The Jazz picked up the option on Kryrylo Fesenko’s $850K contract for the upcoming season.
Lots of people have argued that it really was a non-move, not necessary to discuss at all.
I think it was actually a very good move.
I don’t even have to argue about the potential. Big men, especially young big men, develop more slowly than guards. Jermaine O’Neal was already out of his rookie contract before he started doing anything at all.
But, like I say, I don’t even have to argue that it was a good move based on potential.
It was a good move even if he has absolutely NO potential.
Here’s why…
- A 7 Footer – You can never say too much about having another seven footer in the lineup, especially one who isn’t rooted to the floor. Now I’m not saying that Fes is going to accomplish something great over the next year. He might surprise us all and gain a whole lot of much needed maturity, but even if he does exactly what we think he is going to do — relatively nothing — he is still a big body with shot-blocking potential who can spell the real centers for a few minutes here and there or allow them to rest for extended periods during garbage time.
- A warm body – The Jazz are required under the CBA to have at least 12 men on their roster. In economically strapped times, it is nice to have one of them be an $850K center rather than an end of the bench player who costs $1.5 – 3 million. Every little bit counts, and you hate to have a pine-rider pulling money away from keeping valuable players or putting your team into luxury tax territory. You have to have 12 players. You could do a lot worse for $850K than a 7 footer — and most teams do.
- Trade Bait – Sometimes $850K is all that stands between a trade going through and it not going through. A lot of high salary players make things hard to match. A couple of small potatoes are sometimes needed to make the good multi-player, multi-team trades work. A tiny salary like his might be just the key to helping a trade go through — plus a lot of other teams would think it a much more valuable throw-in that most of what comes at $850K. After all, he is a 7 footer with upside.
