But why trade him and have to put a team through the trouble of having to pay whatever is owed on his salary when the Rockets could just let his contract expire? Wouldn't the Rockets have to give up a pick or something since a team is basically helping the Rockets out by absorbing that contract? I don't see how this benefits the other team... Edit: thanks for clearing that up for me.
theres a good chance this happens... it's ALL about the future if we can't land a star now. man oh man i just hope all this patience pays off one of these years... i need the rockets to win another championship!
The Rockets would pay his remaining salary plus extra. That way the other team makes a little money and can cut Yao immediately after the trade.
Bima, Wasn't it reported that the Rockets would have up until January 31st to use the DPE? Im a bit confused on how that works as far as trading him goes. Does that mean that they have till January 31st to trade him, or do they just have till January 31st to agree to the DPE that the league agreed to? -If they have to move Yao before January 31st then I see a huge problem there because the other team knows the Rockets need to move his contract in a short period of time. Leaving the Rockets with only a few options for trading his contract for basically nothing to maybe a pick and a bad contract.
That deadline is for using the exception by signing or trading for a player, we could trade Yao after that and before the trade deadline. However, some good authority here has said that we cannot use the DPE if we trade Yao first. The other team wouldn't get a trade exception, we will. If I understand correctly the other team would do it because would actually earn some money and can dump an unwanted contract on us.
Great article. A huge TPE will be useful next year to acquire someone like Chris Paul. NO is gonna package Okafor with Paul (if he asks out or says he won't extend like Melo) so you either need big expiring contracts or a huge TPE to asorb those contracts. Great idea!
A bad contract for them wouldn't necessarily be a bad contract for us. Hypothetically, imagine if it's a fairly payed competent center which they have no need for?
It is an option but a last resort option. We'll see how well the huge TE works out for the Cavs and the Raptors. I bet they both eat them.
Making trades harder as an indirect means to stop owners from signing albatross contracts? hmmm. That's like outlawing divorce as an indirect means to stop people from impulsively getting into bad marriage contracts. Sounds like a stretch, if that's what the owners are thinking. What you can do after signing the bad contract is after the fact/indirect solutions. I don't think eliminating TPEs is going to save the owners from themselves anywhere close to the more straightforward ways: eliminating the MLE, lowering the cap, lowering max contracts, shortening max length, etc. Trade flexibility is good for the league and union, and fans. I sure hope they don't get rid of TPEs.
traded exception can't be combined with other exceptions to get an expensive player. it can't be combined with other players to get an expensive player either.
Bima, What about leverage in a SnT scenario? You mentioned Lee, Bosh, Lebron SnT deals but all of those teams had significant cap space correct? The Rockets wouldn't be in a position to legitimately sign any big time FA under the cap so if the player's former team did not sign-and-trade the player the Rockets would NOT be able to obtain the player unlike the other situations mentioned. I think this is a factor, how big I'm not sure.
I meant to say the trade exception would be for the Rockets in a trade of course. -As for the Yao DPE/Trade deadlines, you are saying the Rockets can only use his DPE AND trade him, if he is traded after the January 31st Deadline? So there is no reason to trade him before that date? I find the rules to this trade to be pretty confusing myself.
I believe that is false, and not a potential "benefit" of trading Yao for nothing. They cant create cap room and simultaneously have trade exceptions and salary exceptions. See the Cavaliers and Raptors, who both chose to have the use of their exceptions instead of cap space this year.
another thing we need to keep in mind is exceptions will be lost if rox salary is dropped to the point where adding all exceptions plus existing salary is still under the cap. we have a few big contracts expired at the end of this season. we may run into the situation all exceptions are gone.
Thanks for the kind remarks, everyone. It looks like other posters have done a good job of answering the questions that have thus far been directed at me, so thanks for saving me the time. Some other tidbits/clarifications: --Yes, trade exceptions cannot be combined with player salaries or other trade exceptions. However, deals can be made as several separate and distinct trades. The Rockets could use their trade exception to absorb one or more large contracts and then, in a separate trade, the Rockets could trade players for players or could absorb another player via a separate trade exception. (The Rockets did this with the Ariza-Lee trade by acquiring Courtney Lee with a portion of the Carl Landry trade exception and then separately trading Trevor Ariza into New Jersey's cap space in order to generate the largest possible trade exception on that deal.) --Another benefit of trading Yao for a huge trade exception that didn't make it into the blog entry is that, to the extent that (some form of) the MLE still exists under the new CBA, the Rockets would have that available to sign Yao as an unrestricted free agent for next season. If the Rockets went the "maximize cap space" route, they would have to use some of that cap room on Yao, at the expense of being able to use that room for other outside free agents or trades. But having the trade exception would allow the Rockets to use the MLE on Yao (and maybe even one or more other players) while STILL having the trade exception available to trade for a big-time player. --On the general concept of the benefit/burden of trade exceptions, I think both heypartner and JuanValdez are right. Trade exceptions are an almost necessary tool to save owners from the bad decisions they've made; so I don't see the owners wanting to eliminate them. But they do act to "re-allocate" salary in such a way as to create room for more salary, so I don't think the players union wants to see them go, either. Agreed that there are other, better ways to limit salaries, such as the items heypartner lists in his last post. --The Rockets (I think) could conceivably make a trade to acquire a player from Sacramento using the Yao DPE and then immediately afterward--the key word there being "AFTERWARD"--trade Yao into cap space for a trade exception. It would be interesting to see how the league would rule on a transaction like that. Still, to the extent that the league disallows this, the Rockets can always use the Ariza trade exception instead of the DPE. Also, my guess is that the Rockets don't even consider trading Yao until the trade deadline, by which time the DPE will have expired anyway. So, I guess it'll probably be a moot point.
If they do this, and I think there is a good chance they do, it will mean Morey will have been unable to get that coveted alpha dog, and we are probably stuck with an unbalanced overloaded roster for the rest of this year. And that means potential chemistry problems on the team, and between GM and head coach, IMO. Good article Bima, and well thought of Jopa. DD
