AROUND the NBA:

[DanSchwartzgan]

Either my understanding of salaries is way off (which is possible, because the sinking NBA revenues are a MAJOR factor across the NBA and seem to have GMs scared), or he's way less value than we have been led to believe, or they just want him for a year (pushing him to take the 6.5M QO so they can have him for cheap for a year before he walks). If he's only worth 12M, are the contracts of much worse players such as Jovic, Braun, Sharpe, etc going to be way way more problematic and strangling in the future than we have considered?  

If this is the case, then it also applies to PJ and Gafford.  More established at less money than your examples, yes.  But also older with less upside.  That makes the idea of getting compensation for them challenging.