LeBron James, your house got robbed.

Chapter 121 Mo Gou's Poison Contract

On July 11, the 10-day freeze period just ended.

All operations are frozen during this period to allow the league to calculate the salary cap for each team.

It also serves as a window for negotiations between teams and players, facilitating fair competition among multiple teams and preventing teams from prematurely contacting players once the free agency market opens on July 1st, thus avoiding chaos.

Generally, teams and free agents will reach some verbal agreements.

In most cases, such verbal promises are reliable.

Overall, the NBA has become quite mature in this regard after many years of development.

Chen Shuo arrived at Quicken Loans Arena at noon, and the team will finalize Garnett's contract extension with him in the afternoon.

For the Cavaliers, this offseason's moves are not complicated; the main thing is to maintain the integrity of the roster and make minor adjustments on that basis.

The team's core structure has already been tested in the Finals.

Even if a player leaves, only players with similar technical characteristics are needed to take over the role and tasks of the departing player.

With a mature and stable framework, most roles are replaceable; you only need to select players for those roles.

This is also why league executives highly praised Chen Shuo after the Cavaliers won the championship.

Especially the few words West uttered in an interview, revealing that Chen Shuo might have included Garnett in his plans during the offseason, further elevated Chen Shuo to another level.

Media commentators and experts have repeatedly and thoroughly reviewed all of Chen Shuo's actions, and most believe that West's statement is credible.

ESPN's chief expert, Bill Simmons, even did a show to take fans on a first-person review, starting from the beginning of Chen Shuo's offseason last year, which was the time when Chen Shuo announced his season goals at the press conference.

"Now you are all general managers of the Cavaliers, and what you need to do is to build a mature system framework within an offseason."

"You set your sights on your arch-rivals and the biggest favorites to win the championship from the very beginning."

"So you went so far as to spend more salary to snatch Shane Battier, completely disrupting the Heat's path to strengthening their roster."

"To counter LeBron James, you designed three lines of defense, which is why you drafted Kawhi Leonard."

"He has proven to have the potential to become a top-tier defender; those times he stole the ball from James right in front of him are still on the front page of YouTube."

"Then you selected Tyson Chandler. In the 11 Finals, it was Chandler who guarded the paint and blocked James's drives."

"The best part is that he happens to be a free agent right now, and the Dallas team actually let go of their championship center after winning the title."

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"Now you need a player who can sweep around the free-throw line. Let's see which players in the league fit the bill."

As soon as Chen Shuo entered the office, he saw Grant there, pacing back and forth with his hands gripping his suit jacket, just like two weeks ago when the Pacers took advantage of his misfortune.

Why have you been so irritable lately?

"Stay calm, my best and most reliable partner."

Grant, as if he'd swallowed a gunpowder, slammed a document down in front of Chen Shuo.

Chen Shuo raised an eyebrow and looked up at Grant.

This guy is usually good-tempered, so who could have offended him? He casually flipped through the documents Grant had slammed on the table.

[Restricted Free Agent Offers]

Chen Shuo glanced at the book and immediately understood what had happened.

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Grant spoke angrily: "The Rockets made an offer to invite Jeremy Lin."

"The offer is $2880 million over 4 years, with $500 million in the first year, $520 million in the second year, $930 million fully guaranteed in the third year, and $930 million partially guaranteed in the fourth year."

"Under the Arenas clause, the Rockets can allocate $720 million to their salary cap each year, meaning that with this contract, they only need to use $720 million of their salary cap each year."

"But for us, the salary cap space is being used up every year. By the third year, we will need to use up $930 million of our salary cap space on Jeremy Lin."

"This completely shuts down any chance of strengthening the team, and will also result in huge luxury tax expenditures."

"This guy is a complete scoundrel, always looking for loopholes in the rules."

Chen Shuo wholeheartedly agreed with Grant's last sentence.

Before he could even settle scores with Mo Gou, the other party came to cause trouble first.

This event actually happened to the Knicks in the original timeline.

Lin made a name for himself in New York, while Morey used the Arenas clause to pull a fast one.

With Chris Paul influencing the Cavaliers, Jeremy Lin has never had a chance to showcase his talent.

His regular season stats were only at the level of an excellent backup point guard; he only had three or four standout games when Paul was injured.

But his outstanding performance in the final game of the finals attracted the attention of many league executives. Players with big hearts who can play high-level games are always in high demand.

Given his Chinese heritage, Mo Gou naturally followed suit.

The Houston Rockets have always benefited greatly from the Chinese market. After Yao Ming's retirement, in order to prevent this market from becoming vacant, and especially considering the exploitative owner Alexander, Jeremy Lin is their must-have choice.

The Arenas Rule was originally intended to limit other teams' offers for second-round picks.

Because second-round draft picks only have two-year rookie contracts, they cannot enjoy the full Bird exception after their rookie contracts expire, and therefore cannot use the Bird exception to re-sign with a maximum salary like first-round draft picks.

Therefore, the league stipulates that other teams can only offer restricted second-round draft picks a mid-level exception starting salary for the first two years, and only in the third year can they significantly increase their salary to the maximum salary.

However, in order to protect the interests of the teams that submit offers, the league allows their offer contracts to be spread out over salary cap space each year.

Mo Gou exploited this loophole in the rules.

The Rockets are still rebuilding and have plenty of salary cap space. The $720 million in salary cap space will not have any impact on the Rockets in the next two years.

If the salary cap increases in two years, a $720 million contract would be roughly in line with Jeremy Lin's level; if it doesn't increase, it would be a slight premium.

However, for a team like the Cavaliers that aims to win the championship, they have to carefully manage their salary cap every year. Spending $930 million in salary cap space two years later on Jeremy Lin is quite extravagant.

A slight smile crept onto Chen Shuo's lips as he thought about it.

Unfortunately, Mo Gou chose the wrong opponent; he was used to being extravagant.

With the core of this Cavaliers team stable, there is absolutely no need for excessive reinforcements. Even useful pieces like Tucker and Parsons haven't had time to play.

Even if he suffers an injury or other unexpected event, Chen Shuo can still use his draft picks to find hidden gems.

Chen Shuo immediately picked up the price list on the table and handed it to Grant next to him: "Talk to Jeremy Lin's agent and get them to agree to the offer. We'll match it directly."

Grant took the quote and then realized what was happening, his face full of confusion: "Are we really going to match it?"

Chen Shuo's gaze toward Grant became serious.

Do you think I'm joking?

Grant didn't ask any more questions, but before leaving he cursed Mo Gou a couple more times: "That damn fat pig shouldn't be in the League, he's disgusting."

Chen Shuo watched Grant leave, grumbling, and shook his head helplessly.

Grant was still too naive; he had never seen anything more disgusting.

While the Knicks were hesitant about the offer, Morey offered an even more ruthless contract.

This incident spread widely on the Chinese internet at the time.

The three-year, $2510 million contract included $500 million in the first year, $520 million in the second year, and a maximum salary of $1480 million in the third year.

This is the real poison contract.

This immediately made the Knicks give up the possibility of matching the contract. Keep in mind that the Knicks already had three max contracts: Anthony, Stoudemire, and Chandler. If they had matched Jeremy Lin's contract, they would have basically been out of the game.

For the Rockets, the salary cap is calculated based on their annual contract of $833 million, so there is not much impact.

This is also why Chen Shuo wanted to act quickly and match the offer as soon as possible.

Chen Shuo gently rubbed his temples.

If this scoundrel is not eliminated, it will be an injustice to Heaven.

This kind of thing still requires a long-term plan.

Chen Shuo suddenly remembered that Mo Gou had used the same loophole in the rules to poach the Bulls' center, Asik.

That could be used to gain an advantage in public opinion.

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