RealGM

I thought I knew the answer, but wanted to double check.

When a team has an unrestricted free agent, and wants to sign and trade him to another team, can they include another player on the team to match salary for the player they are getting?

Example, they want to sign the unrestricted FA Player 1 on their team for 10 million, and then include Player 2 who is making 5 million, and send to another team to get Player 3 who is making 15 million.

And do salaries still need to match if teams are over the salary cap, or if they're over the luxury tax cap?

Multiple other players and teams can be involved with a S&T deal. They are usually kept relatively simple as just being a S&T deal makes it more complicated as the player(s) being signed also have to agree, along with all the teams.

The only difference with a normal trade is that the team receiving the signed and traded player is then hard-capped at the apron for the rest of the league year (July-June).

Salary matching is obviously needed above the cap (though if a team has cap space then they can obviously take extra salary back into it).

Can somebody confirm this? Real example:

Can the Detroit Pistons sign and trade Tim Hardaway Jr for say, 10M, add Tobias Harris in the trade with his 25M salary, and get back a player making 35M?

theBigLip wrote:Can somebody confirm this? Real example:

Can the Detroit Pistons sign and trade Tim Hardaway Jr for say, 10M, add Tobias Harris in the trade with his 25M salary, and get back a player making 35M?

Yes. [But there's a disclaimer*]


* Disclaimer: With the 2023 CBA, simply matching the dollars isn't always all that is required anymore. Trade rules vary depending on your team situation. I don't know DET situation (nor plan to figure it out) nor whatever other team.

Some of the issues -- One issue is salary after the trade, especially whether you are over the cap, the Apron 1 line, the Apron 2 line, etc. Another is what else is on your payroll now, or what might be on your payroll later when you do the trade. In another, some teams can't take a player in a SNT. In another, a team can't trade 2-or-more for one. And so on. But in general, yes the numbers on the trade above - 35M for 35M - should be cap-legal in almost every scenario (with just a few exceptions or limitations).

DBoys wrote:

theBigLip wrote:Can somebody confirm this? Real example:

Can the Detroit Pistons sign and trade Tim Hardaway Jr for say, 10M, add Tobias Harris in the trade with his 25M salary, and get back a player making 35M?

Yes. [But there's a disclaimer*]


* Disclaimer: With the 2023 CBA, simply matching the dollars isn't always all that is required anymore. Trade rules vary depending on your team situation. I don't know DET situation (nor plan to figure it out) nor whatever other team.

Some of the issues -- One issue is salary after the trade, especially whether you are over the cap, the Apron 1 line, the Apron 2 line, etc. Another is what else is on your payroll now, or what might be on your payroll later when you do the trade. In another, some teams can't take a player in a SNT. In another, a team can't trade 2-or-more for one. And so on. But in general, yes the numbers on the trade above - 35M for 35M - should be cap-legal in almost every scenario (with just a few exceptions or limitations).

Thx!