babyjax13 wrote:I think they will both take the QO. No one has cap space (except the Jazz if they want one of these players). Their current teams are not offering what they want. If Giddey took 20 million per year for 3 years but he can get 30 million per year for two years next offseason then that means he would be losing out on whatever amount his QO is worth by accepting a smaller contract. Being a UFA makes it easier to get competitive bids, and increases a player's ability to choose their location. I think we will see more players take the QO moving forward.
Players almost never take the QO for good reason. Those benefits you mentioned come with the obvious downside of 1) losing many millions in that QO season, 2) going into camp the team knowing you’re leaving, which feels destabilizing but also makes it harder for you to showcase your game, 3) obvious injury risks that could cost you literally like $50m, 4) obvious risks for guys like Giddey/JK that you have an off year or have your weak spots be clearer and more defining and could lose you many millions (eg Nerlens Noel), and 5) having to leave the team and place and role that you’ve got worked out there.
Also younger players don’t care about their location much, the season is an all-consuming grind and they can go or do whatever else in the off-season. If you hear them talk on podcasts or whatever of course they’ll have opinions on places but they won’t let that get in the way of making their first huge money. It’s only when they’ve already made huge $ and maybe have families or are thinking about post-ball life that that sometimes (though not all that much) becomes a bigger part of decision making.
For RFAs, teams don’t want to lose young guys for nothing and players/agents don’t want the above things. So even though it’s not a usual fa leverage thing players tend to get fair-ish contracts. (They usually don’t when an agent is very confident that some other team will be happy paying more than seems sound/reasonable for the first team, and/or if the first team just isn’t that interested in the guy for their near future).
