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Utah Jazz bigman, Kendrick Perkins, was recently acquired in a three team trade between the Jazz, Detroit Pistons, and Oklahoma City Thunder. He's not even going to show up to Brian Zettler's office and pick up a pair of sweatpants on his way out though as he is to be bought out by the team. Perk, in the last year of his contract, is earning $9.654 million this season. While he was a member of the Thunder for 53 of their 82 games this season (64.63%) it can be assumed* that he made about $6.240 million of that $9+ number. It appears as though the Jazz are on the hook for $3.414 million. Furthermore, Perk has no impetus to give the Jazz a break and negotiate for a lower number.
The Jazz have no design on playing him, so it's not like he's upset about it. As long as he is released before he can sign on with another team for a playoff run he'll be good. (Of course, the Jazz could "Raja Bell" him, and release him the day after that threshold.)
I expect the news of his full buy-out to be released sometime in the next few days. And then the real fun starts. According to multiple sources Perkins is being courted by the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Los Angeles Clippers.
- Chicago has Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol, and Taj Gibson -- but getting Perk is more like making sure the Cavs do not (allosteric competitive inhibition).
- Cleveland lost Anderson Varejao for the season, and while Timofey Mozgov and Brendan Haywood are nice, Perk would take care of Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson better in that enforcer role. CLE and CHI may face each other in the playoffs, so this dynamic of who gets him will be very interesting.
- Los Angeles head coach Doc Rivers is totally down with getting Perk back, a guy he coached early in his career and won a title with as the starter. The Clippers are beefy inside with DeAndre Jordan, Blake Griffin, Glen Davis, and Spencer Hawes, but obviously the old coach has a soft spot for that scowling piece of granite we call Kendrick
Perkins has suggested that he wants to go back to Dallas, but Mavericks bigwigs are not interested.
So . . . where will Perk be in a month?
* Maybe I shouldn't assume so much