NBA's King of Talking

Chapter 345 Early Exit from Contract

The playoffs are still in full swing...

In the East, the Cavaliers easily defeated the Raptors to advance to the NBA Finals. The "Trash Brothers" are still the same old "Trash Brothers"; facing the "Running Man" team, they were like mice before a cat, completely unable to perform.

Just like in my previous life, in the Western Conference, the Warriors rallied from a 1-3 deficit to defeat the Thunder and advance to the NBA Finals. Jia Fei's former teammates, Durant and Westbrook, suffered another defeat.

June has arrived...

Jia Fei is focused on his own affairs; who wins or loses, who wins the championship, is irrelevant to him. The Hawks are still in communication with him, hoping to finalize a contract extension.

The Hawks also made some concessions, they waived their team option, but still refused to give Jia Fei a player option.

On June 13th, Jia Fei and Art Mayork announced through their agents that they had both chosen not to exercise their player options for the final year of their contracts and instead opted out to become free agents.

Thus, the first big fish of the offseason has entered the market, which is a major piece of news in the NBA offseason!

Of course, previous predictions suggested that Jia Fei had a 99.99% chance of opting out of his contract, so while this news was significant, it wasn't entirely shocking.

Art Mayork opting out of his contract was even less surprising; he went wherever Jia Fei went, a fact known throughout the league. Besides, if it weren't for the news of Jia Fei opting out, who would have cared whether he opted out or not?

The ongoing finals have somewhat mitigated the impact of the news that Jia Fei opted out of his contract and became a free agent.

Jia Fei chose to opt out of his contract so early to test the reactions of other teams. If he had waited until after the draft to opt out, many teams would have engaged in extensive negotiations and completed some trades, leaving them with less cap space to acquire him.

With Jia Fei opting out of the contract, the Hawks clearly felt the pressure. They continuously tried to calm him down and renegotiate with him.

Jia Fei is pretty arrogant too. If you don't show sincerity, there's no need to restart the negotiations!

Jia Fei certainly had his reasons for being awesome. Putting aside his past illustrious achievements, he suddenly discovered on June 12th that all his physical functions had been restored!

That's right, he has recovered, not yet to 100%, but he is constantly recovering, and reaching 100% is only a matter of time!

This is one of the reasons why he chose this particular time! This is also why he is so confident!

Ultimately, in the NBA, no matter how glorious your past was, it all comes down to ability. If you're no longer good enough, even if you're Jordan, you have to accept reality. No one will pay for your past glory; if you're no longer good enough, that's it. This isn't just a matter of reality; it's the cruel reality of competitive sports—survival of the fittest!

Three days after announcing their contract opt-out, a warm-up game featuring former UConn players like Jia Fei and Art Mayork went viral online.

In the video, Jia Fei appears completely refreshed, effortlessly executing powerful dunks, crossovers, no-look passes, and pull-up jumpers. Although he seems to be holding back somewhat, it's clear he has fully recovered from his injury and his skills look even more refined; a return to his peak form is just around the corner.

The release of this match video immediately sparked heated discussions. Jia Fei's choice to release the video at this time was clearly intentional; he was using this method to tell the world—he has recovered!

This is a concrete action to dispel the concerns of teams who are worried about his injury. Explaining it in this way, rather than just words, is much more effective.

The idea came from Jia Fei's agent, Jeff Schwartz, who believed that no press conference or interview could be as convincing as a match.

Facts speak louder than words; this is a very simple principle.

Since the video was released, Jia Fei has been pursued even more intensely, much more so than on the day he announced his withdrawal from the contract.

Many teams are interested in Jia Fei, including his current team, the Hawks, his former team, the Thunder, the two Los Angeles teams, and the two New York teams. It's fair to say that almost the entire league is interested in him, including the Warriors and Cavaliers, who are currently in the NBA Finals.

However, having the intention to sign someone and having the right to do so are two different things. Many teams are interested, but they don't have the space. Unless Jia Fei engages in a sign-and-trade deal, they have no chance of getting him.

The problem is that if you do a sign-and-trade, and you don't have the player the Hawks want on your roster, or if your future assets aren't enough, you still won't get him.

The sign-and-trade deal requires Jia Fei's consent. He is perfectly free to join another team, as long as that team has enough salary cap space.

Suddenly, teams in the league that could afford to take on bad contracts became highly sought after. The NBA has a luxury tax threshold and a "rich man's line," but it also has a "poor man's line." For those tanking teams, failing to reach the "poor man's line" will result in a fine. Since they have money to spend anyway, taking on bad contracts doesn't affect their tanking strategy, so they're naturally happy to do a favor, but only if you give them something in return.

The Hawks could certainly sign Jafi; they have the cap space and his Bird rights. Even if they make additions and run out of cap space, they can still re-sign him above the cap. They currently face a serious contract renewal issue. Jafi will definitely need a max contract to have a chance of staying, and Horford also faces a contract renewal, which won't be cheap. So, although there are confirmed reports that the league's salary cap will reach $94 million next season, assuming Jafi's salary is $30 million, Horford's $20 million, and Millsson's around $20 million, those three's contracts would already reach $70 million. Teague's is over $8 million, bringing their total to approximately $80 million. Considering they need to fill a 15-man roster, if they don't exceed the cap, they need to keep the remaining 11 players' salaries below $14 million—no easy feat.

In the NBA, top-ten players naturally get max contracts, no problem, and teams won't hesitate. The difficulty lies with players who have a certain level of skill but aren't quite superstars. If you offer them a max contract, you lock up the team's cap space; if you don't let them go, you can't acquire any valuable assets, which is awkward. This is especially true for teams aiming for a championship. Forget about the team's second or third star; even supporting players demand big contracts. If you don't let them go, you can't strengthen the team, making it a very tricky situation.

Jia Fei's agent, Jeff Schwartz, told him that his market value was very high, and he could basically go to any team if he wanted. Teams without cap space were willing to go through a three-way deal to clear cap space if they could get his offer, and some were even willing to do a sign-and-trade, as long as he was willing to go.

Jia Fei was very satisfied with the market conditions; the video was released at the perfect time!