FanShot

What's Holding Up the Wes Johnson Trade

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Some excellent, excellent work from our sister blog, Bright Side of the Sun Three parts of the same CBA rule are in play, for teams that are "over the cap" (applying only to the Hornets here): 1. In the proposed trade, the Hornets must send out salaries ranging from $5.9-$13.6 million in order to take on $9 million in new salary (Robin Lopez for $5 million, and Hakim Warrick for $4 million). 2. A traded player cannot be traded back to the same team in the same league year, meaning Miller cannot be traded back to Minny until next July 1. 3. Any "cap" team cannot trade a player "for two months after receiving the player in trade, if the trade aggregates the player's salary with the salaries of other player", according to Larry Coon's cbafaq.com. In other words, Brad Miller can be traded but only BY HIMSELF. Remember the key pieces: Hornets want Robin Lopez ($5 million); Minnesota needs to dump Wesley Johnson ($4 million) to free cap space for Andre Kirilenko; the Suns want asset(s) back for giving up Robin Lopez, AND the Suns can take on up to $10 million in new salary in any deals. Suns GM Lon Babby has told the Phoenix locals that a "Robin Lopez trade is 50-50". I think the odds are better than that....a verbal agreement has been reached, and everyone stands to lose something important if a deal (or deals) doesn't happen.