<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>As part of the Lee-Bayless deal, Boston will send a future second round pick to Memphis. OKC gets a protected 2nd rounder in '17</p>— Chris Mannix (@ChrisMannixSI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisMannixSI/statuses/420403415760785408">January 7, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Figured that Memphis would get a (real) second rounder at least for taking on Lee's contract. I wonder which pick it is. The pick going to OKC is likely top-55 protected and is nominal consideration necessary for there to be an actual "trade" involving Gomes. Given that Gomes's contract is non-guaranteed (he can be cut instantly, will only count ~$400k against the cap, and his new team doesn't have to actually pay him much, if anything), I'm guessing that OKC only had to include cash in this deal. Not sure how much, though.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>MEM gets Lee and 2016 2nd rounder from BOS BOS gets Bayless from MEM and Gomes from OKC OKC gets conditional 2017 2nd rounder from MEM</p>— Ronald Tillery (@CAGrizBeat) <a href="https://twitter.com/CAGrizBeat/statuses/420586530776707074">January 7, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
OKC is right up against the luxury tax threshold. If they just waived Gomes today, he'd still count for about $385k against their cap. By trading him now, they will have more wiggle room to add players (whether on 10-day contracts or other minimum-salary additions for down the stretch) without dipping into luxury tax territory. As noted in my post above, I have to think that OKC threw some cash into this deal. Typically, cash inclusions in trades are not widely reported. Since Boston is no longer in real danger of being taxpayers this year, the $385k cap hit (without really having to actually pay Gomes anything, since they'll cut him right away before his contract is guaranteed) may not have even required OKC to throw in that much money, really. While the $75k was the base guaranteed amount, Gomes has already earned more than that by playing a prorated amount of the season under his current contract. Regardless of partial guarantee amounts, a player is entitled to be paid--and will count against the cap--at the GREATER of (a) his partial guarantee amount or (b) the prorated full-season salary attributable to the portion of the season on which he was on the team's roster. Hence, the ~$385k figure I estimated above.
Marc Stein just confirmed (as I suspected) that OKC threw $1.1 million in cash into the trade in order to clear Gomes's $385k cap figure off their books and to move ~$2.3 million below the tax threshold. (The amount was a little more than I figured, though.) http://espn.go.com/blog/marc-stein/post/_/id/1146/last-trade-dispatch-from-d-league-showcase
