...but I’m not sure about the trade exception. From what I understand, we only have part of it left. But I’ll try to get to the bottom of it today.

As for the trade itself, it looks a little too good to be true, but if the Sixers really think they have Brand, they’ll want all the cap space they can get.

...I swear this won’t turn into 50 comments from me.

But, after a little digging, it looks like the total of Booth and Carney’s contracts comes to $2,803,283. The Blount trade exception less the Beno Udrih and Kirk Snyder trades comes to $2,797,711. When it comes to trades involving trade exceptions though, there’s a $100,000 buffer. Bottom line, it’s doable money-wise.

Memphis, the town where Carney played college ball, is also an apparent destination.

Yahoo Sports:

Philadelphia 76ers forwards Rodney Carney, Calvin Booth and a future No. 1 pick have been traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves to free as much as $2 million in additional salary cap space for the Sixers to offer Elton Brand or Josh Smith, multiple league sources said.

Minnesota sends Philadelphia its $2.8 million trade exception from a 2007 deal of Mark Blount to the Miami Heat.

Lol, if the previous trade wasn’t a highway robbery, this one sure as hell is. We get a look at Carney (which feels a lot like CDR to me, think he can get us some free throws), get an extra temp Center that can block shots (and about nothing else) AND if we get a future first round, that would be completely crazy … cuz we’re giving up NOTHING…

Both players are off the books in the summer of 2010 so it doesn’t hurt our plans one bit (Carney can be restricted with a QO of 3,5 mil in that summer). If McHale pulls this off he’s officially redeemed himself as much as he possibly could have.

Only problem could be it’s getting a bit packed. Below is how I would rotate. You could off course do as Witt has done before and give brewer all 23 minutes at SG at one game and give them to Carney the next. Don’t really like that for growing consistency but it is probably better to see how a player performs when give enough minutes to get into the game…

PG: Foye (34), Telfair/someone else (14)
SG: McCants(25), Brewer (13), Carney (10)
SF: Miller (28), Gomes(15), Brewer (5)

Or would you guys do it any different?

Salary source:
http://hoopshype.com/salaries/philadelphia.htm

I don’t really understand the mechanics of this – we get these guys for nothing? There is no catch anywhere…?

I don’t know about Booth, but I remember seeing Carney at Memphis and thinking that he might be a pretty nice pro – long, smooth perimeter player who is very good in transition, nice shot, etc. This creates a bit of a logjam at that spot, but if nothing else gives the Wolves a tradeable asset, or makes McCants more expendable (I hate talking about these guys as “assets,” but I guess that’s how it’s done).

...are they going to put all of these guys? I don’t think they’re done trading yet. If they re-sign Gomes and a PG…well, I just don’t get where you put these guys. I wonder what sort of trade is in the works.

put em like this. That works doesn’t it? To little minutes for Carney? Brew gets 18, Gomes 15, Carney 10 … not good enough?

PG: Foye (34), Telfair/someone else (14)
SG: McCants(25), Brewer (13), Carney (10)
SF: Miller (28), Gomes(15), Brewer (5)

I’m not convinced that it’s completely done yet, but it certainly looks to be only a matter of time.

Wim, I’m hurt you’re not using our cap info and I’ll keep plugging it until you do. Besides, Hoopshype blows for contract info.

Also, the 25% + $100k buffer for trades only applies to simultaneous trades (ie those not involving trade exceptions). Non-simultaneous trades (ie those involving trade exceptions) only have $100k as a buffer.

Check out parts 67, 68 and 69 of Larry Coon’s NBA CBA FAQ for details on how trade exceptions work.

As a recent and easy example, last year Charlotte had a ton of cap room. So much so, in fact that they were able to absorb Jason Richardson’s entire salary from Golden State and still be under the cap. Therefore, they didn’t have to apply the salary matching rules. That transaction creates a trade exception for the Warriors in the amount of Richardson’s contract.

There are much more complicated situations, but the above is the gist. Someone’s able to absorb salary without giving it away, so the other team instead gets an exception that can be used later to “complete” the trade.

I’d think the Wolves would have more moves coming too. A move with a big man or two going somewhere for a point guard.

Thanks for correcting my trade mistake (most I know is from playing NBA Live :p and a bit from reading that CBA thing, but haven’t got around to fully reading it through) and for explaining how a trade exception comes up. I totally understand now.

Your cap info is excellent and I’ve looked at it a few times when we were talking about the Memphis trade. I used them to see that indeed we have a very good chance at landing a star in the summer of 2010. As far as I can see though, the contracts of other teams (i.e. those two from Philly) aren’t in there, so there was no other way of knowing if those two contracts were gonna be done by the summer of 2010 ^^. So since they are …

I agree SnP that the details of that pick are gonna be important to evaluate the trade .. but I don’t think he could have done anything better with it than this > get a young guy, who we might trade further, NOT give away anything we want and getting a pick in the process..

If I’m right those exceptions expire in time so good thing they used it now to get a pick.

I agree that the backcourt is once again getting crowded. The good thing about believing you have assets that deserve playing time is that you can actually make them earn it. And while I like Carney’s potential, I don’t think he’s lived up to it yet, so its not a given that its going to be a concern.

Back to SnP’s original point—at the very least we actually used this chit (see Ratliff, Theo for the way NOT to do it). Even if Booth is inactive the entire season (or for every game except for Shaq and the Suns), and Carney is gone in 2 years, the Wolves will have the 1st round pick, which will be worth something.

And since we’re worrying about the rotation already, if Wit does his job, he’ll communicate his vision of a rotation and everyone’s roles in it, and stick with it for at least a little while. Brewer in particular needs to know he’s going to get consistent minutes (even if it’s only 18-24 a game), his role (defensive specialist and layup shooter) and (hopefully) his position (guarding the other team’s best 2 or 3, depending on the night. My preference (with today’s roster) would be to start AJ, Love, Gomes, Miller & Foye (that’s pretty good size) with McCants, Telfair and Brewer making a pretty active 2nd unit. If you leave Love/Gomes on the floor with those three, you can minimize the fact that Brewer and Telfair can’t shoot, and Love’s outlet passing can hopefully lead to more fast breaks and layups for Brewer and Telfair.

OK this is totally off-topic and I’m sure it has been debated on this site. But allow me to say that I think Brewer and Telfair will both become good shooters. On Brewer: do people remember the final four where he was mvp? All he did was hit spot-up 3s all tournament long. I think most of his difficulties last year were 1. yes, he needs more practice – i.e. he needs to put the work in to become a better shooter (which he seems to be doing); 2. not having a really well-defined role on the team (guard? forward? perimeter? midrange? green or yellow light to shoot?); 3. adjusting to the speed of the NBA game. If you watch him shoot, his mechanics are really nice. I’m not saying he’ll turn into Dale Ellis, but I think he can be a guy who can consistently knock down mid-range pull up jumpers (he’ll get plenty of these given his game and his size), and the occasional spot-up long one.

I basically think the same of Telfair – he needs work but the mechanics are fine, no reason he shouldn’t be able to use his quickness to become a Tony Parker-type shooter, i.e. a guy who consistently gets and makes mid-range jumpers because defenses are scared he’ll blow by them.