Some thoughts on the Markkanen extension:

- A lot of teams with space after Giannis’s extension, some of whom may throw an offer at Markkanen

- This offseason will be harder to exploit the RFA status to get your guy back on a team friendly deal

- Markkanen gains some leverage

- His leverage is countered with Williams being on the roster and looking good early

- Real chance if no extension is done the Bulls could lose Markkanen for nothing

- Probably more value in overpaying by $2-3m and using his contract for trading purposes than letting him walk

- Letting him walk rather than overpaying would gain the Bulls $20.1m in space if they do.

- It may simply come down to this: in a meh FA class, do you think you can do better than Markkanen in FA by letting him walk, removing his cap hold, and using that space on someone else?

The more I think about this, the more I think an extension makes sense — so long as it’s at or below his cap hold.

Losing him for nothing isn’t appealing because this FA class isn’t good. I’d rather sign him, hope he takes a leap, and if not, use his new deal as part of a trade.