Sorry this is just flat out wrong. Once we signed Hood we could only offer Kanter the minimum, nothing else. Olshey wanted to give the MLE to Kanter but he waffled and Hood was willing to sign. The second Hood agreed to terms, Kanter was gone. You can't change this fact.
It's just general CBA stuff. We could only resign Hood, Kanter, and Curry with our $5.7M MLE, since we didn't have bird rights for any of them. Therefore, when we used it on Hood, we no longer had it to use on Kanter or Curry, thus eliminating the possibility of bringing them back.
From an entertainment perspective, it's been more fun watching Whiteside resurrect his career. The enthusiasm, the smile, the rebounding, the blocks....he's just pretty fun to watch. Certainly more than the anxiety attacks of Leonard and the disappearing act of Harkless. From a basketball perspective, though, it's probably a wash. Meyers created more spacing and for all his faults could set better screens, and we desperately needed a defensive wing (or even just an NBA caliber wing) for much of the season. We probably don't actually have a much different record (assuming all injuries and the Melo/Ariza acquisitions still happen). From a long-term perspective, it was possibly an upgrade. It's still possible Whiteside decides to take a backup role here over the summer after becoming enamored of the team. He'd be an excellent get. Or if Nurk isn't able to fully recover, maybe Whiteside is our starter. I don't think we'd be in this position without the trade. Time will tell if this works out. Nobody really cared if Meyers or Harkless stayed. Overall, I'm pretty pleased. Even if all it amounted to was re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic, well, what the fuck are you supposed to do? The Titanic is sinking. You might as have some fun with some chairs.
