Who would say no to the trade ? No brainer, even for the players who aren't GM's.
Your not paying a guy coming off that kind of injury 9 million per. Not when you bring people off the streets from free agency like Shaq or JO who can match Perkins play or even be better than Perk. Why lose that kind of money ? You dump him now and get some value for him, instead of receiving virtually nothing next year.
How much are you paying JO this year? I'll let you go look it up.
For future reference, Perk's $32M extension over four years is $8M per.
For those without Google, JO's making an average of $6M per year, this year and next. You'd rather pay him, or someone like him, $6M per year, than pay Perk $8M?
Hell, add Shaq's $1.4M/year in, and we're paying nearly that same $8M per year for two old, crippled centers.
How much do people REALLY think a decent center costs in the NBA? You remember how much Brendan ****' Haywood got paid last season? ****, even Darko got a 4/$20M contract (IIRC).
Seriously, look around one of the sites with salary numbers, and see what middle-of-the-road big men make. Guys like Nene, or Kaman, or Haywood. It's usually $10M - $12M per.
Not sure what siting bad NBA contracts from questionably run teams has to do with why the Cs didn't want to commit $8mil a year to Perk.
Big men are always overpaid, that's nature of the beast. Name me a (good, starting-caliber) NBA center that's not still on their rookie contract who's earning much less than $8M per. I hate to even call these guys "overpaid" anymore, it's just the going rate for a seven footer.
I mean,
Krstic; $5.8M
Sheed was making ~$6M when he retired
Tyson Chandler; almost $13M
Dalembert; $12.2M
Nazr Mohammed; $7M
The Vanilla Gorilla; $7.4M
DeSanga Diop; $7M over the next two seasons
Zaza Paxhulia; he's averaging ~$5M over the next two years
Brendan Haywood; averaging about $9M/year on his deal
Okafor; averaging about $13M for another three years
Bargnani; averaging about $10.5M for another four years
Big Al; $14M next year, $15M the year after
Paul Millsap; averaging $7M the next two years
David Lee; averaging about $13M over the next five years
I'm really not trying to cherrypick, I'm just looking at decent big men who are off their rookie deals. I don't see too many guys at much less than $8M per, not guys that I'd rather have than Perk.
Gortat is one, but he's not making about $7M per and Orlando took a big gamble when they signed him to that deal, he was a lot less proven at the time that Perk is today. Millsap, but he's undersized to play the 5 (which limits how much he's going to get paid; he'd be making $10M if he was 6'11")
I don't understand the whole "Don't pay $8M for Perkins, he's a role player!" argument. He's pretty [dang] good in the role he plays, and that's the going rate for a veteran center. Unless you get lucky and find someone in the draft, big men are always "overpaid."
Otherwise, you're digging through the scrap heap for guys like Kwame Brown and Tony Battie.
EDIT: Brad Miller for $5M?