NBA Free Agency: Wizards intend to match Otto Porter’s offer sheet with Nets, which includes player option and trade kicker

Otto Porter has officially signed his four year max offer sheet with Brooklyn Nets, and it includes a fourth-year player option, as well as a 15 percent trade kicker, according to multiple reports.

Porter’s offer sheet also stipulates that he get paid half of his annual salary on October 1, according to Zach Lowe. That’s one way to do it, I suppose.

Both the player option and the trade kicker should not come as surprises. Brooklyn is trying to throw in everything they can to deter Washington from matching, which they’ve previously indicated they would do. The Nets included similar options in their offer sheets with Allen Crabbe and Tyler Johnson last summer.

Despite the tough terms, Washington intends on matching and keeping Porter, according to Tim Bontemps of the Washington Post, though they’ll take their sweet time to get the deal done:

Several sources said there is nothing in the offer sheet that will deter the Wizards from matching the offer for the No. 3 pick from 2013 draft. And the Wizards intend to take their time doing so, forcing the Nets to sit around for four extra days with their cap space tied up because of the offer. In addition to the two days the Wizards have to match Porter’s offer initially, there also is a two-day window in which Porter will need to report to the team and be given a physical, and another two-day window after that for the team to announce he has passed the physical.

The deal works out really well for Otto Porter’s future. Having a player option on the fourth year of the deal gives him the opportunity to get back out on the market the first summer he’s eligible to sign for up to 30 percent of the salary cap.

The terms of the deal aren’t great for Washington, but consider the following, before diving off the deep end:

1. If you had dreams of flipping Otto Porter for DeMarcus Cousins next season, you had the wrong dream. It’s an NBA rule that players can’t be traded for a year after signing an offer sheet, unless they waive their no-trade clause. The only way to avoid the no-trade clause would have been to lock him up to a deal before he started fielding offers.
2. The trade kicker isn't a big issue. If Otto lives up to his deal, there's no reason to trade him, and if he doesn't, the trade kicker isn’t the thing that’s going to keep him from being unmovable. Either way, the trade kicker itself isn't as bad as it sounds.
3. The big issue here could be the player option. If you’ll recall, Charlotte gave Gordon Hayward a player option on the fourth year of the offer sheet he signed with the Hornets three years ago. The Jazz had the chance to lock him up for five years but wound up losing him after three. No one here is trying to say that Porter turns into Hayward over the next three years, but if he continues to grow it could put the Wizards in an uncomfortable position where Porter gets back into the free agent market before John Wall and Bradley Beal, assuming Wall signs his extension.

As we discussed last week, every approach to handling Otto Porter’s restricted free agency came with pros and cons. Out of all the options, Washington appeared to be most comfortable with this one. We’ll see how that works out in time, but for now, the good news is that it looks like they’ll be holding on to a player with a very promising future.