Sam Hauser trade value?

[Celtics2021]

Hauser's trade value at best is a fringe starter, because that is what he is.  Most teams will probably view him as a bench/rotation guy.  He has one very valuable skill, he can make 3s.  So that is what BOS can expect to get back if Hauser is traded straight up, a bench guy or fringe starter.  I don't know about using him to move up in the draft.  That does not seem all that likely.

If the idea is to trade Hauser and not take any player (salary) back, that seems tricky too.  There might be a team that has interest in Hauser and has some mechanism to take on his salary without sending anything back (a TPE or something), but that feels like a tough thing to match up on.  It would be nice to add another true legit starter to the mix (assuming Pritchard continues as the bench sparkplug, which seems his most productive role).  If Hauser could be "sold off", that would free up some money to maybe find/fit that starter.

The value would be that he is probably comparable in quality to players one might get for the MLE, but his salary is about 25% lower than that.  So teams that miss out on free agents or have more financial constraint can use their MLE, or teams that have a TPE in addition to the MLE can make moves for two players.  Further, a team that is moving a higher-paid starter but wants to have someone to fill the role while saving money might also be interested. 

[Vermont Green]

Hauser's trade value at best is a fringe starter, because that is what he is.  Most teams will probably view him as a bench/rotation guy.  He has one very valuable skill, he can make 3s.  So that is what BOS can expect to get back if Hauser is traded straight up, a bench guy or fringe starter.  I don't know about using him to move up in the draft.  That does not seem all that likely.

If the idea is to trade Hauser and not take any player (salary) back, that seems tricky too.  There might be a team that has interest in Hauser and has some mechanism to take on his salary without sending anything back (a TPE or something), but that feels like a tough thing to match up on.  It would be nice to add another true legit starter to the mix (assuming Pritchard continues as the bench sparkplug, which seems his most productive role).  If Hauser could be "sold off", that would free up some money to maybe find/fit that starter.

The value would be that he is probably comparable in quality to players one might get for the MLE, but his salary is about 25% lower than that.  So teams that miss out on free agents or have more financial constraint can use their MLE, or teams that have a TPE in addition to the MLE can make moves for two players.  Further, a team that is moving a higher-paid starter but wants to have someone to fill the role while saving money might also be interested.

The non-taxpayer MLE (NTMLE) is what, $15M?  The taxpayer MLE will be about $6M.  A team would have to be $15M or more under the tax threshold in order to use the full NTMLE, correct?  Teams that can spend the full NTMLE will probably be targeting players much better than Hauser (who will be at about $11M).  This is a new FA world now with all these aprons and penalties kicking in, but I foresee some pretty good FAs having to "settle" for NTMLE contacts.  Unless a team is resigning their own, not sure many teams will be able to offer much more.

I see Hauser caliber players (bench guys to part time starters) being more in line with the taxpayer MLE.  If Hauser was a UFA, I can't see him getting more than that.  I get what you are saying, even with all this, some teams will miss out on the good FA (solid starter level guys) and may be interested in Hauser who might be better than who they can get from what is left.  Depending on the structure of the trade, trading for Hauser would not necessarily hard cap them at the tax level, as signing someone with the NTMLE would.  So that would be another possible reason for a team to be interested in Hauser over going above the taxpayer MLE to sign a FA.