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A source told the Plain Dealer on Thursday that in the hour leading up to the deadline, the negotiations are 10% about basketball and 90% about accounting (Twitter link). Much of the math has to do with trade exceptions, whether the deal involves using one, creating one, or both. Just about every trade that teams make provides the opportunity to create at least one new exception.

Teams can structure deals as they see fit, and sometimes there are multiple ways to create exceptions. We’ve sorted out seemingly the most favorable scenarios from each of this year’s deadline trades, as explained below. Teams don’t always take the intuitive path, so that’s why we’re treating these as exceptions a club CAN make or use, rather than ones they definitively have made or used.

For more information on how these exceptions work and the difference between a simultaneous and non-simultaneous trade, check out our Hoops Rumors Glossary entry on trade exceptions right here.

Nets-Kings

• The Nets can’t create an exception from this trade, since the salary-matching rules for taxpaying teams are stricter than for non-taxpayers. That prevents Brooklyn from structuring the swap of Jason Terry for Marcus Thornton as a swap of its own, which the Nets could do if they weren’t in the tax. Such a move would have created an exception equal to the full salary of Reggie Evans.
• The Kings can create an exception worth $2,424,687, equal to the difference between the salaries for Thornton and Terry. They can absorb Evans and his $1,695,635 salary into the Patrick Patterson exception worth $2,316,429. That would reduce the Patterson exception to $620,794.

Warriors-Lakers

• Steve Blake‘s $4MM salary fits perfectly into Golden State’s $4MM Brandon Rush exception. That allows the Warriors to structure the offloading of MarShon Brooks and Kent Bazemore as separate, one-player non-simultaneous trades. That creates a pair of exceptions, one worth $1,210,080 for Brooks and another at $788,872 for Bazemore. The ability for Golden State to send out Brooks and Bazemore individually is what makes this deal legal in the first place, since the Warriors couldn’t have aggregated the salaries of Brooks and another player in any deal. That’s because it’s been less than two months since the Warriors acquired Brooks via trade from the Celtics.
• The Lakers can create a $2,789,920 trade exception representing the difference between the salaries for Blake and Brooks. They can structure that part as its own transaction because Bazemore’s minimum salary can go into the minimum-salary exception.

Heat-Kings

• This one is straightforward. The Heat can create a $884,293 exception equal to the amount of Roger Mason Jr.‘s cap hit.
• The Kings don’t create an exception, but they used the minimum salary exception to absorb Mason without giving the Heat any player in return.

Wizards-Nuggets-Sixers

• The Nuggets can absorb Jan Vesely‘s $3,340,920 salary into their Andre Iguodala exception worth $9,868,632, reducing the Iguodala exception to $6,527,712. That allows Denver to create a $5MM exception that’s equal to Andre Miller‘s salary. They could also leave the Iguodala exception alone and create a $1,659,080 exception equal to the difference between the salaries for Miller and Vesely, but that seems a less likely course.
• The Wizards can treat the Miller-Vesely swap as its own transaction, and while they can’t create an exception from that, since Miller’s salary is greater than Vesely’s, Washington can get an exception that’s equal in value to Eric Maynor‘s salary of $2,016,000. Structuring the offloading of Maynor to Philadelphia as its own separate deal allows the Wizards to create that exception.
• The Sixers don’t get any exceptions, since they didn’t relinquish any assets in the trade at all. The Wizards simply used Philadelphia as a dumping ground for Maynor, since the Nuggets didn’t want him. Keeping him while swapping Miller for Vesely would have left Washington over the tax line. The Sixers wound up with a pair of second-round picks for their trouble, and the deal also helped them exceed the league-minimum payroll of $52.811MM, which they’d been under all season. That’s of greater consequence to the Sixers players than the team itself, since the team would have had to split the difference between its payroll and the minimum payroll among the players if it hadn’t met the minimum by season’s end. Thus, Philadelphia’s four deadline moves mean the Sixers players will miss out what might have been tidy bonus checks.

Bucks-Bobcats

• The Bucks can create an exception worth $3.25MM, the equivalent of Gary Neal‘s salary. They can do this by structuring their offloading of Neal as its own trade, with the swap of Luke Ridnour for Ramon Sessions and Jeff Adrien as another.
• There doesn’t appear to be a way for the Bobcats to gain an exception through this trade, since the deal as a whole increases their payroll, and from their perspective, there’s no way to split the deal into workable separate transactions.

Spurs-Raptors

• The Spurs can fold Austin Daye into the minimum-salary exception, creating an $1,463,000 exception worth the equivalent of Nando De Colo‘s salary.
• The Raptors add salary in the two-player swap, so there’s no way for them to create an exception short of absorbing De Colo into their existing $4,583,432 Rudy Gay exception. That would reduce that exception’s value and create a diminutive $947,907 exception for Daye’s salary, which wouldn’t serve much of a purpose. So, it’s unlikely the Raptors are using or creating an exception here.

Nuggets-Rockets

• The Nuggets can take Aaron Brooks into the minimum-salary exception to create a $1,169,880 exception equal to Jordan Hamilton‘s salary.
• The Rockets add salary in the two-player swap, and they have no existing exceptions that would facilitate the creation of another, so there’s no way for them to gain an exception in this trade.

Clippers-Sixers

• This deal involves only one player, so the Clippers can simply create a $947,907 exception that’s equal to the cap hit for Byron Mullens.
• As mentioned above, this trade and Philadelphia’s other moves helped the Sixers exceed the minimum team payroll.

Clippers-Hawks

• Much like L.A.’s trade with the Sixers, this trade involves just a single player under contract. The Clippers create an exception worth $884,293 that’s equal to the cap hit for Antawn Jamison.
• The Hawks don’t create an exception, but they used the minimum-salary exception to absorb Jamison without giving the Clippers any player in return.

Cavs-Sixers

• The trade wouldn’t work for the Cavs if it were split into smaller parts, and Cleveland adds payroll from the deal, so there’s no exception for the Cavs here.
• The Sixers remain under the cap, so they don’t create an exception for the players they’re sending out. As mentioned above, this trade and Philadelphia’s other moves helped the Sixers exceed the minimum team payroll.

Pacers-Sixers

• Indiana can’t split the deal into individual parts and still have it work, but the Pacers nonetheless gain a sizable $4,281,921 exception from the difference between Danny Granger‘s salary and the combined salaries for Evan Turner and Lavoy Allen.
• The Sixers remain under the cap, so they don’t create an exception.

Basketball Insiders and ShamSports were used in the creation of this post.

Let’s get you caught up on all of the deadline deals that went down..

• The Sixers traded Evan Turner and Lavoy Allen to the Pacers for Danny Granger and a 2015 second-round selection.
• The Wizards acquired Andre Miller in a three-team deal that will also see the Nuggets receive Jan Vesely and Philly get Eric Maynor plus two second-round picks.
• In the first deadline deal, the Nets acquired Marcus Thornton from the Kings for Jason Terry and Reggie Evans.
• The Sixers and Cavs agreed to a trade that sends Spencer Hawes to Cleveland for Earl Clark, Henry Sims, and two second-round picks.
• The Bobcats acquired Gary Neal and Luke Ridnour from the Bucks in exchange for Ramon Sessions and Jeff Adrien.
• The Warriors acquired Steve Blake from the Lakers in exchange for Kent Bazemore and MarShon Brooks.
• The Nuggets are sending Jordan Hamilton to the Rockets for Aaron Brooks.
• The Clippers traded Antawn Jamison and cash to the Hawks for the draft rights to 2005 second-round pick Cenk Akyol.
• The Clippers sent Byron Mullens and a future second-round pick to the Sixers for a conditional second-rounder.
• The Spurs and Raptors swapped Nando De Colo and Austin Daye.
• The Heat sent cash and Roger Mason Jr. over to the Kings for a second-round pick that they’ll never see.  Mason was subsequently waived.

Months of speculation around the NBA will culminate this week. The trade deadline is just three days away, and teams are gearing up for one of the busiest days on the NBA calendar. Hoops Rumors has prepared several resources to guide you as we count down the hours until 2:00pm Central on Thursday:

• We’ve profiled a number of players we consider to be trade candidates, including Kyle Lowry, Danny Granger and Thaddeus Young. You can find all those pieces linked right here.
• Not every NBA player is eligible to be traded this week. We listed the players ineligible to be dealt, and also rounded up the guys who have the ability to veto trades.
• A number of traded player exceptions are set to expire at the deadline. The list of expiring exceptions is here, while the complete list of outstanding trade exceptions is here. If you’re unclear on how exactly these exceptions work, you can read our glossary entry.
• Players on expiring contracts are generally more likely to be moved than guys with another year or two left on their deals. Our list of 2014/15 free agents includes all the players currently on expiring contracts, plus those who have some form of option for next season.
• Some players will receive a bonus if they’re traded, and that could complicate potential deals. Our list of players with trade kickers includes nearly three dozen names.
• Future first-round draft picks are precious commodities this time of year, but several teams are without first-rounders they can trade for 2014 and beyond.
• Given the possibility that a few first-round picks could change hands this week, be sure to keep tabs on our tentative 2014 draft order to see where those draft picks might land.
• If you’re looking to keep up with rumors on a particular player, check out our instructions on how to follow specific players on Hoops Rumors.

Flexibility is a buzzword when it comes to player movement in the NBA. Teams often go to great lengths to make sure their payrolls allow for as much wiggle room as possible when they dip into the talent market, but as complicated as the salary cap can make those efforts, one number is paramount: 15. That’s the maximum number of players a team can carry during the regular season, and a team’s inability to take on additional players can throw a wrench into an otherwise well-constructed trade proposal.

The majority of NBA teams already have 15 guaranteed contracts, as our continuously updated roster counts show. Any of those clubs can still take back more players than they give up at Thursday’s trade deadline, but they’ll have to either finalize another unbalanced trade first, or, more likely, waive a player on a guaranteed deal. Most teams are understandably loath to pay anyone who’s no longer on the roster. There’s also the specter of having to watch the waived player flourish with the team that picks him up, as D.J. Augustin is doing with the Bulls, who signed him after the Raptors cut him to facilitate their December trade with the Kings.

So, the teams with fewer than 15 players are in better position to deal as the deadline approaches. Here’s how they break down:

Teams with three open roster spots:

• Bulls — The league granted Chicago an extension that will allow the team to stay at 12 players through the All-Star break, but they’ll have to add someone before the trade deadline. It’ll most likely be a 10-day contract, given the team’s tax issues. Still, unless the Bulls find a tempting deal that allows them to flip a high-salaried player for multiple guys who combine to make less, it seems improbable that the Bulls will fill their open roster spots at the deadline.

Teams with two open roster spots:

• Kings
• Magic
• Thunder

Teams with one open roster spot:

• 76ers
• Celtics
• Clippers
• Grizzlies
• Nets

The Lakers have 14 guaranteed contracts plus a 10-day deal, but their pact with Shawne Williams expires Saturday night, meaning they’re set to have an open roster spot at the deadline. The team probably won’t decide whether to re-sign Williams until after the deadline.

Two additional teams each have 14 guaranteed contracts and a 10-day deal that won’t expire until after Thursday. The Spurs and Hawks can nonetheless unilaterally terminate the 10-day contracts for Shannon Brown and Cartier Martin, respectively, at any time if they want to make a lopsided trade.

It’s highly unlikely any team will add a guaranteed contract between now and Thursday’s deadline. There’s a greater possibility that a player will sign a 10-day deal during that time, since the team can let that player go, but for now, most teams will refrain from dipping into the free agent market until the deadline has passed.

History is often the best teacher, and executives who have significant track records with their teams provide a clue about how they’ll act as this year’s trade deadline approaches. Some executives are well-known for swinging deadline deals, Rockets GM Daryl Morey chief among them, while others, notably Pacers president Larry Bird, seem loathe to dip into the fray.

I’ve examined the moves of each primary basketball executive who’s been with his team through at least three deadlines. That excludes long-tenured execs who’ve remained with their clubs for several years but are no longer running day-to-day affairs, like Kevin O’Connor of the Jazz and John Paxson of the Bulls. I’ve also held off from judging executives in Charlotte and Memphis, where it’s not entirely clear who’s making decisions.

I’ve given the term “deadline trade” a broad definition as any that takes place during February, when the deadline has fallen every year except 2012. That’s when the lockout-shortened schedule pushed it into March. For 2012, I’ve included March deals only. The executives are in order from busiest to least busy at the deadline.

• Daryl Morey, Rockets (Six deadlines, 10 trades): No one swings deals at the deadline quite like Morey, who’s never failed to make at least one trade this time of year. Still, none of them have involved superstars, aside from a prematurely aging Tracy McGrady, whom the Rockets gave up in the three-team deal that brought Kevin Martin to Houston in 2010.
• Sam Presti, Thunder (Six deadlines, eight trades): Presti made his controversial acquisition of Kendrick Perkins for Jeff Green at the 2011 deadline. A subtle 2009 swap with the Bulls that sent away the draft pick that became Taj Gibson in exchange for Thabo Sefolosha continues to affect both franchises.
• Danny Ainge, Celtics (10 deadlines, 11 trades): Most of these trades weren’t headliners, as Ainge usually saves his most earth-shattering moves for the summer. The most noteworthy of the bunch is the Kendrick Perkins–Jeff Green trade from 2011.
• John Hammond, Bucks (Five deadlines, five trades): Hammond acquired the pick that became Larry Sanders from the Bulls without giving up much at the 2010 deadline. He’s made fairly noteworthy trades at the deadline the past two seasons, but the Bucks have little other than Ekpe Udoh to show for deals that sent out Andrew Bogut and Tobias Harris.
• Billy King, Nets (Three deadlines, three trades): Last year was the first in King’s relatively brief tenure that he didn’t make a significant deal that sacrificed the future for the present. He gave up a package that included Derrick Favors and the pick that became Enes Kanter for Deron Williams in 2011, and acquired Gerald Wallace in 2012 in a much-maligned deal for the pick that became Damian Lillard.
• Gar Forman, Bulls (Four deadlines, three trades): Forman fleeced the Bobcats in 2010 when he acquired a first-round pick that could become a late lottery selection this year, but the same day, he gave up picks that became Larry Sanders and Isaiah Thomas for little in return.
• Ernie Grunfeld, Wizards (10 deadlines, six trades): Grunfeld sat out the first six deadlines of his tenure in Washington, but that changed in 2010, when he pulled off three trades, and he’s made a move at each deadline since. The Wizards netted little in exchange for their purge of Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison in 2010, and the only part of the team’s current rotation who came via any of Grunfeld’s deadline moves is Nene, who arrived in 2012.
• R.C. Buford, Spurs (11 deadlines, five trades): The Spurs have been quiet at the deadline under Buford, as you might expect with a team that’s kept its core of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili together for so long. The most significant deadline move might have been Buford’s first, in which he gave up a first-round draft pick that eventually became David Lee for Nazr Mohammed, the starting center on San Antonio’s 2005 title team.
• Donnie Nelson, Mavericks (11 deadlines, five trades): Owner Mark Cuban clearly exerts influence, but Nelson has handled at least the day-to-day operations for the Mavs for more than a decade. Nelson showed his creative side when he included a retired Keith Van Horn in a move that brought Jason Kidd from the Nets in 2008. The procedure was later outlawed, but Kidd helped Dallas win the 2011 title, which probably absolves the loss of the first-round pick that became Ryan Anderson.
• Pat Riley, Heat (Five deadlines, two trades): Riley has undoubtedly had a strong influence on Miami’s personnel ever since coming to the team as coach in 1995/96, but for our purposes we’ll count Riley’s moves since the 2008/09 season, when Riley left coaching for good and former GM Randy Pfund stepped down. His only deadline move of note was the acquisition of Jermaine O’Neal from Toronto in 2009, a deal in which he acquired the first-round pick that became Jonas Valanciunas. Riley later sent that pick back to Toronto in the Chris Bosh sign-and-trade.
• Joe Dumars, Pistons (13 deadlines, five trades): Trading Greg Monroe or Josh Smith would go against character for Dumars, who’s made just one significant deadline swap. That move to acquire Rasheed Wallace in 2004 set up the team’s title run.
• Mitch Kupchak, Lakers (13 deadlines, five trades): Kupchak has largely avoided deadline deals, and the Pau Gasol acquisition in 2008 barely qualifies, since it came on February 1st, nearly three weeks before deadline day. His only other deadline move of note was in 2012, when he traded for Ramon Sessions, but Sessions turned out not to be the answer at point guard and was forced out when Kupchak recruited Steve Nash the next summer.
• Dell Demps, Pelicans (Three deadlines, one trade): Demps’ only deadline move was a controversial one, since the swap of Marcus Thornton and cash for Carl Landry added money to the payroll of a financially troubled franchise that was owned by the league at the time.
• Larry Bird, Pacers (Nine deadlines, one trade): When Bird sent cash and a second-round pick to the Raptors for Leandro Barbosa in 2012, it was the first deadline deal he ever made. He took last year off, but unless the Barbosa deal was the start of a trend, don’t expect Indiana to get involved in any trades this year.