CHAPTER 674: CHAPTER 325: DURANT’S DECISION (PART 2)

Deron chose to go to the Lakers last season initially hoping to boost his value with Los Angeles’s exposure, and maybe snag a championship.

But as everyone saw, he didn’t get the championship, instead, he ended up in a mess, completely losing his value.

"He can still play," Hansen gave a definite answer.

From last season’s finals with the Lakers, it was easy to conclude: Deron as a starter was easily targeted, but as a substitute, he was still more than capable.

Compared to now, his raw strength is definitely stronger than Williams.

This move would be a talent boost for the Cavaliers.

With Hansen’s agreement, the Cavaliers subsequently reached a 2-year, 10 million, second-year player option contract with Deron.

An interesting thing happened, just as Deron reached an agreement with the Cavaliers, many Lakers fans attacked Deron on social media.

The biggest claim was that Deron had defected.

The Lakers were defeated in the finals by the Cavaliers last season, and Deron turned around and joined the Cavaliers, showing no backbone.

Moreover, Kobe fans and James fans reached a consensus on this point, and the sound of public opinion was quite loud.

But this public opinion didn’t last long because just as the July freeze period was about to end, Durant finally made his decision.

Durant’s decision was quite interesting too; he didn’t do a live broadcast like James, but instead rented a house in Hampton City, Virginia.

This house was located right along the James River.

In this house, Durant had successive meetings with seven teams interested in signing him.

This was somewhat like an interview, only it was the person interviewing the company, rather than the company interviewing the person.

And just after these seven rounds of interviews, Durant made his decision.

He would join the Celtics on a 2-year, 54.3 million, with the second year being a player option contract.

Hansen got the news after receiving a call from Griffin.

He was taking a nap and was a bit dazed when he woke up, thinking he heard wrong.

After confirming that Durant joined the Celtics and not the Warriors, he was momentarily stunned.

Why didn’t Durant go to the Warriors?

For Durant, there shouldn’t have been a better option than the Warriors.

Especially since he wasn’t defeated by the Warriors like in "history."

Hansen thought a lot, even logged onto social media to check the outside’s reaction.

Just after Durant announced his joining, Horford and the Celtics reached a 4-year, 110 million contract extension.

And Ray Allen also fulfilled his previous words, making a comeback by joining the Celtics with a minimum contract.

Then Celtics fans were in celebration.

Little Thomas, Bradley, Durant, Horford, Towns, with Ray Allen, Pierce, Smart, Olynyk on the bench...

Three All-Stars, leading a first-overall pick, plus a top outside 3D player cultivated by the team, along with quality role players.

Angie’s previous words didn’t contain a drop of water, the Celtics completed their reconstruction and directly became a championship contender.

Of course, there was also cursing from other fans.

Among them, Warriors and Lakers fans cursed the most.

Because for those two teams, not getting Durant was a huge blow.

The Warriors had to consider signing Barnes back, while the Lakers were even worse.

Previously, California-born Derozan was very interested in returning to his hometown by joining the Lakers, but the Lakers’ management favored Durant, so they had Derozan wait a bit.

Even though Derozan was an All-Star, he was unwilling to be a backup choice, ultimately deciding to go back to the Raptors on a max contract.

Now the Lakers neither signed Durant nor kept Derozan, resulting in a complete loss.

But that’s just the level of Lakers management; if not for Nike pushing in the background, they wouldn’t have even formed the previous Big Three lineup.

After looking through the content on social media, Hansen pondered for a while; he seemed to understand Durant not going to the Warriors.

The Warriors were, after all, a 73-win team last season; joining them was no different from when James formed the Heat’s Big Three.

It’s essentially the same as Wade said back then, there’s no retreat, no turning back for those who choose "the hardest path."

James has already perfectly demonstrated the outcome of walking the hardest path.

At this "historical" time node, James clinched three championships through teaming up, and Durant’s thinking: "Why can they team up but I can’t?" is quite normal.

But now, with James still without a championship and becoming a nomadic chief, he naturally worries about becoming the next James.

Moreover, unlike in "history," Thompson already joined UA, Warriors is a team tagged entirely with the UA label, Durant as Nike’s leading figure, joining a UA team, is no different from the current uproar of defection on social media.

So, in the presence of other options, Durant choosing not to join the Warriors makes sense.

And if Hansen remembered correctly, next season would be Little Thomas’s peak season, performing an MVP-level top five season, making this Celtics lineup possibly no weaker than last season’s Heat Team.

Next season, Celtics might replace Heat to become the Cavaliers’ number one rival in The East.

Durant’s decision led to a series of impacts.

The first in line to be affected would be the Heat Team.

Durant’s departure meant completely killing the last possible chance to maintain the team.

Wade subsequently hoped Heat Team would offer him a 3-year, 60 million retirement contract like Kobe, to enable him to achieve one man, one city.

Wade’s request wasn’t unreasonable.

Although due to age, his personal ability declined, last season’s performance was still All-Star level.

Plus, with this year’s new broadcast contract taking effect, players’ contracts were all premiums, Wade’s market value was 20 million.

Before this, rumors had already surfaced that both Bucks and Nuggets were interested in Wade, willing to offer about a 20 million annual salary contract.

In fact, Griffin from the Cavaliers side previously offered Wade a nearly 20 million offer, but Wade’s character made him directly refuse such a defection.

However, Riley didn’t agree to Wade’s request, only willing to offer a total of a 2-year, 40 million short contract.

Clearly, Durant’s departure made Riley decide to rebuild, as he obviously no longer needed Wade.

Signing a long contract with Wade at such a time would be blocking his path, there’s no sentimentality with him whatsoever.

Ultimately, Wade left angrily, signing a 2-year, 47.5 million contract to return to his hometown, Chicago.

Wade ended up walking the road that James couldn’t walk.

Moreover, Big Gasol also joined Wade in heading to Chicago, signing a 2-year, 30 million contract with the Bulls.

Big Gasol would become the Bulls’ starting center in the new season, replacing Noah, who left the team.

The Bulls underwent a coaching change last season, with Hoiberg replacing Thibodeau as the team’s new head coach, and Noah did not earn trust after returning from injury, leading him to join the New York Knicks with a 4-year, 72 million contract.

Simultaneously, the Bulls also traded Ross to New York shortly after the free market opened.

The New York Knicks’ starting lineup for the new season is expected to be Ross, Courtney Lee, Ingram, Porzingis, Noah.

The Bulls’ starting lineup for the new season is expected to be Wade, Butler, Covington, Gibson, Big Gasol.

And the Heat Team began rebuilding after consecutively losing Wade, Big Gasol, and Joe Johnson (who joined the Jazz with a 22.2 million over 2-year contract).

As the situation developed to this stage, Riley announced that a flagging ceremony for Hansen’s No. 77 jersey would be held during the new season’s matchup against the Cavaliers.

Clearly, Riley finally became completely honest after Durant made his decision.

Several other players also completed their signings one by one.

"Drummond", Howard, Whiteside all chose to extend their max contracts with their teams like Derozan.

With Durant’s decision and a series of subsequent chain reactions, the curtain on the free market also seemed to have drawn down along with it.