Can't really see any reason at all to keep him. I am curious on his buyout, if he took any less money at all, if we could reduce next year's bill. Like if he took a million less, can we reduce 3.9 to 2.9?
I guess I don't fully understand how a draft day trade works with him... I've heard only $3.9 million guarantee of his ~$15 million salary counts in trades. So another team could send us a $4 million contract in a trade for him? Or is it he can only be traded if his contract is guaranteed in full for $15 million? It seems like if there is a way to trade him either for cap space or a player we prefer we should keep that possibility available until the draft. So no buyout.
As long as his 22-23 salary is non-guaranteed, his outgoing value for us is the 22-23 guaranteed amount of 3.9M, though it would count as the full 18.1M incoming for the other team. So it's incredibly difficult to deal him this offseason. If we want his salary to be 18.1M outgoing for us as well, then his 19.4M salary for next season would have to be fully guaranteed first.
Ok so its basically only a team with sufficient cap space this year, which is just the Thunder. Seems like we might as well just do a buyout then.
I would hold onto it as potential salary-matching filler for a draft-day trade. He doesn't have a place on the Blazers going forward, but he's not a complete scrub. If he plays and produces competently for the next couple months, he could theoretically be a decent trade piece--even with his '23 salary guaranteed. However, if you can't find a taker for him before the guarantee date, then you cut him loose.
there's no reason to play him IMO. Just buy out now because the chances he'll be an 18M trade chip at the deadline are pretty remote. And there's no way a team will waste 15-19M of salary cap on him. Trading him as a 3.9M trade chip is almost impossible. It's harder than the old BYC contracts
If there's a player that we theoretically might want to trade our pick for, Bledsoe's 18M salary (which would be an expiring deal next year) gives us more options than the TPE does. The chance might be remote, sure, but what is the benefit of cutting him now?
Plus, if he plays well, he can help his value. OKC basically rehabilitated Al Horford's value and got something out of it.
the benefit of waiving him now is eliminating the chance that he contributes any wins. If Portland simply doesn't play him, I'm fine with keeping him