(07-22-2023, 01:07 AM)F Gump Wrote: ... when I could
1 enter FA and
2 potentially go to a better team
Those 2 points tend to be mutually exclusive.
If Siakam gets traded to ATL (or anywhere else), he'd better learn to love them, because that's where his best payday is almost certainly coming from. And top free agents work hard because they want top money.
The team that has Siakam when his contract expires can go over the cap to pay him what it takes. Any other team cannot. In fact, top teams with top talent tend to be dancing with the tax line and the apron, and don't have any cap room at all, when they would need to be 45-50M or so under the cap (not under tax or apron, but under the cap) to be able to offer him the contract he wants.
Harden seemed to have that same conundrum this summer. He wanted to be elsewhere, but the only team possible was a sucky one. So he decided not to be a FA after all, and instead signed his option to play for Philly and then started whining on how he hates it there. FA was not the avenue for him to get the money he wants and also get to the team he wants. If Morey sticks to his guns, Harden will again have the very same choices next summer, the ones he hates now, because good teams aren't likely to have big cap room to sign a top FA. IMO
Now that makes a lot more sense (and completely contradicts your whole point about Porzingis/Kyrie trades earlier).
That being said trading for Siakam is still a LOT riskier, cause he has neither the injury history of Porzingis nor the mental and injury history of Kyrie.
He´ll basically be the #1 free agent next season and a lot more teams have capspace.
Teams that could be better than Atlanta with Siakam: Philly, OKC, Indiana, Orlando and Utah (just for the shits and giggles of Ainge offering Collins in a S&T). Then you have some losing wildcards like San Antonio, Washington, Portland and Detroit.
When you are the #1 player in free agency that is a lot of options. This year it was basically Houston or San Antonio.
What if he simply hates playing in Atlanta? In the end it comes down to what they have to give up for the additional legit risk.