Gafford Extension - 3 years almost $60M

[F Gump]

Assuming that's true, and your interpretation of the impact is correct...

If I was a player agreeing to a deal early in order to be traded to a preferred team, this is exactly the type of clause I would want added. Just think of it as a different form of a no trade clause. Since he's the one signing first, it's insurance against Dallas changing the deal after the ink is dry.

As I think about it, my takeaway may have been premature. 

FWIW TK's have weird rules. My knee-jerk is how it used to be, when they were always applied and you had to always account for them. 

But since one of the CBAs (I think it began in 2011) those rules started getting revised in the new CBA in this way or that, and they can fail to be applied sometimes, in part or in whole, in certain situations. And even when they apply, they are a mess to figure out how much is due, the cap hit, etc (the way to do the cap math can change too). I'm not sure I remember all the exceptions anymore since the 2023 CBA.

There is one scenario when they NEVER apply (but remain as a part of the contract going forward), which is when a player is signing an extension with a TK as part of an extend-and-trade. That would be easy, but there's been no indication whatsoever that this is tied to a trade.