No, there’s one more.
Wade and Paul didn’t want to team up with him, but there were four mbers of the Banana Boat brothers!
Windhorst quickly wrote another article about Jas and Anthony’s interest in playing together.
Theoretically, Jas and Anthony, one as a ball-dominant core and the other as a supre scorer, had the most complentary skills among the four Banana Boat brothers.
Of course, this article’s release didn’t an that Jas wanted to go to the Knicks.
The image of loyalty that Jas Team had crafted for him wouldn’t allow him to request a trade actively; if a departure was to happen, it would be forced and with a sense of helplessness.
This news was actually another round of pressure on the Thunders’ managent to trade Westbrook for Anthony.
In fact, this wasn’t the first ti.
Since the Thunders were swept out in the first round last season, such news had been erging endlessly.
If Jas had a score of 100 in terms of dia power, then Westbrook wouldn’t score more than 10.
However, at this ti, a large number of Oklahoma City fans were speaking up for Westbrook on social dia.
They could tolerate the loss of Durant, but they couldn’t accept the team losing Westbrook as well.
This kind of fan reaction also put a lot of pressure on the Thunders’ managent.
They couldn’t completely ignore the voices of the fans, after all, the team still needed to sell tickets.
It was around this ti that news broke of the Thunders’ managent contacting Jas Team, hoping Jas would announce his decision to exercise his player option ahead of ti.
Clearly, if it were simply choosing between Jas and Westbrook, the Thunders’ managent wouldn’t even blink before deciding.
Last season, the Thunders’ revenue was the best since their relocation to Oklahoma City.
What is a record? Nonsense, money is king.
The only reason they hesitated to make a choice was because Jas had the player option to opt out of his contract in 2014.
They had all read and took to heart the report by Carrell from back then.
So as long as Jas was willing to commit to the remaining two years of his player option, they wouldn’t hesitate at all.
But there was no follow-up to this news.
Because there was the Nike contract issue that Rondo and Hansen had talked about before.
Jas’s contract with Nike was due to expire in 2014, and at that ti, if Jas wanted to renew with Nike, then where he went was basically up to Nike.
So, asking him to exercise his player option ahead of ti, given what Jas experienced at the Thunders this past season, was basically asking him to give up the chance to renew with Nike.
That was simply impossible.
So now the situation beca interesting because keeping Westbrook or Jas, who had only one year left on his contract, could actually lead to Jas going nomad.
While there was no conclusion to the news on the Thunders’ side, the Warriors were the first to drop a bombshell.
Last season, Iguodala, who had been signed by the Nuggets for a hefty sum, chose not to renew with the Nuggets but announced he would join the Warriors through a sign-and-trade deal.
Moreover, the 4-year $48 million contract was very affordable.
This left Nuggets fans utterly shocked.
Last season, it was the Warriors who had upset the Nuggets in a David-versus-Goliath victory, and now their top player was defecting to the enemy!
Iguodala quickly beca the center of controversy.
While he wasn’t exactly a marquee player, he was nevertheless a lead player.
Under enormous pressure, Iguodala revealed his reasons for joining the Warriors.
He was impressed by Curry playing through pain with injections; his feelings were pretty much the sa as what Hansen had felt last season—the slim Curry playing through pain was a contrast that could leave anyone astonished, and being won over as an opponent was understandable.
Moreover, Iguodala disclosed his reason for not renewing with the Nuggets: During the playoffs in a tough situation, Nuggets head coach George Carl asked him to injure Curry, which he refused, adding he didn’t want to continue playing on such a team.
This was undoubtedly another bombshell following the last.
Carl imdiately denied the accusation, saying Iguodala was just looking for an excuse for his defection.
Nuggets players also ca out to defend Carl, saying they had never heard Carl give such an instruction to Iguodala.
The truth was impossible to prove, as there was no recording of the incident, and it was just a matter of one person’s word against another’s.
At the sa ti, the Grizzlies were also beginning to strengthen their team.
With Jamison retiring, the Grizzlies needed to fill the power forward position and ultimately decided on the veteran Rashard Lewis.
Lewis played for the Heat last season but had little chance to be on the court, so he opted to switch to the Grizzlies for this season.
On the backcourt, Livingston, who had a great performance last season, was signed away by the Warriors with a 4-year $20 million deal to replace the departing Jarrett Jack.
The Grizzlies ended up signing veteran Chauncey Billups to take his place.
Besides, they re-signed Jas Johnson and Dentye Jones with minimum contracts.
Minimum contracts, still minimum contracts.
After signing Hansen to a super-max contract, the Grizzlies’ payroll this season has exceeded the luxury threshold by $15 million US Dollars, with the luxury tax payable being more than $40 million.
So, the team’s strategy for signing players was to save wherever possible.
However, for an owner like Heisley, being able to pay that extra $40 million was already his limit.
As one of the Grizzlies’ main rivals, the Heat didn’t have much luck in the free agency market either.
They hoped to re-sign McRoberts, but he chose the Bobcats instead.
The reason was simple: he had a chance to compete for a starting position with the Bobcats.
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