Problem with ESPN Trade Machine and the Trade Exception

[rcmoore1]

Is ESPN's trade machine wrong? According to Article VII in the CBA and the CBA FAQ, if you are going over the salary cap by more than $100,000 or if you are over the cap already and are making a trade that keeps you above the cap, you need to use an exception. But the ESPN trade machine seems to only consider the salary matching principles (i.e. 150% of salary plus $100,000) in hypothetical trades. If, for example, you trade Varejao ($9.7M) for Korver ($6.2), the trade goes through. But it shouldn't. The Cavs are over the cap and should only be able to take on the amount of their trade exception ($5.285M). The same problem occurs if you trade Varejao for Bargnani since both teams are over the cap and are taking on salaries much higher than their exceptions. Is the trade machine wrong or am I understand the rules wrong?

[DBoys]

ESPN's trade machine is most likely accurate.

Here's what you seem to be missing. The mechanism by which "trade matching" occurs is actually by use of exceptions, specifically trade exceptions. An over-cap team is awarded a trade exception for each player they send away in the trade, and if they use the trade exception to take back a player in that same trade, it can be used to take back as much as either 125% or 150% of the amount salary sent, depending on their team salary at the end of the trade.

There are more details, but that's the gist of what you've missed. See item 84 ... http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q84 for more info

In the scenario, you proposed, CLE would have no problem taking Korver's $6.2M salary if they traded Varejao in that deal, as they could take as much as $14,656,817 in total salary for Varejao outgoing.

[rcmoore1]

So if you're already over the cap, the only thing you need to worry about is matching salaries? It doesn't matter if the salary you are adding keeps you over the cap, as long as the incoming/outgoing salary rules are met? I understand how they are acquired and I understand how they can be used to match salaries in a trade.I'm just trying to reconcile this with the language in Coon's CBA FAQ (below). For whatever reason, trade exception rules are throwing me off big time.

"[I]f a team finishes more than $100,000 over the cap, whether they started out above or below the cap, then an exception is required."

"[E]xceptions are the mechanisms that allow teams to sign players or make trades that leave them above the salary cap. Any trade which leaves the team over the salary cap requires an exception -- even if the team is moving downward in salary. For example, if the salary cap is $60 million, a team has a team salary of $65 million, and they want to trade a $5 million player for a $4 million player, they still have to use an exception."--> Here the salaries would match just fine, but he says an exception is required.

[DBoys]

A team cannot add a player to their roster, without an exception to do so, that results in them ending up over the cap.

So, as I said earlier, "trade matching" actually occurs as a use of exceptions. It is not trade matching vs using an exception. "Trade-matching" is actually a popular descriptive shorthand for how exceptions in a trade seem to be used.

While it's easier to understand as "matching," in reality the process that authorizes a trade does the following:
1 over-cap is determined by team's Team Salary total at the end of the trade ...if a team will end up under the cap, no exception is needed
2 if one team will be under cap and the other over cap, each must meet the rules according to their own situation
3 for a team in an over-cap situation, every outgoing player is converted into an awarded Traded Player Exception
4 every incoming player to be added to the over-cap team's roster must be added via an exception, usually a TPE that's generated by the outgoing but also possible to use an awarded exception that already existed or a minimum exception
5 unused exceptions that were generated by outgoing in the trade usually can be saved and used later as "non-simultaneous" trade exceptions