Not an expert on the salary cap, however I'm pretty sure that the trade exception can't be packaged with salaries to trade for a contract over the 8.3 mill exception that the Lin trade created. The reason I bring this up is if this team wants to execute a big trade it would be tough to do without packaging either Terry or Pap which are key parts of the rotation. Therefore, wouldn't it be advantageous to trade for a player like Brandon Bass or someone in the 8.3 million contract range so that come the deadline we have a contract that could be traded in a big salary deal without having to lose either Terry or Pap?
Yes, but just because someone fits in the TPE, it does not mean someone will give them to us for free.