Fair market is not a bargain. Fair market is fair market.
Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder and Isaiah Thomas at ~$7m is a bargain.
Demarcus Cousins at ~$16m is a bargain.
Noah and Mozgov at ~$17m is a complete rip off.
Kanter at $17m is fair value - it is not a bargain.
Enes Kanter at $17m is not a bargin.
Have you ever done an auction draft in a fantasy league? When the market changes, as is currently happening, fair market values change. Bradley, IT and Crowders contracts are all probably top 10 values in this league, so we have a relatively unfair expectation of what bargain contracts are and that restricts everything else into inaccurate categories. You might as well say if we don't have any top 10 players that all of our players are average or below average.
The way to use those bargain contracts is to leverage the value saved there into being able to overpay--relative to the market--for other assets. The reason crazy money is going to be spent this summer is because max contracts given under a $94M salary cap aren't going to look crazy when the cap is $110M next year, and max contracts signed when the cap was $70M are going to the the new bargains. Getting a player who was signed to the max at that level will look roughly similar to signing Amir Johnson last offseason--which looks like a [dang] masterpiece at this point if our GM wasn't steps on steps ahead of most others and has raised the bar for himself.
None of this to say I'd particularly want Kanter, but the reason won't necessarily be his contract. Would that be a little disappointing that Ainge couldn't continue to find $20 bills in his jacket pocket like he has the last few seasons? Sure. But I'd rather have a little big picture view of this.