The No.1 Anti-Fans in Basketball-Chapter 599 - 293: Nike’s Decline is Irreversible

The free agency market was gradually coming to a close, and it was at this time that the Lakers made their decision, they gave up on re-signing Lin Shuhao and instead signed Delavadova, who had a decent performance in last season’s Finals, to a minimum salary contract.

Delavadova’s reason for not re-signing with the Cavaliers was simple, with the Lakers he could get more opportunities, even a starting spot.

Among the existing Lakers roster, second-year player Jordan Clarkson leaned towards a sixth man role, not quite fit for starting, while Delavadova’s 3D characteristics were a good fit for the Lakers.

In addition, there were many veterans, such as former Brooklyn Trident member Richard Jefferson, veteran Perkins who had partnered with James before, "Little Dominator" Stademeyer, and even Curry’s younger brother Seth Curry had also signed with the Lakers in succession.

The Lakers were like the Heat of 2010, starting to patch things up around The Big Three, their roster looked incredibly strong.

The Western Conference’s structure for the new season would be very different from before, it was no longer a battle of many contenders.

The defending champion Warriors, the Spurs who had Alderich parachute in, the Rockets with a healthy Bosh returning, and the Lakers with their epic Big Three, these four top-tier teams were clearly stronger than the rest.

These teams would not only squeeze the record of tanking teams, but also compress the records of playoff teams. Those days when the eighth seed in the West had 50 wins would no longer exist.

In the West, another team that made significant moves was the Kings.

Upon Hansen’s suggestion, Gay joined the Kings on a 2 year, $24 million contract, with a player option for the second year.

In addition, they signed Rondo, and with Cousins on the roster, it looked like they could make some noise in the new season.

In the East, there was also a team that could easily be overlooked — the Raptors.

The Raptors poached their starting small forward Demarre Carroll with a 4-year, $60 million contract from the Hawks and continued to sign James Johnson, Scola, and Biyombo to strengthen the frontcourt, plus the twin stars of Derozan and Lowry, they too had great prospects for the new season.

Over at the Cavaliers, after failing to keep Delavadova, they re-signed West for a year and, to fill the void left by James Johnson, they signed Dentye Jones, Hansen’s former teammate.

As for TT, after negotiations, the Cavaliers reached a 5-year, $70 million re-signing contract with him.

Adding to that their draft pick Powell and veteran "Prince" Prince, the Cavaliers had pretty much completed their roster for the new season.

Point Guard: Irving, Mo Williams, West

Shooting Guard: Hansen, JR, Powell

Small Forward: Tucker, Dunleavy, Dentye Jones

Power Forward: TT, Conningham, Prince

Center: Garnett, Hawes, Jokic

The dust was settling on the free agency market, but a quake was occurring in the sneaker market.

Klay Thompson, who reached a 6-year, $48 million contract with UA, became UA’s third pillar.

This caused a huge controversy, considering that Nike had awarded fmvp to Thompson as an indirect way to keep him, but in the end, he still left Nike and joined UA directly.

However, this was just the tip of the iceberg, as many of this year’s popular rookies, such as third pick Russell, seventh pick Mudiay, thirteenth pick Booker, etc., did not choose to sign with Nike.

Although not all of them joined UA, the past scene of players scrambling to get into Nike had changed.

With Nike teams repeatedly facing defeats over the years and some abstract moves in the Finals, Nike’s attractiveness to players was visibly sliding.

When time came to late July, Hansen’s annual personal training camp also kicked off.

"Veterans" like Curry, Klay Thompson, Raven, and Harden came to report early. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

However, players like Westbrook, Antetokounmpo, and Anthony did not come this time.

With the increasing friction between Nike and UA, they had received notices forbidding them to attend Hansen’s camp.

Of course, Irving was the exception.

He had surely received the notice too, but he came anyway.

After all, is there a problem with me attending my teammate’s training camp?

Conningham and Jokic, who had previously trained with Hansen, naturally joined the camp with him.

Then, on the first day of the camp, Jokic became the focus.

Over the past month, under the arrangement of Grover, Jokic’s weight had decreased to around 260 pounds, but a 260-pound big man was still particularly eye-catching.

Aside from his body size, there was also Jokic’s performance on the court.

Over the past month, besides training with Hansen, Jokic also participated in the team’s summer league.

After 5 games, his stats were an average of 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game, which couldn’t be said to be promising, just mediocre.

But in the training camp, his performance was clearly better.

It might sound strange to say this, but an important reason was that: the camp had better teammates.

Jokic was still quite raw overall, other than his skillful post moves, the rest was his naturally creative passing ability.

Many of his passes could be described as wildly imaginative, if the receiver didn’t react in time it would become a mistake.

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