The 3.13 exception

by parkinglotj on Feb 28, 2009 10:37 AM PST

I've been thinking about that 3.13 Ruffin trade exception. Will Portland really use it?

A quote from Ben really caught my eye.

"The team is really, really, really satisfied with itself for creating that trade exception. Like "beaming" satisfied."

So it got me thinking. Pritchard said in one of his post deadline interviews that the exception can be used to get a player that another team deems too pricey (Just like Portland did with James Jones) and get a first round draft pick as well.

If the trade could not exceed 3.13 million, that narrows the players and teams that Portland could deal with down.

I used Storyteller's contracts site to go a hunting.

1) I figured that a contract will need to be at least 2.4 million to make it worth it to the "other" team. So that narrowed the list to 26 players.

2) I also crossed off players like Joakim Noah, Carl Landry and Eric Gordon; they're just too young and have too much promise to be included in a trade like this.

3) The contracts needed to be longer than one year.

My list became pretty short after that.

Atlanta's Maurice Evans. 2.5 million next year and 2.5 the folllowing year.

From what I could find he's a 30 year old, 6-5 defensive SF who shoots 3's very well from the corners. (ESPN's Hollinger)

Dallas' Shawne Williams. 2.4 million next year and 3.4 the following year.

Weed is his downfall. Don't know if he would just be cut after getting that #1.

Golden State's Kelenna Azubuike. 3.1 million next year and 3.3 the following year.

Good young 25 year old 6-5 SF.

New Jersey's Eduardo Najera. 3.0 million next year, 3.0 the following year and 2.7 the year after.

The dirty big man we need?

Washington's Andrey Blatche. 3.0 million next year, 3.2 the following year and 3.5 the year after.

Maybe too good and too young to be included.

If anyone else can come up with any names I missed that's great. Or if you have a different criteria to come up with names, that's OK too.

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Remember those young guys like Eric Gordon aren't really off our radar

The trade exception can’t be packaged with anything else, but we could do a separate trade at the exact same time. We could pick up a young promising guy for nothing but a trade exception, and at the same time pick up one of their bad contracts or give them some of our draft picks.

Want more aggressiveness? Try less Baylesslessness.

by prezofdeath on Feb 28, 2009 10:56 AM PST reply actions

not to nitpick cause this is good stuff

but it could be a ton better if you linked all the names to the links

Marice Evans
2.5 million next year and 2.5 the folllowing year

i know that is nitpicky and it is saturday morning but on well.

I think that he may be using it as a salary dump situation for a team like the Suns, Griz, Wiz etc, a team that would like to shed 5m in salary (3m for the TE and 2-3m for their first pick)

I mean think if we could just take Blatche from the Wiz for nothing and just say, “you have to include your 1st this year or we will not take his salary off your hands” He and your 1st will cost them10m in luxury tax+salary for what? We can take them on and save them 10m and we get a top 10 pick, not that we need more lotto picks, but I digress.

"Damn the Blazers. Damn them to hell. They are working the rest of the league like a speed bag." - Bill Simmons 6/26/08

by SpyderRyder on Feb 28, 2009 11:37 AM PST reply actions

Tried to fix it.

Thanks.

by parkinglotj on Feb 28, 2009 1:23 PM PST up reply actions

Oh,

I wanted to ask.

Can additional money be sent with the exception? Is that legal?

by parkinglotj on Feb 28, 2009 1:27 PM PST up reply actions

i think up to 3m can be included in any trade

So we take 3m player their lotto 1st (2-3m) and then add in 3m cizzash and that saves them 13m for the season.

Not too bad for only having to give up your 1st.

Blatche may be good as he is signed to a long contract, they should have a good draft pick and Was is WAY over the cap. Might be a plan.

"Damn the Blazers. Damn them to hell. They are working the rest of the league like a speed bag." - Bill Simmons 6/26/08

by SpyderRyder on Feb 28, 2009 1:51 PM PST up reply actions

So can we use the cap room first?

According to HoopsWorld the cap room will be 9.1 million. http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=11764
Then use the 3.13 million exception?

by parkinglotj on Feb 28, 2009 1:59 PM PST up reply actions

I’m pretty sure if you’re under the cap, you have to either forgo all your exceptions (mid-level, biannual, trade…) or not use your cap space

My HDTV is a torrented game that I can watch lag-free :(

Let LaMarcus keep the headband!

by inroywetrust on Feb 28, 2009 2:06 PM PST up reply actions

Azubuike is the man!

I would love it if we got him, if not just for the fact that he kills us every time we play the Warriors.

by peteypablo on Feb 28, 2009 11:46 AM PST reply actions

+1

I like his game, real tough player on both ends of the court. Minutes at the 2 would be an issue with Roy and Rudy getting their time, but depending on what the Blazers decide is the direction they want to go at the 3/what else happens in the offseason, he could be an Ime type glue guy here.

An admission: After the OKC game, I said some things. Stupid things. Things about Nate not knowing how to coach GO. It was only then I realized that I was in danger of becoming that which I most loathe - an uninformed, knee jerk fan who reacts to wins with wild delusions of championships and losses with trade and firing fodder. I will not be that fan. From this point on I will support the Blazers, the coaches and front office wholeheartedly, offering praise and criticism appropriate to the matter at hand. I will never again be "that guy".

Blazeraddict
2/9/2009

by blazeraddict on Feb 28, 2009 11:52 AM PST up reply actions

i like Mo evans

Woof

by Charles Barkley McLovin on Feb 28, 2009 12:14 PM PST reply actions

One thing about the exception that I haven't heard anyone talk about is...

there is no point in using the exception while we still have the 6-7 million dollars in cap space on the books, we would essentially just be trading cap space. And the cap space is likely to be more valuable then a guy who is already making 3.13 milion dollars. So we will use the cap space first.

I have tried several times to find out when NBA free agency begins, but I have been unable to find that information. If my memory serves me right free agency begins after the NBA draft. This would mean that unless we use that cap room for a trade on draft night we won’t use the trade exception until after the draft as well.

My personal feeling about the exception is KP will try to use it the same way he used the exception that got us JJ33 and Rudy. He will trade with a team that is struggling financially for a player that rarely plays and he will also take a draft pick from them. We will send the exception and cash, a great deal for us.

I guess my entire point to my post is KP will want to use the exception on draft night but he won’t be able to unless there is a seperate trade on draft night using the cap space.

There won't be clean officiating in the NBA until David Stern is forcibly removed by the US Congress in 2013 for fixing games.

by 123_G.O._RipCity on Feb 28, 2009 12:38 PM PST reply actions 1 recs

the new fiscal year (and thus any cap room we would have) doesn’t start until after the july moratorium, which runs from like July 1 to July 10 or so, so there is no cap space to be used during the draft time (unless we do a deal that can’t actually be consumated until after july).

Additionally, you can’t have both the exception and the cap space, so if we do make a deal that requires the use of straight up cap space, we have to renounce all our exceptions first (or use them)

What I believe is possible is to use the exception before the new fiscal year, then renounce Frye and our other exceptions in order to get the capspace for the new fiscal year.

So, this would be allowed:
1) use trade exception on draft day
2) renounce MLE and biannual exception, along with Frye, and get X dollars under the salary cap

This would NOT be allowed:
1) do a draft-day deal that can’t be announced until later because it uses the capspace we can maneuver to have after the new fiscal year starts
2) use the trade exception after the new fiscal year starts.

I suppose we could do 2 draft day deals – one that can be immediately processed on draft day that uses our trade exception, and one that is done but not official until mid-july becuase it uses future cap space. in functional terms, it would be the same as the first scenario above.

Rule #1 of nitpicking is to get it right.

by douglast on Feb 28, 2009 2:05 PM PST up reply actions

But if we take back a player using the excemption it just adds that players salary to our salary

Meaning our six million in cap space becomes 3 million (if we use the excemption for a 3 million dollar player). I highly doubt the three million in excemption is more valuable then having 6 million in cap space. But then again KP and TP were supposedly gitty about it.

Are you sure we have to renounce the excemption if we drop below the cap? I thought the trade excemption was good for 1 year.

There won't be clean officiating in the NBA until David Stern is forcibly removed by the US Congress in 2013 for fixing games.

by 123_G.O._RipCity on Feb 28, 2009 2:25 PM PST up reply actions

Also doesn't the NBA not allow draft day trades involving players to be cleared until after the new fiscal year?

Isn’t that the situation that made KP keep quiet (publicly) about Bayless and Batum until a week or two after the draft.

If that is the case then couldn’t we agree to trade cap space we are going to have eventually.

There won't be clean officiating in the NBA until David Stern is forcibly removed by the US Congress in 2013 for fixing games.

by 123_G.O._RipCity on Feb 28, 2009 3:42 PM PST up reply actions

can we get JJ33 back.

I am just saying that is what we might be missing in the three spot.

by RipCityRoyCity on Feb 28, 2009 1:02 PM PST reply actions

a healthy

Ime>JJ33

The most hated Blazer is like the least hottest supermodel - Sabonis4Ever

by Philthyanimal on Feb 28, 2009 10:11 PM PST up reply actions

The 26 players that met the 2.4 million to 3.13 criteria

Atlanta: Maurice Evans 2.5 million
Boston: Eddie House 2.8, Tony Allen 2.5
Chicago: Joakim Noah
Dallas: Shawne Williams 2.4
Denver: Johan Petro 2.8, Linas Kleiza 2.7
Golden State: Kelenna Azubuike 3.1, Brandon Wright 2.6
Houston: Carl Landry 3.0, Luther Head 2.8
Indy: Jarrett Jack 2.9
Memphis: Hakim Warrick 3.0
Miami: Dorell Wright 2.8
Milwaukee: Joe Alexander 2.5
Minnesota: Corey Brewer 2.9, Mark Madsen 2.8, Sebastian Telfair 2.5
New Jersey: Eduardo Najera 3.0
New Orleans: Hilton Armstrong 2.8
OKCity: Thabo Sefolosha 2.7
Orlando: JJ Redick 2.8
San Antonio: Michael Finley 2.5
Utah: Ronnie Brewer 2.7
Washington: Andrey Blatche 3.0
LA Clippers: Eric Gordon 2.8

by parkinglotj on Feb 28, 2009 1:50 PM PST reply actions

I wouldn't mind

Eduardo or Maurice as a tough veteran prescence

by BeloHorizante on Feb 28, 2009 2:46 PM PST up reply actions

A few comments

How did you come up with the $2.4 million lower level? Just arbitrarily to have a figure that looks high enough? Sometimes teams just want to shed smaller salaries to make room on the roster/cap, e.g. a just signed draft pick or a minimum salary guy. Last year Memphis and OKC and at least another team I can’t remember right now benefitted from that by taking on players, e.g. when Philly had to make cap room for the Elton Brand signing.
The upper level should be the salary exception + $100,000 as the maximum amount of salary that could come back in a deal. Don’t know if that is already included.
Some of the players on your list will be free agents (e.g. Warrick, Finley, Kleiza). Could we acquire them with this exception before they become that? I don’t think so. And afterwards their salaries should be different.
I’m not convinced Pritchard will let Channing walk for nothing in return. While he did that with James Jones, I think Channing value both in his mind and in the mind of other GMs. So I wouldn’t be surprised if they make him a qualifying offer to restrict him. Could we already use the exception(s) while he is on the cap with that hold?

Proud Odensheeple

by Norsktroll on Feb 28, 2009 4:18 PM PST up reply actions

New wrinkles, thumbs up

Point #1. In order to give up a first round pick, I figured that the salary threshold would need to be near 3 million. If I looked that narrowly for players making 2.9 through 3.13, I would have only come up with something like 3 names. I don’t believe that KP would limit himself that much. So, unscientifically, I tried to find a breaking point.

Point #2. I did not figure the +100,000. My error. That is a great catch.

Point #3. Warrick, Finley and Kleiza were not included in the final tally, because I believe they have the opt out ability or are FA’s.

Point #4. Do you think that Channing could be used in a sign and trade?

by parkinglotj on Feb 28, 2009 4:42 PM PST up reply actions

I could very well see Channing being moved on draft day, or shortly thereafter in a sign and trade

Proud Odensheeple

by Norsktroll on Feb 28, 2009 5:08 PM PST up reply actions

Lets hope

It was "mascot night" at the Rose Garden, which apparently translates to a dozen inflatable versions of various NBA mascots being chased around the arena by Portland's "Blaze", which is some breed of rapist dog. -PostingandToasting

by GreatOden'sRaven on Feb 28, 2009 6:05 PM PST up reply actions

Sorry, Channing cannot be traded on draft day

since he’ll be a FA on July 1st.

by Storyteller on Mar 1, 2009 7:05 PM PST up reply actions

Eduardo Najera fills a great need in the roster...

When I look at this roster, and most of us suspect that our boy Channing Frye won’t be resigned, we need a scrapy and physical backup PF. I have really liked Eduardo Najera’s game and I just read on ESPN Rumors that Najera is NOT happy since he was traded to the New Jersey Nets….

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/features/rumors
“Eduardo Najera turned himself last season into a shooter. This season he’s become a sitter.
"I never stole money in my career,” said Najera, a forward who signed a four-year, $13 million deal with New Jersey last summer after leaving the Nuggets as a free agent. “I guess there’s a first time for everything.”
— Rocky Mountain News"

Getting Najera for essentially nothing could be a nice addition to the roster…. Toughness, hustle, defense, and pretty solid offense too.

by Portland Dynasty on Feb 28, 2009 11:51 PM PST reply actions