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Pro Basketball Transaction

Thunder (then-Sonics) signed Lewis to a max contract then traded him to Magic for practically nothing. Why did they only get $9M trade exception? His starting salary in 2007-2008 season was around $14.8 M. I thought that is the amount of TE Sonics was supposed to get.

thanks.

It was probally the amount of space the magic were under the cap.

It's because when Rashard signed his new deal, he triggered Base Year Compensation (BYC) under the following condition:

The team is over the salary cap, used the Larry Bird or Early Bird exception to re-sign the player, and the player received a raise greater than 20% (unless it's the minimum salary).

Lewis' salary in 2006-2007 was $9,350,000 and he signed a contract starting at $14,880,000; obviously more than a 20% raise. BYC rules state:

When trading a base year player, the salary used for comparison is the player's previous salary, or 50% of the first-year salary in his new contract, whichever is greater.

So for the purposes of the trade, Rashard's previous year's salary was used ($9.35 million), so that was the amount of the traded player exception.

I'm glad you explained that. Contract talk make no sense to me half the time.