Time soon came to early June.
Sitting in the office, Presti looked at the information in front of him with a headache.
As the top priority this summer, renewing the contract with Chen Xi is undoubtedly the most important priority.
A large number of teams have already called and expressed their intention to trade. Some of them are indeed very sincere, and Presti is very excited to see them.
However, it is naturally impossible for him to trade Chen Xi, which is likely to become another stain on his career after letting Harden and Durant go, and the laughing stock of his peers.
Fortunately, due to the restrictions of Arenas Clause, the olive branch extended by other teams to Chen Xi will be significantly less attractive.
Arenas Clause: For restricted free agents who have stayed in the NBA for 1-2 years, the first-year salary of the non-home team's invitation contract must not exceed the middle-class clause of that year (the original team of the second-round pick can match any contract as long as it has a middle-class exception). This method limits the first-year salary to ensure that the player's home team can provide the player with a corresponding contract by citing Bird Clause, or the middle-class clause.
To put it simply, other teams want to sign him, but the contract they can offer is not very attractive, and Thunder can definitely match the contract and keep him.
Originally, they wanted to rely on a long-term contract with a year-by-year escalation to give Chen Xi a relatively large contract while stabilizing the team's salary space. However, as for Chen Xi, the feedback given by agent Moon was that Chen Xi did not intend to sign an overly long contract.
Due to the restrictions of Rose Clause, it can only be activated if the conditions are met within Rookie Contract. Then, because the two-year contract of Chen Xi was too short, he was not elected as M in the first year. VP may enter All-Star or even All-NBA Team, so once Chen Xi chooses to renew his contract in advance, it means that he voluntarily gave up Rose Clause.
The first requirement for Bird Clause is that he has played for a team for more than three years. Naturally, Chen Xi cannot meet this requirement. Of course, if he does, it will not be easy to sign.
Of course, if it is a long-term contract, then Presti will naturally not mind giving Chen Xi a super-large contract that will increase year by year, but if it is a short-term contract, it will be somewhat risky for the team.
After all, the current value of Chen Xi is still only at the level of a relatively qualified second or third-level boss. What really makes his value rise is his age, his potential, and his speed of progress.
This will lead to a large number of teams willing to give him big contracts and bet on him, hoping that he will become another James·Harden.
You know, in September last year, he was still a late Second Round rookie who could barely play, but now, he is a top scorer in League who can compete with Curry Durant and others on the Western Conference Finals stage.
And Playoffs's series of highlight performances this year are also one of Chen Xi's bonus points. No team will dislike a player who can still perform strong in Playoffs.
After all, Regular season dragon Playoffs worm players, whether in history, now or in the future, there are many such players.
And Chen Xi successfully branded himself a good value-added label during the Playoffs journey in the first year of his career.
Contract negotiation is a long and arduous task~~
On the other side, Chen Xi's home.
Moon also came to the door.
"Chris, Thunder's preliminary quotation is 90 million for four years, with a starting salary of 21 million, an increase of 5%."
"What do you think?"
"It's a bit low. According to the maximum salary rules, you are limited by the fact that you have not played in the NBA for more than 6 years, so the maximum contract that can be renewed this year is 25% of the salary cap. According to calculations, this year's salary cap is about 99 million, so the maximum we can sign is a maximum salary contract with a starting salary of 24.75 million."
"That's a big difference." Chen Xi touched his chin. After all, it was a preliminary quotation.
"I have come up with several plans for you, please refer to them." Moon said, opening his briefcase and taking out the information he had prepared.
The first is to not renew your contract. If you can be selected into All-Star Starting Lineup or enter All-NBA Team next season, you can trigger Rose Clause, ignoring the maximum salary rule, and in the second job of your career You can get a maximum salary contract that accounts for 30% of the salary cap, but this method will be more radical, and you will also get a year of ultra-low salary. Even if Rose Clause is triggered, you cannot be sure whether you have earned it, after all, this will result in a salary loss of more than 20 million for next season.
The second is to be relatively conservative and sign a long-term contract with Thunder, preferably five years. This can guarantee your salary level in the next few years with extremely low risk. After the contract expires, you can rely on the maximum salary rule to sign a large contract with a salary cap accounting for 30%.
The third is to sign a two or three-year contract. After two years, whether the contract expires or there is one year left, the conditions for the Bird Rights are met. Chen Xi can execute Bird Clause and renew with the team's cap. The disadvantage is that the starting salary of the next contract is still 25% of the salary cap. The advantage is that the annual contract increase will ignore the maximum salary rule and reach 10.5% per year. Of course, the premise is that Chen Xi has not been traded within the past two years.
"Emm... let me think about it. By the way, communicate with the team. I need to know their outlook and determination for next season and even the next few seasons."
If it goes like the original direction, and owner Bennett is willing to pay a certain amount of luxury tax in exchange for the hope of winning the championship, Chen Xi wouldn't mind giving up some salary space and leaving it to the management.
O'Brien Cup, this thing is too attractive to professional players.
Moreover, Chen Xi, who has future memories, naturally knows how exaggerated the sky-high price contracts in the future are. Brown is worth 304 million in five years, Tatum is 315 million in 5 years, Teacher Jokic is 270 million in 5 years, and Curry is 215 million in four years.
Compared with those exaggerated super contracts, the current contract fee difference of millions per year seems a bit insignificant, but NBA Championship is different.
Didn't you see that Durant was willing to bear the name of surrendering to the enemy for NBA Championship, Kobe Wade risked his career and suffered injuries for the sake of the championship During the game, Love Bosh and others were willing to sacrifice the team's status for the sake of the championship and change their playing style for the team's transformation, not to mention that a lot of people took a salary cut for NBA Championship.
What are they for? Isn't it just for the O'Brien Cup? Isn't it just for the NBA Championship ring?
Basketball is a team game, and the salary cap and luxury tax settings limit the rules of the game to a range defined by League.
Looking at it, previous NBA Championship teams and even dynasty teams have either reduced the salary of the core of the team to sign players, or they have received low-cost contract benefits for high-quality players, or they have received Rookie Contract benefits for the core.