Montrezl Harrell – $6,000,000
The 26-year-old Sixth Man of the Year finalist has one of the most valuable contracts in the NBA. He will certainly be due for a pay increase when he hits the market this summer and the Clippers should do whatever it takes to retain him to keep their deep roster intact.
His $6.0 million salary means we’ll be evaluating him against players who make between $7.5 million and $4.8 million this season.
The full list of players in that salary range:
Seth Curry, Doug McDermott, Langston Galloway, Derrick Rose, Brandon Ingram, D.J. Augustin, Darrius Miller, De’Andre Hunter, Josh Jackson, Davis Bertans, Ersan Ilyasova, Jaren Jackson, DeMarre Carroll, Nemanja Bjelica, Jaylen Brown, Jabari Parker, Darius Garland, De’Aaron Fox, Trae Young, Montrezl Harrell, Ish Smith, Marco Belinelli, Jarrett Culver, Jonathan Isaac, Rodney Hood, Mohamed Bamba, Timofey Mozgov, Trey Lyles, Deron Williams, Aron Baynes, Kris Dunn, Josh Smith, Coby White, Lauri Markkanen, Ryan Anderson, Wendell Carter, Pau Gasol, Daniel Theis, Luol Deng, Jaxson Hayes, Buddy Hield, Frank Ntilikina.
The list of players from this list we’d swap straight-up for Monster Trez is short. Very short. In fact, we only see one to which we’d definitely say yes.
Jaylen Brown
Brown is a bonafide star, but the six-foot-six inch swingman is about to make $22 million next year when his contract extension kicks in. In a real-life trade, this poison pill would nullify the deal, but in our hypothetical situation, we’ll keep him eligible for the swap.
Close calls, but we have to say no:
Again, Isaac and Bamba’s upside is tempting but concerns land them as no, thank you’s. Wendell Carter and Jaxon Hayes are young big-men with promise for the future but we’d hold onto Harrell anyway, and Buddy Hield’s lights out shooting isn’t enough to justify making the swap.