RealGM

If a team owns two trade exceptions, like Phoenix (I'm pretty sure the Warriors let the one they got for Diogu expire), can they combine them if they are trying to acquire a player?

No. Never. Ands there is no way to work around that limitation in a 3-way.

^FGump is correct. TPEs can be split into smaller pieces (i.e. Phoenix can use part of the Kurt Thomas TPE to acquire player A from Team X, then hang on to the remainder to acquire player B from Team Y later, or just let it expire).

But TPEs cannot be combined with other TPEs, nor can they be combined with outgoing players (although draft picks are fine) in a single transaction.

I knew they couldn't be combine with players, I just wasn't sure if they could be combined with each other. Thank you for clearing it up.