The Celtics‘ $17MM+ traded player exception from last summer’s Evan Fournier sign-and-trade will expire if it’s not used on Monday, as our tracker shows.
A trade exception allows a team to acquire a player – or multiple players – without sending out anyone for salary-matching purposes. Using their Fournier TPE, the Celtics could acquire any player earning up to $17,242,857 in 2022/23.
However, Boston’s team salary is already well over the luxury tax threshold and there had been a sense following this month’s Malcolm Brogdon trade that the Celtics might not use their big exception — besides pushing team salary further into tax territory, the Brogdon deal had helped the club address one of its most pressing needs (adding a play-making guard), reducing the likelihood of another major trade.
If the Fournier TPE expires today without being used, the Celtics will still have a handful of trade exceptions – including ones worth $6.9MM and $5.9MM – that won’t expire until January or February.
A Clippers trade exception worth $8.25MM from last summer’s Rajon Rondo deal will also expire today if it’s not used. Los Angeles has a second exception worth $9.72MM that won’t expire until the February trade deadline, so losing the Rondo TPE wouldn’t be a major blow. Like the Celtics, the Clippers are also far into tax territory and don’t have any obvious roster holes to fill.
The Trail Blazers used a $21MM trade exception to land Jerami Grant earlier this month, while the $18MM+ TPE the Pacers were able to create in the Brogdon deal was renounced when the team used its cap room to make a play for Deandre Ayton. Once the Celtics’ $17MM+ exception expires, no NBA team will have a TPE worth more than $10MM.
Didn’t the Celtics trade two second rounders to the Knicks just to get the exception? Waste.
Yeah, cuz they could have had another Yam Madar, Kadeem Allen, Tremont Waters, Jabari Bird, or Demetrius Jackson. Maybe even a Jordan Mickey. One never knows.
Smart thing to do with second rounders is trade them at the deadline for a rotation player.
Dare to dream!
It’s not a waste. It’s insurance (maybe you consider insurance a waste, I don’t know). An important asset when operating without a crystal ball. Any team over the cap in a position to get a TPE that large would (and should) buy it for a small toll like a 2nd round pick or two.
It was too small for Brogdon, but what it hadn’t been? They would have been able to keep the players they dealt that they wanted to keep, and release the NG contracts.