Bill bought out suspense drama: The NBA offseason triggered by $13.4 million, "big traffic jam"

"Just for the $13.4 million, the entire NBA free market has become a rush hour Los Angeles Expressway! " The swearing statement made by a Western Conference team executive in an anonymous interview perfectly summarized the most bizarre situation in the league at present - Bradley Bill's buyout agreement is like a fishbone stuck in his throat, making many teams, including the Clippers, feel like they are stuck in their throats in the free market. The latest news from the Suns' Record shows that the three-time All-Star will either receive a 25% advance salary next season on Tuesday local time to complete the buyout, or the dust will be settled at the latest on Wednesday. But this tug-of-war around money and time has put the supposedly turbulent offseason into a strange stagnation.

1. "Devil Details" in the buyout clause: the butterfly effect of 25% salary advancement

Bill's five-year, 251 million super contract hides a "time bomb" that is enough to subvert the free market - According to Article XX of the NBA Labor and Capital Agreement, players can receive 25% of their salary in advance after July 1 each year. Of the 2025-26 season, Bill's salary of up to $53.6 million, the 13.4 million US dollars is like Alibaba's "Sesame Opening the Door". If you don't spit out the money first, you can't open the door if you buy it out.

The Sun Management is now experiencing the literal meaning of "advance and retreat". The calculator held by James Jones, president of basketball operations, was almost smoking: if the advance payment was paid immediately, the team's salary book would instantly add 13.4 million dead money; but if payment was delayed, competitors like the Clippers who were waiting to find a bargain might turn around and chase other goals. According to internal information, someone in the Suns locker room has privately complained: "This farce is more loopholes than our playoff defense. "

The chain reaction of this deadlock is a disaster level. More than 15 middle-class players in the free market have fallen into a wait-and-see state, including Derek Jones II, the Clippers have long loved. An agent who did not want to be named said bluntly: "Now everyone is playing the 'wooden man' game, just wait for Bill to blink first." Data website Spotrac shows that there are still contracts worth about $370 million in the market that are forced to run aground due to this buyout storm.

2. The Clippers' "Hunger Games": The undercurrent of Los Angeles abacus

The revelations of the Clippers' reporter Justin Russo are like a huge rock thrown into a calm lake. When netizens asked if it was related to the Clippers, his ambiguous response, "All news indicates..." was even more fascinating than the trailer for a Hollywood suspense film. You know, the Clippers currently have 12.8 million in operating space from the luxury tax line - this number is as similar to Bill's advance payment. It is a coincidence that even Coach Tyron Lu's poker face will not be able to hold back.

If you analyze the Clippers' lineup in depth, you will find that their desire for Bill is by no means groundless. In the 17 games that Leonard and George missed at the same time last season, the team's offensive efficiency plummeted to the 24th in the league. Bill, a scoring machine that averages 23.2 points and 5.4 assists per game, is simply tailor-made for Ballmer's "star collection hobby". What's even better is that once Bill is bought out, the Clippers can use the veteran's basic salary (about 3.2 million US dollars) to pick up the bargain, which is comparable to using a used car to withdraw Porsche.

But the management is now playing a sequel drama. Lawrence Frank, president of basketball operations, publicly stated that he was "satisfied with the existing lineup", but privately asked scouts to work overtime to analyze the defensive videos of Bill's past two seasons. This kind of approach of being honest is very similar to the "secret card" action when pursuing Leonard.

III. Domino effect: The frozen free market

Bill's buyout procrastination is creating the NBA version of "traffic paralysis". ESPN salary expert Bobby Max revealed in his latest podcast: "At least eight teams postponed the signing of Plan B until after this Wednesday." The worst of them was the Magic, whose three-year 40 million quotation letter prepared for Gary Harris had been on the fax machine for three days - just because the Harris team wanted to see where Bill was going first before making a decision.

Rare "fault phenomenon" in the player market. Top stars such as James Harden have already settled, and the bottom-level players signing contracts as usual, but the middle class is collectively in a standby state. This phenomenon is directly reflected on social media. The topic of #FreeBradleyBeal unexpectedly hit a hot search. Some netizens joked: "Bill is like a late emcee at a wedding banquet, everyone is waiting for the banquet hungry. "

Looking back at the 2014 Ray Allen buyout incident, which also caused the signing of five important rotation players to be postponed by 11 days. However, the amount involved this time is so large (Bill’s remaining contract is 128 million), and the number of teams involved (directly affecting more than half of the teams), which is the most serious "traffic congestion" in the history of the NBA offseason. A general manager of the Eastern Conference said helplessly: "We are like playing a live-action version of Monopoly, but someone hides the dice."

4. The power game behind the buyout: the struggle between money and time

This farce is essentially a concentrated outbreak of loopholes in the NBA's labor-management agreement. The clause that allows advancement of 25% of the salary was originally intended to help players deal with sudden economic difficulties, but now it has become a tool for gaming. Players' Union representative Michel Roberts has been to the league office five times in the past three days, and it is rumored to be discussing whether to add "special terms for buyout advances".

Suns owner Matt Ishbiya is in a particularly awkward situation. The mortgage tycoon just spent 4 billion last year to buy the team, but now he's struggling with 13.4 million like a high school student on his first date. Sources said the Sun prefers to pay the money in installments, but the Bill team insists on getting it in one go - this disagreement makes the buyout negotiations more punctuated than the cactus in the desert.

Regardless of the final result, this matter will change the way future super contracts are negotiated. Some brokerage companies have begun to add "buyout advance special terms" to new contracts, and a well-known broker even invented the new term "Bill Terms". It can be foreseen that when the next labor-management agreement is negotiated, the investors will definitely weld this loophole tightly.

Conclusion:

When Bill finally signed the buyout agreement, he not only ended his Suns career, but also opened the prelude to the craziest 48-hour free market in the NBA. Many championship teams such as the Clippers, Heat, and Bucks are like sharks that smell bloody, and those delayed middle-class players can finally end this ridiculous waiting game. But the deeper question is: today when the star power is expanding to the extreme, a small clause in a contract can actually kidnap the operation of the entire league - is this an accident or a ridiculous drama inevitably caused by the business logic of the NBA?