Chapter 820 Defending Champion
After Tang Tian succeeded in proposing, Olsen returned to the manor with his two children.
He stayed and attended the postgame press conference with Davis and Stevens.
"In fact, we won the game in the fifth game, but the referee let me know that in addition to scoring goals, you can also rely on free throws to win the game. That's exactly what they do, and they always do that."
Thank you, Tang Tian had already said it in the arena before, and now he said all that he didn't say in front of the reporters.
Davis on the side pushed him with his hand. Tang Tian was fined by the league for this before.
"AD, what are you doing? Are you reminding me to be ready to pay twenty-five thousand dollars?"
Tang Tian turned his head and said, Davis coughed twice.
There was a burst of booing from the audience, obviously as long as they are not blind, they all know how bad the referee's penalty in the finals is.
"Don't worry, $25,000 I can afford to pay many times over."
Tang Tian's next words made the reporter laugh even more.
This is the public diss alliance and Xiao Hua!
"But we won, and it turns out we can do 5-on-8, the Pelicans championship."
Tang Tian's next words made the reporters couldn't help stretching out their hands to applaud. After Tang Tian's status in the alliance has risen, he is really a bit tough!
After the press conference was over, Tang Tian and Davis whistled and walked to the locker room. After winning the championship, it was a bit refreshing to have such a public diss.
They returned to the locker room, also threw Xiao Hua and the league aside, and had a carnival after winning the championship with other teammates of the team.
The first championship in team history requires a grand celebration.
They celebrated in the locker room, dousing Stevens with champagne.
Stevens laughed very happily this time. The outside world felt that he was able to catch up with Popovich as a young coach, but he was also under great pressure.
Now that the pressure is released, he also releases himself and celebrates with the players.
The celebration in the locker room was just a small fuss. After the end, the Pelicans, including the coaching staff, went to the largest local bar together.
The bar has been taken over by Tang Tian, and all the consumption tonight will be paid by him.
The players in the bar released themselves to their heart's content, Bo Yang hugged left and right, and led his teammates to teach on the base.
It was their best day of the season.
On the second day after the carnival ended, Tang Tian had a long sleep in the manor.
When he woke up, a guest came to the manor, the team's general manager Dempsey.
He came to discuss with Tang Tian about the championship parade.
When the team was 3 to 1, Demps had already prepared several parade plans with the people below.
It's just that after the Cavaliers equalized the big score, those plans were shelved.
Now that the Pelicans have successfully won the championship, it is taken out again.
New Orleans is a port city, and a boat parade is one of Dempsey's plans.
Tang Tian also liked this plan.
When they were in San Antonio, the Spurs did it, but San Antonio is a small river, and the river is only a dozen meters long.
But the Mississippi River is a major tributary, not at the same level as the San Antonio River.
The two discussed for a while and quickly perfected the plan.
Tang Tian will take out the Mars plan. At that time, the team will take a boat down the left bank of the Mississippi River, then upstream along the right bank, until it anchors at the port outside the arena, and finally will give a championship speech outside the New Orleans arena. .
This set of plans includes boat rides, street parades and ports, which are very local in New Orleans.
After confirming the parade plan, Dempsey and Tang Tian chatted about planning for next season.
After winning the championship, the role of the Pelicans has also changed. They have changed from a championship team to a defending champion.
The so-called defending champions, their goal is the same as its literal meaning, to defend the championship.
There are many NBA championship teams, but not many can complete the defense. The last team was the Spurs when Tang Tian played.
Changes in the lineup itself, such as the Mavericks in 2011 and the Heat in 2014, after winning the championship, the lineup changed a lot and failed to defend the title.
There is also a decline in their own strength. For example, in 2013, the Spurs let Tang Tian go. The lineup did not change much, but they still lost to the Heat and failed to defend their title.
Of course, there are also the rise of opponents. For example, this year's Warriors were abruptly defeated by the Pelicans and failed to defend their title.
There are other issues such as injuries, mental inflation leading to poor performance, locker room problems and so on.
All in all, because the NBA regular season spans nearly a year and there are many factors in it, defending the title is not an easy task.
Fortunately, as Tang Tian said in his speech after winning the championship, the Pelicans finally won the championship after three years of hard work, and it avoided many problems.
The Pelicans are a team dominated by young players. There is no such thing as a decline in strength, and the core has won the championship for three years, and there is no psychological inflation. In addition, the atmosphere in the team is harmonious and the core is getting stronger every year. The probability is actually very high.
So it is completely opposite to the situation after the Mavericks won the championship in 2011. What the Pelicans have to do this offseason is to try their best to keep the winning lineup, and then make minor repairs.
Dempsey handed Tang Tian the list of team contracts.
At the end of this season, the team's contract situation.
Tang Tian: The 4-year 44 million contract signed in the summer of 2013 expires in the summer of 2017, and the salary for the next season is 14.86 million;
Davis: The 2012 rookie contract expires this summer;
Jokic: The rookie contract in 2014 expires in the summer of 2018, with a salary of 1.19 million next season;
Holiday, the four-year 41 million contract signed in the summer of 2013, expires in the summer of 2017, and the salary next season is 11.29 million;
Ariza, signed in the summer of 2014 for 40 million in four years, expires in the summer of 2018, with a salary of 10.21 million next season;
Bo Yang, signed with the Nets in 2014 for 10.11 million for 3 years, expires in the summer of 2017, with a salary of 3.73 million next season;
Dinwiddie: The second-round rookie contract in 2014, 3.1 million in 3 years, expires in the summer of 2017, and the salary next season is 1.1 million;
Stephenson: The three-year 27.5 million contract signed with the Hornets in 2014, and the salary of 9.5 million next season, is just a team option;
Aminu: The 2-year 6 million signed in the summer of 2014 will expire this summer;
McGee: The one-year minimum salary contract signed last year expires this summer;
Biyombo; the two-year 6 million signed in the summer of 2015 expires in the summer of 2017, and the salary for next season is 3 million;
Harrell: The 2015 rookie contract expires in the summer of 2019, with a salary of 1.09 million next season;
Joe Harris: Signed with the Cavaliers in 2014 for 3 years and 2.33 million US dollars, expires in the summer of 2017, 810,000 next season, but the team option;
Ci Shiping: The one-year salary contract signed last year expires this summer;
Bryn Forbes: Undrafted in 2015, signed a 3-year non-guaranteed contract, which expires in the summer of 2018, with a salary of 530,000 next season;
"Mehta has already communicated with me that he will choose to retire in the summer."
Dempsey said.
Tang Tian nodded, Ci Shiping had expressed this idea more than once in the locker room before, this was expected.
Now that the team has Bo Yang in the locker room, it can be regarded as a new locker room leader.
After reading the list, if Stephenson's contract option is not implemented, the salary of the Pelicans' contract next season will only be 47.81 million.
Even with the basically determined Davis maximum salary contract (starting salary of 22 million), it is only 69.81 million.
This is too far from the 2016-2017 season salary cap (94.143 million) and luxury tax (113.2 million) announced by the league not long ago.
There is still a distance even from the poor line of $84.72 million.
The salary structure of the Pelicans is really too healthy, a healthy level that makes other teams red-eyed.
But they also have a problem, they have too many players in contract years.
Tang Tian, Holiday, Bo Yang, Dinwiddie, these are the core rotation players of the team.
The NBA is a business league, and the ultimate goal of most players playing is to earn a big contract, especially after winning the championship.
The body has been gilded, and the player will definitely perform in the contract year to strive for the next big contract.
Especially for young players like Bojan and Dinwiddie who have never won a contract of more than 10 million yuan.
This will be a huge ticking time bomb.
Historically, the Celtics in the 2018-2019 season, because many people were in contract years, caused the team's performance to be far below expectations.
To solve this problem, what the Pelicans have to do is to renew the contract in advance.
"We want to renew your contract early."
Dempsey was planning the future of the Pelicans with Tang Tian. Of course, as the general manager, the most important thing he had to deal with was Tang Tian.