I agree with OPs premise. But I fail to understand the rationale of the opposing gm in making this deal. The C's are trading TA for a more competent, consistent, healthy 2/3, besides the expiring what his his value.
It seems unlikely to me that a team would try to trade a wing that performs at a higher level than Tony to save themselves $2-3M. Unless they are that close to having enough cap space to sign a max contract player and think they have a legit chance of landing one of the big 4.
If TA is to be traded it would have to include Scal + to get a player of value for cap relief. Considering BBD isn't in shape, Daniels is out and we have an older team, I'd rather not be trading depth at this point of the season.
Again I agree with the premise, I just don't see the value to the other team. To me it is like Sox's fans screaming to trade for a game changing bat. I think both teams would like an upgrade, but have nothing of tremendous value to offer (in the Sox's case they have more to offer, but not enough w/o gutting).