Trade & FA 2023-24: Stein-Ingram Trade Inevitable| LAL Want Lebron Back On Any Terms

[KillerLeft]

No.  

That's one of the reasons this is a losing move.  

That contract may have had some value next summer for salary matching.  Now it does not.

It also defers part of McGee's salary over an additional three years.  Those future years will presumably also include big salary increases to retain Josh Green and Jaden Hardy.  This will potentially affect other player acquisitions for the next four off-seasons.  

There would be more logic to just waiving this season's salary then stretch waiving his last year's salary next off-season.  Instead, they've apparently chosen to stretch waive this summer.  

There is no upside to this move.  They could have simply asked McGee to stay at home for two years or negotiated a buyout.

This remains a good season of progress overall but this particular move is peculiar and full of nonsense.

...unless there's a reason the extra room (under the tax line) is needed. 

As cheap as I sometimes think Cuban is becoming, I can't imagine he'd put the team through this hardship for two extra years just to save a few million dollars immediately. I can see him making that choice if it's the difference between paying the tax and not paying it, but that isn't the case here. I think the obvious conclusion to draw is that either they have another move in mind for the near future that will bring in more money than they send out, or at the very least they're hoping to find such a move and wanted to give themselves the option. And honestly, I think it's kind of most likely that it's the former, not the latter.