fishmike wrote:Knickoftime wrote:The opt out severely limits EK's trade value.
Why? Bird rights are still huge.Also there are like 5 teams projected to have cap space. Really closer to 3 as a couple of them have less than $20mm. Whoever takes on Kaner is 100% in the driver seat to resign him. The every team having crazy cap space is over.
Bird Rights are valuable for young players outperforming their rookie contracts, elite veteran players who have a high AAV justified by market conditions to sway the direction of a franchise and in general for contender level teams who are already in the tax zone and likely to push into the repeater zone to stay in a contention window.
Kanter falls under none of these conditions.
His "Opt In" ability with a player option limits his trade value a ton. What limits it even more is he can't defend the rim and he can't space the floor with long range shooting. He's a matchup liability once you get deeper into the playoffs, if you get there at all. No rebuilding team needs a Kanter and no contending team can survive his trade offs and the salary match hit without gutting the roster that made them a contender in the first place. It's why he was available in the first place.
Teams with cap space this offseason will
A) Shop as hard as possible in a large free agent class
B) Be courted by teams into the tax zone looking to move assets for cap/tax relief
C) Look for bargains in trades to absorb contracts so other teams can chase in FA ( like the Lakers will) or teams hoping to drive down their tax bill (Maybe a team like the Wizards)
Taking in Kanter and his 99.9999 percent of Opting In cuts out all those opportunities.
Kanter has very very very limited to no trade value. It's why he was available in the first place. It's why he was on the trade block for a very long time and no one wanted him. He's playing well next to Zinger, but a lot of big men would thrive next to Zinger given how Zinger is playing right now.
11/7/2017 9:56 AM