Ok I think I'm getting it. Even if we magically right now dumped a max contract like Durant on some team with cap space and moved way below the line we shouldn't have crossed, it does not lift the restrictions THIS season on trades and signings. Since we've been hard capped, we will now have these restrictions the rest of the season no matter what we do. Is that accurate? And the main problem with this is that if we trade someone out, we can only take back the same amount or less. But why is that a problem? Can we not trade say Steven Adams for a PG making $12m or less?
Nothing makes these restrictions "go away" They did two things this offseason which triggered the restriction at the 1A. `1) the sign and trade of Clint Capela 2) the use of the Non Taxpayer version of the MLE on DFS. Because of those moves, they are hard capped at the 1A for the full season - they cannot at any time exceed that 1A.
It will come in handy if we have to shuffle things around and move someone like Capella at the last minute.
