MAVS NEWS:

[F Gump]

I have a question about point 2. I heard Stein say that Exum can be signed without the move that makes it legal being made. His point at the time was along the lines of your "camp bodies" point, as in they can sign Exum and then figure out how to make it all legal by the cutdown date, which raised an eyebrow from me. I'm assuming he's wrong, and there's some type of financial or contractual stylistic differentiator between Exum's situation and those camp body types, but can you clarify that a bit?

Stein said that the Mavs can add Exum as the 16th contract because you can have up to 21 NBA contracts until the season starts. That's true, as it pertains to roster numbers.

But he didn't directly speak to the hard cap issue. That has to be considered too.

On the hard cap, the issue is Team Salary, which is calculated every day, and when you have a hard cap, your Team Salary can never exceed that number, even in the off-season. No exceptions, ever. Certain calculations are different in Team Salary for Apron Purposes. Summer contracts (E10) are not counted before the season starts, as they are almost always just a route to a team's GL squad.

Mavs' Team Salary right now is close to A2, and there is not enough room to add any player, even at the minimum. So while the rules generally would allow them to add up to 6 more players in the off-season, until they make a payroll-clearing move, they can add no one else on an NBA deal. A contract for Exum has to wait.