Several people have been asking about the state of Portland's salary cap exceptions for this season and/or proposing their use in trade scenarios. This is the official post to clear up the issue.
The Blazers have no cap exceptions remaining this season. The way things worked out those exceptions counted dollar-for-dollar against Portland's cap this summer. In other words retaining a $5 million mid-level exception meant that the Blazers had $5 million less to use on free agents. Once a team's salary level goes below the level of the exceptions that team must choose between the cap space OR the exceptions. It cannot have both. The team must renounce the exceptions for the year in order to use the cap space that was held in surety against them.
The Blazers opted to use their cap space to sign Andre Miller. In order to clear that space they renounced their exceptions plus rights to a bunch of players they were never going to sign. Once those cap holds were dispensed with Portland offered Miller his deal.
Hope this clears things up. According to Storyteller's site Portland now stands at $56.7 million, approximately $1 million below the cap threshold. Another $2.6 million should become free once the summer holds representing Viktor Claver, Petteri Koponen, and Joel Freeland are taken off.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)