RealGM

Say a team has $10M cap space heading into the draft. On draft night they trade for a player and absorb him using their cap space, leaving them with $2M cap space (or any amount less than the value of the MLE). Are they entitled to use their MLE when free agency opens?

http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#Q20

This sort of answers my question, but when does the MLE actually come on to the books of a team? Is it at the beginning of the free agency period or when the yearly salary switch-over takes place?

Under the current CBA, a new MLE becomes available to a team eligible to receive one at the conclusion of the July moratorium. This could all change when the new CBA is ratified this summer . . . or fall . . . or winter . . . or . . .

^So back to the original question, can that team use their MLE or not?

Edit: So technically, since the team will be over (or right at) the cap at the conclusion of the moratorium, they WILL be able to use their MLE correct?

Under the current CBA the answer is yes.

Dunkenstein wrote:Under the current CBA, a new MLE becomes available to a team eligible to receive one at the conclusion of the July moratorium. This could all change when the new CBA is ratified this summer . . . or fall . . . or winter . . . or . . .

very interesting, I never heard of that before. kind of sucks learning all the fine points of the CBA and it will be ripped up in a few months. where is this worded in the old CBA?

technically the MLE is not a cap hold until FA starts (after the July moratorium) but also draft day trades are not official until this time as well so a team can not trade for salary on draft day (like Wash did with Hinrich this past season) and then ue the MLE during FA because that trade actually does not get made official until after the "july moratorium" when the exemptions become cap holds

SamBone wrote:technically the MLE is not a cap hold until FA starts (after the July moratorium) but also draft day trades are not official until this time as well so a team can not trade for salary on draft day (like Wash did with Hinrich this past season) and then ue the MLE during FA because that trade actually does not get made official until after the "july moratorium" when the exemptions become cap holds

As I understand it, draft day trades (a) are official the day they are made, (b) are subject to a team's cap situation at the time they are made, and (c) have little to no direct relation to a team's MLE. In other words, most of what you wrote there looks like confused (and wrong) gibberish to me.