Chronic: If Landry leaves, Joey Dorsey is the Rockets' solution

Almost, but not quite.

You are correct that teams that are over the salary cap can only sign second round picks using a salary cap exception. Most of the time, the exception that is used is the Minimum Player Salary Exception, which enables NBA teams to sign player to league minimum contracts for up to two years (and/or to trade them) without regard to the salary cap.

On some occasions, a team may choose to dip into the MLE in order to give the second rounder a third year (typically as a team option) on the player's contract in order to avoid restricted free agency issues if the player turns out to be very good in his first two years. If the team exercises the player's option, at the end of Year 3, that team will have full Bird rights on the player.

It would be rare for a team to use the Bi-annual Exception (or LLE) on a second rounder, since it would not enable the team to add any more years to a league minimum deal, plus the team would lose the right to use the Bi-annual Exception the next year on a veteran. The only case where this exception would be used on a second rounder would be if BOTH (a) the team had already used the entire MLE and (b) the player was demanding more than the league minimum (which could really only realistically happen if it was a former second rounder who had proven himself overseas).

pbthunder, the one area in which you are incorrect is regarding Early Bird rights. If a player plays under the same contract, or with the same team, for two seasons, then the team has Early Bird rights on the player. This will allow the team to sign that player, without regard to the salary cap, for up to the GREATER of (a) 175% of that player's previous salary or (b) the average player salary. The latter amount is a figure equal to the MLE, but is NOT the actual Mid-Level Exception. This means that a team over the cap could both sign an Early Bird free agent to an MLE-sized deal AND sign an outside free agent to the MLE.

And yes, I was talking about Dorsey. As long as there is enough room left in the MLE equate to the rookie league minimum, it is pretty much ALWAYS better to sign a high second rounder (who the team thinks can be a valuable contributor down the road) to a 3-year deal out of the MLE for the equivalent of the league minimum salary than for that team to just sign the player to a fully guaranteed two-year league minimum deal. The ONLY downside is that the player cannot be traded without regard to the salary cap using the Minimum Player Salary Exception, since he was signed using a different exception (in this case, the MLE).

I hope this adds some clarity to the situation.

 

Doh!

I remember reading the "or league average salary," but somehow I was thinking "league minimum," so I didn't mention that.

 

Looks like Dorsey is as tall as a PG.