2021-2022 ROSTER TALK: [ARCHIVED]

[BackToSquareOne]

The tricky part is that even though only 50% of Brunson's outgoing salary would apply for trade matching purposes, they still have to meet the standard 125%+100k rule. 

Let's say that Brunson signs for $20mm in the first year in a S&T. Base year compensation limits the outgoing salary for trade matching purposes to $10mm. So the highest salary Dallas could take back is $12.6mm (10mm*1.25+100k). However, the normal trade rules still apply the other way. If the trade puts a team over the cap, they can't trade a $12.6mm player for a $20mm player. So pretty much any normal trade would be illegal.

The ways to solve it mathematically are either to 1. free up more cap space so that the team getting Brunson is still under the cap even after the deal, or 2. stack a lot of additional salaries on top of it so that the percentages work out. So it's still possible, but generally a lot more complicated than most trades we talk about.

Depending on the new Brunson salary, FGump makes a good point that New York has just enough space that they may be able to make it work by also sending an extra player into Dallas's trade exception. So I don't rule that out. But I do think that the extra complexities should incentivize them (and others) to deal for Brunson before the deadline rather than push it to when options get more limited.

I'm feeling particularly stupid today, so could you explain a little more?

Let's use your figures and suppose Brunson signs for $20mm in the first year in a S&T. Let's say, for the sake of an  example, the other team is Knicks (who are & are trying to operate over the cap). 

(1) Is the point that the Knicks would need to send out ~$16mm in salary?  (Even though, just directly, that wouldn't be possible for the Mavs to take back as its greater than $12.6mm .)

(2) If I've understood correctly in (1), then, following up FGump's suggestion, would the Knicks need to send out ~$3.4mm of salary into the Dallas trade exception?