[ESPN] Special Weekend Dime - Houston's Trade Exception

CharlieMurphy · Feb 10, 2007

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime_070210-11

The chances of Sura's contract being used in any trades are looking thinner everyday.

The biggest trade exception in the league expires Tuesday, but the latest signals from Houston indicate that the Rockets aren't terribly optimistic about their ability to use it.

Houston's $4.2 million trade exception was created in February 2005 when the Rockets convinced the Hornets to take on Moochie Norris for Maciej Lampe in a salary dump. Yet as we learned during the interminable Al Harrington saga over the summer, trade exceptions don't equal salary-cap space and can't be added to player salaries or other exceptions to make trades easier to complete. In other words, Houston can't add the trade exception to, say, Juwan Howard's $6.4 million salary and trade for a $10-$11 million player.

To try to simplify this as much as possible, trade exceptions pretty much only help teams acquire players who earn up to or less than the amount of the exception. Yet what makes trade exceptions attractive, especially to teams that face a luxury-tax bill, is the ability to send Houston a player earning in the $4.2 million range without having to take any salary back.

PURELY HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE: Dallas could send Anthony Johnson (and his $2.6 million salary) to the Rockets (who would love a veteran point guard to back up Rafer Alston) for a future draft pick if the Mavs simply wanted to shed some cap dollars. Dallas would never help an in-state rival in this manner, of course, but you get the idea. As long as such a deal is closed by Tuesday, Houston's trade exception allows it to take in up to $4.2 million (plus $100,000) more in salary than it ships out.

A few other HYPOTHETICAL examples of players who could work in such a trade, with their current teams taking back nothing but draft considerations: Atlanta's Tyronn Lue ($3.5 million), Memphis' Chucky Atkins ($3 million) and Philadelphia's Kevin Ollie ($3.2 million).

The Rockets, though, appear to be finding that teams aren't as motivated as Houston is to deal now because the exception expires more than a week before the Feb. 22 trading deadline.

The Rockets can also still be players in a small deal before the deadline without the exception, since the injured Bobby Sura's contract (with only $1 million guaranteed next season) is essentially a $3.8 million expiring contract. But Houston likely wouldn't take back any contract richer than $3.6 million this season in any deal because then it would become a tax-paying team.

If the Rockets' exception goes unused, like Minnesota's $4.2 million exception did last month, New Jersey would have the largest trade exception in the league: $3.8 million good through Jan. 3, 2008, as created by dealing Jeff McInnis to Charlotte.
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CharlieMurphy · Feb 10, 2007

Nevermind...please lock it up. I'm really sorry, didn't see it posted.

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[ESPN] Special Weekend Dime - Houston's Trade Exception

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