NBA's King of Talking

Chapter 655 No More Italian Cannons

Gallinari's future should be the first step in the Clippers' offseason moves, as this will influence many subsequent actions. If they re-sign, what size contract would be suitable? If they don't, how will they free up cap space to strengthen the team? They also need to choose a suitable replacement, otherwise it will affect the team's immediate competitiveness and ultimately impact their ambitious goal of a four-peat.

It's clear that Gallinari is no longer worth the team spending more than $2000 million a year to keep him. Paul George is an all-around player on both offense and defense, and the team will definitely keep him. The two are simply incomparable.

"Let's talk to Danilo first and see if they can accept our contract. We'll consider the next steps if we can't confirm this!" Jia Fei said to the man with the logo.

“PG and Isaiah should both stay!” the man with the logo said.

“Of course, let’s decide Danilo’s future first!” Jia Fei said.

Paul George and Hartenstein will naturally stay. While George isn't a perfect star player, he's quite good as a second option. He has his flaws, such as a slight lack of scoring ability, inconsistent play, and sometimes holding onto the ball too long. However, it must be said that he has a consistent shot, can attack with the ball, has explosive scoring ability, and is well-rounded on the defensive end. Most importantly, he's very willing to be a second option.

Many star players have high aspirations. Even though they're not suited to be the leader, they refuse to be subservient. This is very evident in players from the "Mamba Mentality." In their dictionary, it's almost always "I'm the best!" They're expected to take the final shot, and even if they miss multiple times, they still believe they'll make it next time. This mentality is good for game-winning shots, but not for leading a team. Confidence is certainly a valuable quality, but excessive confidence is arrogance. When ability doesn't match that confidence, it will only harm the team.

Logo was very efficient; he quickly brought back the results of his communication with Gallinari and told Jia Fei about them.

Gallinari's side insists on a contract with an average salary of 2000 million, with the term reduced to 3 years, but it must be fully guaranteed and include a player option.

Upon hearing this, Jia Fei decisively shook his head: "We definitely cannot accept this contract. Danilo's market value is not worth this contract. If they are unwilling to compromise, we can choose not to continue cooperating with them!"

The man with the logo nodded; he meant the same thing. Gallinari was indeed quite useful, but spending such a large sum on a white veteran who was essentially a role player, especially for a defending champion who was extremely frugal, was questionable.

When Logo Man tried to negotiate again, Gallinari refused to budge, so Jia Fei immediately decided to give up on renewing his contract and let him enter the free agent market.

Jia Fei asked the man with the logo to find a power forward with the following requirements: first, he must be able to play versatilely, not necessarily center; second, he doesn't necessarily need to have excellent ball-handling and offensive skills, but he must be able to shoot three-pointers; and third, he can't be a liability on defense and can't be too old.

Overall, the above requirements are not high. The current trend in the NBA is to focus on perimeter players, and young, two-way forwards are very expensive, as are 3-and-D players. Jia Fei only needs a player similar to Jeff Green in his prime. For a forward, defense must be at least average, and they must have sufficient shooting ability to avoid being left wide open by the opponent. They also need to be able to move around defensively, allowing for greater flexibility in setting up the defense.

There aren't many big names in this year's free agency market, and some of the so-called big names are just theoretical free agents who will eventually re-sign with their original teams.

This year's free agent market features big names like Anthony Davis, Paul George, Brandon Ingram, Fred VanVleet, Montrezl Harrell, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Danilo Gallinari, Serge Ibaka, Jeremy Grant, DeMar DeRozan, Gordon Hayward, and Joe Harris.

Of these free agents, Anthony Davis, Paul George, Brandon Ingram, and DeMar DeRozan are likely to re-sign with their respective teams, while the remaining players are not big enough to change the landscape of a team or even the league; they are at best good pieces of the puzzle.

Jia Fei's operational strategy for the Clippers is to only offer maximum contracts to star players, not to give excessively high premium contracts to supporting players, and to make good use of the rookie bonus. This way, even if the salary cap is exceeded, it will generally not exceed the luxury tax threshold, so there is no need to worry about paying the super luxury tax.

Although Steve Ballmer is rich, his money doesn't grow on trees. The most virtuous cycle is when a team can win a championship while also saving or even making money for the owner.

Why do many teams close their championship window so quickly? Besides the aging or injury of their core players, a major reason is that role players demand large contracts, causing teams' salary cap space to explode. Ultimately, they have no choice but to let them go or offer them overpriced contracts, making it impossible to maintain competitiveness and creating a vicious cycle.

The Clippers have a healthy roster structure. The top two players are on max contracts, and the third highest-paid player is Gallinari, whose contract is about to expire. None of the other players have a salary exceeding $15 million a year, except for Lee Kyle, Beverley, and Olynyk, who are around $10 million. The rest of the players are either on minimum contracts or rookie contracts.

Now that Gallinari's contract has expired, the Clippers theoretically still have cap space to sign a player worth $10-15 million. If they also offload some of the contracts of Lee Kyle, Beverley, and Olynyk, they could even free up more than $20 million to sign another player with immediate impact.

This is simply outrageous; it's unbelievable that the Clippers still have cap space to sign players.

Jia Fei is reviewing free agent profiles to find suitable players. They need a forward, specifically a forward who can play the power forward position. Currently, they have several players who can play positions 2 and 3, but fewer at positions 3 and 4.

In Jia Fei's thinking, even when playing a small lineup, the lineup should be as tall as possible. For example, when playing a five-forward lineup, even if there is no center, the interior can be protected by switching on defense and double-teaming appropriately, and the opponent can be prevented from easily exploiting mismatches.

The NBA now heavily utilizes pick-and-roll defense to create open looks and mismatches. Switching defense is specifically designed to counter pick-and-rolls, but its effectiveness hinges on your lineup's players not having a size disadvantage. Last season in the playoffs, the Clippers' Beverley not only struggled to defend against switching, but even in one-on-one situations, he was completely outmatched by heavy guards like Westbrook, Harden, and Morey.

This year's list of free agents wasn't long, and Jia Fei quickly finished reading it. After looking through it, he noticed a player he recognized because he was from the Denver Nuggets, their Western Conference Finals opponent.

This player's name is Jeremy Grant.

Jeremy Grant is 26 years old, 203cm tall, and weighs 100kg. He has an excellent wingspan and his physique is somewhat similar to Jia Fei and Paul George.