RealGM

What prevents a team from signing "dummy" players to match salaries in a trade? The scenario is as follows:

Team A has $10m in player salaries it can include in a trade without dipping into players it does not want to trade. Team B has $14m in player salaries it wants to send to Team A.

If Team A is over the cap then it cannot execute the trade as is. Is there anything preventing Team A from signing whomever (random retired players or anyone off the street) to vet minimum contracts to include in the deal so that the salaries it is giving up satisfies the 125%+$100k rule? Presumably Team B will waive the players immediately after the deal.

I would be happy to offer myself up to be a dummy player for such deals. I need some extra spending money.

you can't s&t players who arent your own free agents
the player must have finished the prior season with the team

Beyond just that, the person from off the street would need to be willing to take on a multi-million dollar contract. As far as I am aware, not many people want to make that much money.

answerthink wrote:Beyond just that, the person from off the street would need to be willing to take on a multi-million dollar contract. As far as I am aware, not many people want to make that much money.

Indeed, sounds stressful

DBoys wrote:you can't s&t players who arent your own free agents
the player must have finished the prior season with the team

What? Was Kevin Martin Minnesota's free agent? Aren't people off the street UFAs?

As DBoys has mentioned, among the many restrictions for sign-and-trade transactions include: (i) the signed player must re-sign with his prior team and (ii) the signed player must finish the preceding season with his prior team.

Item (i) restricts a team from including another team's free agent or a person from off the street in a sign-and-trade. Item (ii) restricts a team from including a player who has been retired or otherwise out of the league in a sign-and-trade.

Kevin Martin was OKC’s free agent and he finished last season on the OKC roster. Thus, assuming all other conditions were met, he would be eligible for a sign-and-trade involving OKC and Minnesota.

Nanogeek wrote:What prevents a team from signing "dummy" players to match salaries in a trade? The scenario is as follows:

Team A has $10m in player salaries it can include in a trade without dipping into players it does not want to trade. Team B has $14m in player salaries it wants to send to Team A.

If Team A is over the cap then it cannot execute the trade as is.

if Team A was over the tax, it would be unable to execute the trade, since it would be limited to receiving up to 125% + $100k in return for its $10m in player salaries it's shipping to Team B (or $12.6m); however, if Team A was merely over the cap, then Team A could receive the lesser of 100% + $5m or 150% + $100k ($15m), so in your scenario, that trade would be able to work, meaning Team A would be able to execute the trade as is.