Richard Hamilton rejected $16 million buyout offer from Cavaliers

Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports:

"Detroit Pistons guard Richard Hamilton sought a trade for months, and the Pistons were close to sending him to the Cavaliers on Thursday, league sources said. Hamilton, however, wouldn’t agree to surrender $9 million of the $25 million he could make over the next two seasons, scuttling a potential contract buyout and forcing the Pistons to keep him."

Teams can buy first-round picks for up to $3 million, and there are often teams willing to sell. Buy a couple late first-round picks for $6 million, and you can trade up.

That tells us the pick the Pistons offered Cleveland to take Hamilton wasn’t very protected. Or it tells us the Cavaliers don’t know what they’re doing. I guess we didn’t really learn anything about the pick’s protections.

At least, we now have a reference point for a Hamilton buyout – not matter how discouraging the situation seems.