suddenly.

Those fans who had previously shouted that James would stay in Cleveland for his entire career had their faces slapped a little.

However, because of "Father-in-Law" Johnson's big mouth, most fans were surprised, but not shocked.

But with this, the entire free market situation was completely stirred up.

According to reports from Los Angeles media, George was likely to join the Lakers with James.

George wanted to go to New Orleans before but didn't make it, and Los Angeles was his second choice.

He had been very interested in returning to his hometown to play in the past year, and now was undoubtedly the best opportunity.

However, unlike James, although he was eligible to sign the Tang Tian clause, he could only go through a sign-and-trade with the Cavaliers first, or sign a 1+1 deal with the Lakers first.

George obviously preferred the former.

At the same time, Cleveland media also released news that because of the Tang Tian clause, they would not let George go.

James went to the Lakers, and George became the second big fish linked to the Lakers, but definitely not the only one.

According to follow-up reports from Los Angeles media, Durant, Butler, Walker, and Jokic were all targets pursued by the Lakers.

Because of Jenny Buss's early preparations, the Lakers now had plenty of salary cap space, and they could sign two super giants, as well as Jokic, a quasi-super giant who had just finished his rookie contract.

James' favorite Big Three mode could still thrive with the Lakers.

However, after the Los Angeles media reported, other media quickly responded.

The first to react was the Oakland media.

As with the previous news, the Warriors would still spare no expense to keep Durant.

Fans were looking forward to James and Durant joining forces, but that was impossible.

And unlike last time, this time a reporter got news from Durant's camp that Durant was inclined to stay with the Warriors.

Although he had a very unpleasant time with the Warriors last season, money trumped everything.

Moreover, Oakland media also revealed that the Warriors were trying to persuade Cousins, who was not doing well in the market, to join the team with a mid-level exception.

When the trend of teams forming groups was greatly reduced after the introduction of the Tang Tian clause, the Warriors, relying on Thompson and Green's cheap contracts, went against the grain.

If four stars weren't enough, they'd get five, and they wouldn't stop until they won the championship.

Next was the Dallas media, which reported that Nowitzki was likely to choose to retire directly, so that the team could use the space to keep Jokic.

Jokic's rookie contract had just expired, and his maximum salary starting point only needed 25% of the salary cap, which in other words was only about 26 million.

Moreover, only the Mavericks had Jokic's Bird rights, as well as a 12.5% increase as the parent team.

According to experts, Jokic had a very high probability of staying in Dallas.

But the most attention was still on the Pelicans' Walker and Butler.

It was impossible for the Pelicans to keep both Walker and Butler at the same time. The most they could do was keep one of the two.

From the information revealed so far, both of them were inclined to sign a super maximum salary with the Tang Tian clause, and then sign-and-trade to join other teams.

Walker's market was relatively small, but Butler had become an absolute hot commodity.

Before joining the Pelicans, he was on the All-NBA team and All-Defensive team, and after playing for a year, he was still on the second All-NBA team and All-Defensive team. Everyone wanted such a super giant.

Including the Lakers, who had already released news.

However, according to news from Butler's close friends, Butler only wanted to be the boss of the team if he left the Pelicans, and he was not interested in playing alongside James.

After going around in a circle, it turned out that no one seemed to be going to the Lakers.

But the good news was that the Lakers had two high-quality rookies, Ball and Simmons, and were still very aggressive in the trade market.

Especially Simmons, because he had never been able to develop his shooting, and his style of play was similar to James', being traded was a high probability event.

And a rookie of his level could at least be traded for an All-Star in return.

It was just hard on James. It seemed that no one the Lakers were interested in would come to the Lakers. He could only cut his flesh and use his traffic to post a GIF on Instagram, shouting at the screen: "Who~ is~ coming~ to~ the~ Lakers~!"

On the third day after the free market opened, Tang Tian returned to New Orleans.

He came back not because of the team, but because after working hard for as long as half a year, Olsen was finally pregnant!

Sure enough, preparing for pregnancy was greatly related to the environment and mood.

It didn't work after working so hard before, but it worked after a few days of vacation.

He had just returned to his manor in New Orleans when Demps followed him in.

Walker and Butler were both leaving, and Demps couldn't keep them. Now he could only sign-and-trade to stop the loss.

It had to be said that after the introduction of the Tang Tian clause, the biggest impact this year was that the number of sign-and-trade deals suddenly increased.

Because the basis of the Tang Tian clause was the designated veteran clause, which only the parent team could sign.

If the parent team was unwilling to cooperate, then if the player wanted to sign this contract, they could only sign a 1+1 transition with the new team, but this was risky for the player.

With the successful pregnancy preparation, Tang Tian also had the mind to manage the team's affairs.

It was only then that he learned that Bojan had been traded.

He immediately had the urge to knock Demps on the head. With Butler gone, Bojan was the first choice for the team's starting small forward.

Although Siakam could also play the three, his three-pointer was unstable and couldn't create space, and he spent most of his time playing the four anyway.

But he didn't say anything, after all, Demps had tried to contact him, but he was focused on preparing for pregnancy and didn't have time to care.

"San Antonio, are they still peddling Green?"

Tang Tian thought for a while and asked.

Demps nodded.

Green was in poor form last season, especially his three-pointer, which was so bad that he was nicknamed "Zhang Tielin" (Iron Zhang).

And more importantly, he was also getting old, and it seemed that he would soon be eliminated by the league.

After all, if he couldn't play well under Popovich, then he was really about to fail.

"Try to trade for him."

Tang Tian instructed Demps.

"Huh? He… is in very bad shape, should we find someone with a more stable three-pointer?"

Demps didn't expect Tang Tian to want Green. Even if they didn't sign-and-trade, signing Ariza back in free agency would be better than Green!

"No, playing with me, his form will be good."

Tang Tian said with a smile.

He had been teammates with Green on the Spurs, and he also had the Eye of Providence.

Just like he said, Green's form would definitely be good playing with him.

The reason?

It was determined by Green's technical characteristics.

Green was a top three-point shooter, but completely different from Curry. His contested shooting was very poor, but he was strong at open three-pointers.

Last season, Leonard was out for the season, and the Spurs didn't have an absolute strong point, so Green naturally had fewer open three-point opportunities.

In history, after Green went to the Raptors with Leonard, his three-point shooting percentage immediately returned to the top of the league in the regular season. This was the fundamental reason.

Green's style of play must be with a super giant to be effective.

And he now, was the biggest super giant.