Sam Merrill Value

[toooskies]

Could Merrill return something like IJoe, sure. But the timing is likely not the best anymore to get that return. Finding the team that wants him, has a TPE/MLE big enough to absorb him, and enough tax space is a lot harder at this stage of free agency.

I mean, that's not how you look at, say, Jaylen Brown's trade value. You almost always send salary back.

[gswhoops]

2 years can be ungtd, which Smitty should know. Not sure if that stuff is simply bad aggregation.

Back to the OP, I don't see a team taking on the whole contract and giving up value to Cleveland.

The problem is the guaranteed versus non-guaranteed status isn't helpful from Kuminga's perspective. Kuminga doesn't want to commit to a lower number for three years. The Lakers have reportedly offered him around the money he's looking for but the Hawks have no interest in the contracts they're looking to send back.

JK is in a bit of a catch-22 right now. He doesn't want to lock up more years on what he sees as a below-market deal but a S&T has to be at least 3 years. No team wants to pay him the number he wants unless they're dumping bad money as part of it, but ATL has no reason to take on bad money for free. And no one has cap space to give him the money he wants outright.

[psman2]

Could Merrill return something like IJoe, sure. But the timing is likely not the best anymore to get that return. Finding the team that wants him, has a TPE/MLE big enough to absorb him, and enough tax space is a lot harder at this stage of free agency.

I mean, that's not how you look at, say, Jaylen Brown's trade value. You almost always send salary back.

The OP asked to send him into a TPE and assets, I was responding to their hypothetical.

[JJ_PR]

My guess is that someone would have taken Merill into a TPE/MLE and sent back a 2nd or something at the start of the offseason. But as teams have made moves the number of teams who can do that has dwindled and might not get any value back now or even have to spend a 2nd to get someone to take him.

Merrill has real value on that team friendly contract.

[hugepatsfan]

My guess is that someone would have taken Merill into a TPE/MLE and sent back a 2nd or something at the start of the offseason. But as teams have made moves the number of teams who can do that has dwindled and might not get any value back now or even have to spend a 2nd to get someone to take him.

Merrill has real value on that team friendly contract.

In a vacuum I agree, but OP specified a scenario where someone is taking on the full salary via exception. At this stage of the offseason, that just gets hard to do. I think Merill could have returned a 2nd or two in a deal like that maybe at the start, but with spots dried up now it'd be hard to do.