The No.1 Anti-Fans in Basketball-Chapter 597 - 292: 2015 NBA Free Agent Market

The next day, Hansen arrived at the locker room to change into his training outfit and noticed that Jokic hadn’t arrived yet.

Just when he thought Jokic had overslept, the guy strolled into the locker room right on time.

Today, apart from him and Conningham in the training gym, there was also Grover.

Hansen had called Grover yesterday, and the latter had taken a flight early this morning.

Hansen continued his training with Conningham, while he left Jokic to Grover.

When he sat down to rest after a while of training, he finally paid some attention to the other side.

To his surprise, Jokic was training very hard.

This was a stark contrast to his previously somewhat lazy attitude.

Hansen felt that this guy was just like his past self who didn’t want to go to work but had to work hard for a living.

Just as Hansen’s training unfolded smoothly, on July 1, 2015, the NBA free agency market officially opened.

And on the very first day, a sensational piece of news broke.

Pat Riley announced that the former Heat coach Spoelstra was adjusted to be the vice general manager of the team, and he would return to coaching!

Also, Riley made a bold statement after that:

"If I can’t lead the Heat to the championship, I will end my coaching career for good, and I will hang Hansen’s number 77 jersey from the rafters of the American Airlines Arena."

This move was very un-Riley-like; "Divine Calculator" was known for his cunning, not impulsiveness.

The reason he made such a twisted move was the situation the Heat was facing.

If the Heat had lost to the Warriors last season, they actually still had another year’s chance because Durant’s contract had another year.

Though that year was a player option, he would probably give it one more try.

But now, having lost to the Cavaliers and being stopped outside the Finals doors, everything suddenly changed.

Durant might opt out of his player option, Wade might also opt out, and with Dragic and Vucevic’s rookie contracts expiring, the Heat faced immediate disbandment.

If there had been no external factors, the rebuilding of the Heat would have been instantaneous.

This meant that Riley’s past assembly of The Big Three ultimately yielded four runner-ups and one Eastern runner-up, a total failure and the biggest black mark in his professional career.

So in this context, he had no choice but to step in.

This time it wasn’t picking low-hanging fruits like in 2006, but a real rescue mission.

As for hanging Hansen’s jersey, it was a severe form of motivation.

Translated, it was a slap in the face of the Heat players, followed by loudly asking them: "Are you going to accept this?"

The fact proved that Riley’s status in the league was still there; Durant and Wade announced after the market opened that they would execute their player options, ready for another go.

Subsequently, the Heat announced that they had reached a contract renewal with Dragic for five years and $86 million.

With the new season salary cap increasing significantly (from $63 million to $70 million), this meant they had to pay much less in luxury tax than anticipated.

Of course, this also meant giving up on Vucevic who turned around and signed a four-year, $54 million contract with the Blazers.

The Blazers signing Vucevic was to mitigate the impact of Aldrich’s departure, who after the market opened had signed a four-year, $84.1 million contract with the San Antonio Spurs.

After letting go of Vucevic, Riley made a savvy move.

They signed David West with a minimum salary contract!

The 34-year-old West, last season’s starting power forward for the Pacers, was still averaging 11.7 points and 6.8 rebounds, having given up his final year’s $12 million player option with the Pacers.

Everyone initially thought he was seeking the last long-term contract of his career, but unexpectedly, he signed directly with the Heat for a minimum salary!

This act of treating over ten million US dollars lightly was indeed shocking to the league.

West later responded on social media with just one sentence: "It’s all for the championship."

This could be understood to mean that West believed the Heat was the most likely to win the championship next season and that he could make the greatest contribution there.

Thus, after this series of maneuvers, fans discovered something incredible.

Just when you thought last season’s Heat couldn’t be any stronger, they’ve shown this season: "No, we can do better!"

Moreover, next season’s Heat would be fighting with their backs against the wall, and the energy this team would burst forth would be astounding.

If basketball matches were decided by roster strength, the league might as well hand the championship ring to the Heat in advance.

The Heat’s continuous series of moves can be said to have sent shockwaves through the league.

But do you think it’s over?

The Lakers said, the summer has just started.

James opted out of his player option, and with Vallejo’s contract expiring, this left the Lakers with a tremendous amount of salary space.

It was then that Love announced opting out of his final year player option and reached a five-year, $113 million contract with the Timberwolves and then joined the Lakers via a sign-and-trade!

In this sign-and-trade, the Timberwolves received three future first-round picks from the Lakers, along with additional assets and trading provisions.

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