Another example of NBA teams shying away from giving players with a long history of knee injuries a big long term contract is Nerlens Noel. Very much like Giles, was projected to be the #1 overall pick in high school.
With the ACL injury in college and subsequent knee related maladies, he dropped to #6 and Giles dropped to #20.
Subsequently, Noel proved to be a worthy rotation player and put up double figure scoring and 8 rebs per game in his 1st and 2nd year. He still has upside as a defensive specialist and rebounder, yet he never got a contract over $4.38 million. He has put up solid role player number for a couple of teams.
I think a lot of teams are leery of giving a big money contract to any player coming off major knee surgeries. HG has great value with us and we know his knee injury history well. Other teams coming in on bidding probably only have those MRI from pre-draft to assess his health. I doubt HG camp will let the new MRIs out to the general NBA, unless he gets a firm contract offer from that team.
HG knees are a great unknown to other teams, which will be an advantage to the Kings in negotiations this summer, over other teams coming in blind with an offer.