Really wish we could've kept him being a local kid.. Wonder CPFK didn't want him or he did want to stay..?
Total guessing on this one, and maybe all of them.
Players are interested in maxxing out their finances and that's at the front of their decisions, so nearly all of them, if not all, want to see what the market is offering.
Payne framed the fans, told the players to tune out the noise all year, then in the end pointed out that noise and either casually or directly advised the players to leave for a # of reasons, or at the very least test a market that he himself seemed uninterested in dealing with.
PK probably tried to keep most of them, or at the very least said if they wanted to return they were all welcome, while knowing many were 100% gone. He was probably honest about his expectations, shared his system/approach etc, and for the guys that look like role players he probably advised competition would be brought in, and I'm guessing he informed nearly everyone not named BHH they were going to have some competition too.
When you roll all that up, and probably more, or in some ways less in others, you have 10-12 guys, whatever that count, that decided to leave.
For some reason many fans seem to think the HC is making all these decisions, when the new norm is saying not so much, at least nothing like the past.