Hawks center Dewayne Dedmon has opted into his contract for the 2018/19 season, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. Dedmon will earn a salary of $7,200,000 next year after exercising his player option.
Dedmon, 28, enjoyed a career-best season in Atlanta during the 2017/18 campaign, averaging a career-high in points (10.0), rebounds (7.9), and assists (1.5) per game. Dedmon was even able to increase his range to the three-point line, shooting a relatively respectable 35.5% from deep on 141 attempts after only attempting one three-pointer in his entire career before this season.
Despite those improved numbers, it remained unlikely that Dedmon would have commanded a higher annual salary than the $7.2MM he will earn next season.
Meanwhile, the Hawks have openly discussed their plans to build for the future, so Dedmon’s expiring contract could potentially become a trade asset sometime in the not-so-distant future. However, given Dedmon’s production, he’s probably an unlikely candidate to be waived.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Trade him for assets, Atlanta has got Collins now, he is easy to trade as an expiring, surely you can get something useful.
That is normally a great idea, but there is not a single player in the 2019 free agent class that is more than a ‘help you get to the playoffs’ kind of guy. No superstars/top 10 player types unless I missed a name on the list. I am not certain expiring contracts for the 2019 FA class will be anywhere near as valuable as 2018 or most recent years.
The crazy thing is that if Dedmon’s numbers hold, he might be one of the highest paid free agents next year even though he is an afterthought this year.
Back in the day, I was all over Dedmon or Oquinn for the Cavs, real big men, but Lue wanted to clear the roster of centers, using Love there, until the FO got Nance, kind of another PF really but who can really jump, by sending the Lakers the Cavs’ expirings, which enable the Lakers to manage their roster expense enough to steal James with. The end.