MAVS NEWS:

[KillerLeft]

Apologies if this has been addressed somewhere else...

So I was reading that a key reason Middleton refused the buyout and stayed in DAL is because it preserved his bird rights. I get that this gives the team matching rights to any FA offers the player might get, so he can't just walk for nothing. It also allows for Sign and Trades (SnT) deals. All of this seems to benefit the current team, but what is the advantage to Kris? Does it help him get a longer term deal than just the end-of-season rental deal he'd get with a buyout? What am I missing here?

It provides him (in theory) a higher likelihood to receive a good contract. Not just in terms of length, but in terms of salary. Whomever holds those Bird rights can go over the cap to get him. 

He thinks there's a much higher chance of getting paid by Dallas (yuck, I hope not too much) or through sign and trade (Ok) than he would have it he were relegated to teams' cap space or exceptions. It's the same thinking that caused Deveon George to veto the first version of the Jason Kidd to Dallas trade all those years ago.