The traded player exception the Sixers generated in last year’s Al Horford deal is set to expire if it’s not used on Tuesday, per Basketball Insiders and Spotrac. The exception, created when Horford was sent to Oklahoma City in December, is worth $8,190,134.
Traded player exceptions allow teams to absorb salary without sending outgoing salary for matching purposes. Typically, they expire after one year, but the Sixers’ Horford TPE and the rest of the trade exceptions created during the 2020 offseason had their expiry dates adjusted to account for the NBA’s shortened season.
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I wouldn’t expect many more trades to be completed before the regular season begins next month, but the 76ers are the team that seems most likely to make a deal, given their unresolved Ben Simmons situation. The $8MM+ traded player exception could theoretically come in handy in a Simmons deal, depending on the structure, but Philadelphia won’t rush to get anything done on Tuesday just to use it.
Of the available trade exceptions around the league that are set to expire prior to the 2022 offseason, the Sixers’ $8.19MM TPE is among the largest. The Magic have a $17.15MM exception that will expire in February and the Thunder have a pair worth $9.59MM and $12.8MM, also expiring in February. All of the other TPEs worth more than $8MM won’t expire until next summer.
Could Sixers get Saric back with that? He’s injured so it would be a long play for them but also frees up money for the Sun’s and Bridges extention next year. Philly has to release somebody anyway they could send someone over to PHX in a separate deal. PHX probly could use Mike Scott’s toughness.
Plus Saric salary might could be used in a later Simmons deal.
Sixers have 8.19 in TP I think Saric is 8.5 so I don’t think they could fit him in? But I have been wrong before and NBA rules are very elaborate
Saric doesn’t quite fit. Trade exceptions allow an extra $100K in wiggle room, so the Sixers could acquire someone making up to $8.29MM, but Saric is at $8.51MM.
I noticed that with the salary for Daniel Theis this upcoming season was exactly $100K more than the $8.18M TPE that was used for his S&T with Chicago last month. Although they could have paid him up to $9.5M using the full NT-MLE, but this was a slightly cheaper alternative allowing them to save the MLE for other signings.
If they include a player with the trade exception, would that make it work? Or is that not allowed?
No, trade exceptions can’t be combined with players or other exceptions. If the salary you want to acquire doesn’t fit within the exception (plus $100K), you’ll need to acquire it another way (most likely salary-matching).
Hot potato Simmons.
Unfortunately once I saw we were not bringing George Hill back, I just assumed we would not be using the exception either. Still a few hours to go, but not looking like it.