He definitely got paid by us, but he could have been a franchise center and maybe an All Star in the Eastern Conference. We paid him good money to stuff him next to Rudy. Imagine if he had gone to a place where he was the man.
I think he always knew his body wasn't going to hold up to that. I think we did fair by him.
The one before was an overpay too but it was shorter. Also, rather than declining the option we landed a second or two? and he got his option picked up. He was never good enough to be a franchise center. I don't think he really lost a dime and I think the wear and tear would have done him in even earlier. His last deal more than makes up for any underpayment he received.
We overpaid him, dwindled away his trade value, dumped him, then overpaid him again and then used a future 1st to dump him.
A draft pick farout into the future with minimal protections is highly valuable. I don't imagine Atlanta is wanting a draft pick to actually draft a player any time soon (they want to compete now). They want something of value they could use in another trade. A 2026 pick that is only top 3 protected would be highly valuable.
It would be valuable... but not necessarily to the GM acquiring it because most won't be around then. They rarely think that far out. OKC is the exception. You are essentially trading win now pieces to help the next GM out.
I’m actually one of the more ardent Royce supporters here. He’s not one of our real problems, but you can’t get something for nothing and most of what his role is can be found by trying. The reason we don’t have more is our rotation is crowded out with more offense-focused players, and we gotta have opportunities for players to play if we wanna churn any more Royces out.
