The existence of trade barriers, from the original intention of the NBA league, is to maintain the balance and stability of the league, so that most teams have the opportunity to become a strong team in a certain period of time through trades, drafts, etc.

Although in the United States, many of the fans who watch the NBA are geopolitical fans - that is, fans who unconditionally support their home team, no matter how bad that team in their home country is.

But if the hometown team is poor all the year round and has no hope of becoming a strong team, no matter how hardcore the fans are, they will feel tired of judging "ugly".

The NBA says that it is a fair league, but fairness can only be relative fairness without affecting the overall situation. There is no way to be absolutely fair.

Quite simply, a city like New York has a team that is easy to attract stars. A city like Cleveland just struggles to attract stars. This is a world of difference in the size and reputation of the city itself, and it is not necessarily directly related to the ability of the team's management.

Of course, now New York is a bad team, and Cleveland is a league powerhouse, which is the meaning and role of luck and the league's trade barriers.

But all barriers and fairness will make the alliance quickly compromise and make a different solution when faced with a problem.

Otherwise, fundamentally speaking, whether it is the Bird clause or the Arenas clause, is it really fair? It's clearly a rather unfair move made in order to maintain favorable factors such as strong teams and the box office of the big ball market!

Now, it's time for the Philadelphia 76ers and Chen Mu to take advantage of this trait.

Cleveland, June 29, 2009.

Cavaliers Team Center.

"LBJ, this way!"

The city's hero, the absolute leader of the team, and the toughest striker of the new era, LeBron James, is being led by the team's staff. Walk to a conference room.

“……”

LeBron didn't say a word, his brow furrowed slightly.

"What's wrong LBJ? Feeling bad? ”

On weekdays, in life, LeBron James, who is domineering on the court, is a very lively person. Today is clearly to do a good deed, I don't know why, but LeBron looks unhappy, as if he has something on his mind.

“…… I always felt that something was wrong. ”

LeBron didn't elaborate, just waved his hand slightly and said, "Take me first......!" ”

"It's here."

The staff didn't ask much, what the king of the city wanted to do and think, it was not something that he, an ordinary team staff, could control.

But. For today's incident, the team has been working hard for a long, long time, and LeBron himself has come forward many times, isn't it just to be able to reach such a meeting?

For this reason, the team has been working hard for two years. Now that the goal is half achieved, we should indeed be happy!

Forget it, what LeBron thinks is never something that ordinary people can guess.

Yes......

"LBJ, it's here."

Push open the door to the conference room. The staff stepped aside and couldn't help but glance into the house as LeBron walked into the house.

If this thing can really be done, the Cavaliers will be invincible in the future......!

"Hi. LBJ！ ”

Inside, there were quite a few people sitting.

One of them, a rather tall, yellow-skinned man, spoke, waving his hand at LeBron in a friendly manner.

"Hi Chen!"

LeBron is one of the top superstars in the game. I was still a little sad before, but when I saw the person coming, I immediately changed into a happy smile. Quite familiar with each other.

The person who came was Chen Mu.

To be precise, it was Chen Mu and his agent team who came to Cleveland today to negotiate with the Cavaliers about joining.

Bill Duffy, naturally, is also on the side.

"So...... You're all there, right? ”

Danny Ferry, the general manager of the Cavaliers, opened his mouth and glanced around, except for Chen Mu's team, most of them were Cavaliers staff.

The job of these staff members on weekdays is to do relevant content for the team's recruitment. From the draft to trades, from player deployment to post-tracking, the work of team management is quite complicated, and the number of managers in an NBA team is exaggerated.

However, there are not many people who can participate in the final negotiation process. Next to Danny Ferry, Chris Grant, who will become the manager of the Cavaliers in the future, was also sitting, staring at LeBron.

You're all superstars, and if you can elevate your relationship, there's hope that this signing will be done!

That's right, just a day ago, there was a big news from the Philadelphia 76ers.

The absolute core of the team, the most important factor in the team's reaching the Eastern Conference Finals last season and playing seven games against the incomparably tough Celtics, Chen Mu announced that he would exercise his player option to jump out of his contract and test the free market.

In Chen Mu's contract, the foresight of some details was thoroughly excavated at this time. It was only at this time that people realized how important it was for Chen Mu's agent Duffy to add this post-third year player option to the contract after some negotiations with the Philadelphia 76ers.

As the name suggests, the player option is easy to understand, which means that after the contract between the player and the team is executed for a certain year, the player can have an autonomy to choose whether to extend the contract and play for the team for another year.

Most of the time, the player option will be placed before the start of the season in which the Bird clause takes effect, or the bird rights take effect. To be exact, after a player's third year with a team.

The advantage of this approach is naturally that the player can jump out of the contract at this moment and become a free agent, and the parent club can invoke the Bird clause to sign the player to a new contract with a higher salary.

Three years ago, why did the Philadelphia 76ers set a player option for Chen Mu? Duffy's hard work and vision were naturally important, but more importantly, Chen Mu was still a potential rising star at that time. can play a highlight-reel game for a period of time in the transition section when the team needs it, and contribute an average of double-double or quasi-double-double data per game, and that's it.

There are many such players in the NBA every year. Especially a functional player like Chen Mu, who has good physical fitness and outstanding rebounding and mid-range shooting ability (at that time), will emerge every year.

And at this time, signing a contract with a player, and then the player's career, there may be two directions.

The first is to gradually develop his amazing potential in the following seasons and become the main force of the star level.

Second, in the following season, he never improved and became a mediocre rotation player. He can contribute good stats, but the team wins and loses, and it doesn't seem to have much to do with his stats.

The end result of most functional players is the second type. And Chen Mu has become the first of the few.

This was something that Philadelphia couldn't have fully foreseen at the time, so Philadelphia finally agreed to join the player option for the purpose here:

If Chen Mu succeeds and grows into a star that can be relied on within three years, then Chen Mu will implement the player option and the team will renew his contract with a high price, and everyone will be happy.

If Chen Mu fails, and it will still be the same after three years, then the team can choose whether to renew Chen Mu's contract according to its own needs.

Assuming that there is a "failed version" of Chen Mu, after three years, he still has about 10 points and 8 rebounds per game, and there is no obvious improvement. Then Chen Mu can choose to jump out of the contract, if Philadelphia already has a new inner core, it can not renew Chen Mu's contract, let Chen Mu go to the free market to test the waters, or seek a sign-and-trade deal.

This failed version of Chen Mu can also choose not to jump out of the contract. He may foresee that he will be like this in the future, and this contract may be the biggest he can get. Then simply carry it out to the end, and after another year, another year, another year's salary, and then find a way out.

In addition, another reason that will allow Chen Mu to have a certain initiative and let the team also have the right to choose is that the team manager at that time, Billy King, really didn't like Chen Mu.

If things go according to the failed version, then no matter what Philadelphia does at this time, the fans can understand. Even if Chen Mu is sent away, fans will say:

"Well, Philadelphia has done enough, and if it doesn't hit it, then there's no way!"

Now, Philadelphia has won the bet, Chen Mu has also won the bet, and within three years, Chen Mu has become an MVP-level superstar. According to common sense, after Chen Mu jumps out of the contract, Philadelphia will definitely use the Bird clause to increase the salary and provide Chen Mu with a better contract.

But if ...... Chen Mu doesn't care about money, he just wants the championship......?

So as a free agent, Chen Mu can choose his favorite team to join and don't have to care about other things.

Just like the former anti-bone Boozer, how many Cleveland fans once hated it was because the two sides had a verbal agreement, Boozer jumped out of the contract and signed a new contract with the Cavaliers. As a result, Boozer looked back and saw that the Jazz gave him a lot of money and a high status, so he went directly to Salt Lake City.

Now, Chen Mu wants to contact the Cavaliers, which is exactly what it means.

In terms of money, the Cavaliers can't give more than Philadelphia, which has the bird rights, but the difference between this is only hundreds of thousands of a year.

To be precise, thirty Chinese New Year's Eve seventy-five thousand dollars.

That's a lot of money, but it's a lot of money for ordinary people. But to say less, Chen Mu's income is no longer based on salary, and if the various "investments" outside go well, that side is the big one.

Therefore, it would not be strange if Chen Mu chose to take hundreds of thousands less a year and pursue the championship in another team.

But to say that is too far-fetched.

LeBron James chatted with Chen Mu familiarly, but he was puzzled.

The Philadelphia 76ers, who topped the league in the regular season last year, lost in the playoffs when a player was injured. For such a team, working hard for another year is the practice of ordinary people.

Chen Mu...... Why engage with the Cavaliers? (To be continued.) )