A total of 26 trades have been completed to so far during the 2021 NBA offseason, and many of those deals generated at least one “traded player exception.”
As we explain in our glossary, a traded player exception allows a team to take on salary in a trade without sending out any salary in return. The amount of the exception plus $100K is the amount of salary the team is permitted to take back without salary-matching – either in a single deal or in multiple trades – for one year.
For instance, a team with a $10MM trade exception could acquire a player earning $4MM and a player earning $6.1MM without having to worry about sending out any outgoing salary.
One of the biggest trade exceptions ever created – the Thunder‘s $27.5MM TPE from last November’s Steven Adams trade – expired last week without being used, but Oklahoma City still has a pair of sizeable exceptions to work with, as our tracker shows. The team could also create upwards of $30MM in cap space by renouncing all its exceptions, including the mid-level and bi-annual.
While the Thunder have some big traded player exceptions, they aren’t one of the teams that created sizable new TPEs in offseason deals this year. Here are the largest new trade exceptions generated this summer:
- New Orleans Pelicans: $17,073,171 (Steven Adams)
- Brooklyn Nets: $11,454,048 (Spencer Dinwiddie)
- Dallas Mavericks: $10,865,952 (Josh Richardson)
- Boston Celtics: $9,720,900 (Tristan Thompson)
- Note: It’s unclear whether the Celtics absorbed Bruno Fernando‘s salary ($1,782,621) using the Thompson exception or their Kemba Walker trade exception ($6,879,100). We’re assuming for now that Fernando slotted into the Walker exception, reducing its value to $5,096,479. However, if he went into the Thompson TPE, its value would be reduced to $7,938,279.
- Utah Jazz: $7,475,379 (Derrick Favors)
- Note: There was an expectation that the Jazz would slot Eric Paschall‘s salary ($1,782,621) into one of two trade exceptions that were set to expire on August 6. However, it appears the deal wasn’t completed until August 7 for logistical reasons, meaning the Favors TPE (originally $9,258,000) would’ve had to be used.
- Indiana Pacers: $7,333,333 (Doug McDermott)
- Chicago Bulls: $5,000,000 (Daniel Theis)
For a second straight year, a team generated the largest trade exception of the offseason by trading Adams. This time around, it was the Pelicans, who cleverly folded separate trade agreements with the Grizzlies and Hornets into one three-team deal, sending Wesley Iwundu to Charlotte to ensure that Adams’ salary wouldn’t be required for matching purposes.
The Pelicans and Mavericks are the two best candidates on this list to make use of their newly-created exceptions at some point. The larger the exception is, the easier it is to find a use for, and those are two of the three biggest in this group.
The other big TPE belongs to the Nets, but they’re already way over the tax line and will be reluctant to take on more salary unless they have a really good reason to do so. That’s probably true of most of the other teams on this list too — the Celtics and Jazz in particular have to be conscious of luxury-tax concerns as they mull the possibility of taking on additional salary. New Orleans and Dallas have more wiggle room, while the Pacers and Bulls are somewhere in between.
The full list of available trade exceptions can be found here.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.
Lakers don’t want TPE
If they like, they can sign and trade Schroeder and Caruso
Somehow I understood that!
And agree fully, but it might be hard channeling that message to somebody new to HR
Lakers are actually more fearful of the tax then other big market teams and esp more then fans think ! They consider Caruso and Schroeder signing elsewhere as money saved !
Their luxury tax bill should still be around $33M.
If the luxury tax money gets distributed to the other teams then they should all be getting a nice chunk of change next summer.
Warriors nets and clippers blow them away ! Wonder if that will be a competitive advantage for those teams over lakers going forward ! All three have owners double if not triple in net worth over Jeanie buss
Ballmer and Joseph Tsai are both worth way more than Jeanie Buss (like 20 times more), but Joe Lacob is barely worth twice as much.
He just spent a tax bill more then Jeanie and the later Jerry buss ever combined to pay! If he isn’t way more wealthy then her he’s sure way more willing to lose money
Yup Noel you are 100% correct
Lakers have nowhere near the level of spending capacity as a lot of people tend to think around here
I do wonder if the new renovations to the area surrounding Staples will change that in say 23′ offseason after they see the fruits of that and get farther away from Covid
Detroit Pistons from Plumlee deal?
They used cap space after that trade, so they had to renounce their exceptions (besides the room exception).
As far as I can tell, the only team that used cap space this offseason and then still created a trade exception was the Grizzlies, since they’d gotten back over the cap by the time they traded Allen.
I wonder if Utah would move Bojan Bogdanovic or Joe Ingles to the Pelicans. They are looking to cut salary and I know Ingles would fit in the TPE and I think Bojan would. Would give the Pels a nice boost and save the Jazz tax payment.
Ummm no, Ryan Smith and Justin Zanik have both said they aren’t looking to cut anymore salary. Besides both Ingles and Bojan have a defined role with the team and are key to Utah’s game plan. The only way Utah would trade either at this point would be for a possible upgrade and other than untouchables like Williamson and Ingram the Pelicans don’t have anyone that would upgrade Utah’s roster.
Yep, the Jazz already said they’re done making significant moves this off-season.
I would watch the trade deadline for any possible trades going forward. Ingles contract is expiring next Summer. If the Jazz decide to trade him or anyone else then that’s the time to do it.
That’s usually when teams that decide to get rid of expensive players. They either don’t want to pay the tax for them, or when they decide to blow it up because their teams are underperforming well below expectations.
I am interested to see what happens to Siakam. He’s a wing that’s long and athletic, like Ingram, etc, that I think the Jazz need.
David Griffin resign Josh Hart please! And with over $17 mill in TPE can my Pels just str8 up offer Lauri Markkanen between $13 to $15 mill instead of a S&T deal? If it’s that amount I don’t think Chicago match the offer.