Can guys be traded through waivers?

[turk3d]

I kow they do this all the time in baseball after the trading deadline. All they need is agreement from other teams not to intercept the player/players. The reason I'm asking is, is there anyone out there who might be willing to pick up POB on a flyer (no point keeping him in D and obviously it's a done deal for him in Golden State) who might have a player they would want to move?

Just for any example, say that Miami wanted to dump Jason Williams, so they waive him, we pick him up (assuming no one else does) and then we waive POB and they do likewise. First of all, is there any league rules which would prevent something like this from occurring and if not, any suggestions on who might be a potential partner in this and what layer(s) might be invlolved? Just curious. Could be a loophole for trading guys after the deadline.

[Timmy10]

I think the only problem with your scenario is that players signed this late in the season cannot be on playoff rosters (happened to John Starks several years ago).

[BooRadley]

Players gotta be waived by March 1st to make a playoff roster. So you'd have a week to do it between the trading deadline and that March 1st date.

[turk3d]

Still might be worth it for a team like Minnesota for example to give POB an early audition. For us, maybe we could get someone who could possibly help us during the stretch run (another backup point might be nice). At least it might be a way to get something for POB as after the season's over, we won't get a thing for him. This allows another team to take a player who they no longer want (similar to our situation) and who they are not going to be playing since he's not a part of their future and cut him loose which might benefit the player as well. Just a thought. Thanks for the reply.

[Yi Jian Lian]

If you think about it that way, the player who is waived doesn't have any contractual obligations to sign with the other team that they tell them to do, but it's the NBA so I'm sure they have everything worked out.

[Twinkie defense]

Even without March 1st, that's circumvention.

[DBurks2818]

If you're picked up off the waiver wire you have no choice, I believe, but to play for that team.

[Tommy Udo 6]

If a team claims a player that is waived, that players ENTIRE annual salary goes against the cap. It doesnt matter how much the team actually pays the player.

[turk3d]

If a team claims a player that is waived, that players ENTIRE annual salary goes against the cap. It doesnt matter how much the team actually pays the player.

Does it come off the team's cap that waived him? As long as the team doing the pickup has cap space it probably wouldn't matter too much (especially if it isn't real salary).

[Chris Porter's Hair]

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Does it come off the team's cap that waived him? As long as the team doing the pickup has cap space it probably wouldn't matter too much (especially if it isn't real salary).

I believe it does. But the reality is that there aren't more than a couple of teams at any time in the league that are under the cap, so practically speaking it isn't much of an issue.

[Tommy Udo 6]

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Does it come off the team's cap that waived him? As long as the team doing the pickup has cap space it probably wouldn't matter too much (especially if it isn't real salary).

yes - as already answered. If W's are going to help Miami's cap, let's get a draft choice or 2 out of it.

[turk3d]

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yes - as already answered. If W's are going to help Miami's cap, let's get a draft choice or 2 out of it.

Or one of thier discards who might fit in with us a little better than POB did. As far as getting anything substantial for POB, that boat sailed a while ago, first when we decided we wouldn't extend him and then once and for all when the trade deadline passed. I don't see how you could get a draft pick on a waiver deal. Next year he's gone for sure.

[shrink]

I'm not sure how you make sure the right player gets to the right team.

In your example, suppose MIN really wanted POB now (I see no reason for them to go out of their way to win more games, but lets go with this). First, doesn't every team with a worse record get a right to say "no" first, a la baseball? Now MIN only has a handful in front, but I think it'd be difficult for GSW to get anything valuable. If a player with any value was coming back, wouldn't it be likely one of the other teams that pick first would grab him off waivers before GSW? Even if the team is just trying to give the FA an attachment to the city before the summer's contract discussions (something unnecessary for MIN and POB), don't the rules seem to make it unlikely a deal could actually work? Or would you need a player with such a big contract that he'd almost certainly clear waivers?

I doubt something like this would work, but I'm intrigued with the idea.

[turk3d]

There's a couple of ways it might work Shrink. It all depends on the NBA rules. If it's like baseball, the team placing the player on waivers has the option of recalling the player off waivers presumably if a team (other than the one he's targeted for) decides to go after him. I believe that in baseball it's either 24 (or possibly 48) hours they have to reclaim him.

Typically, in the baseball scenerio the other teams know exactly what's going on, and are unlikely to intervene, but even if they did, since the player can be recalled, it would be a waste of their time since they know that they wouldn't be able to get him anyway. It only becomes a problem if there is a team with a worse record in the same conference who would do it to prevent your team from getting the player (only possibility I could see in the Warriors case at this point is Denver).

Therefore the other scenerio (which is more of a possibility) is that if a team with a worse record would want to prevent him from going to a competitor, they could intervene, but let's say they did, if the player wasn't pulled back, then they would be stuck with him. If a team already has a full roster (it would require they cut someone they may want to keep) or if the player was someone who really was not a good fit, this is likely a deterrent of them stepping in, even if they happened to have a worse record than the targeted team.

Also, there's cap considerations which must be taken into account as well. As I understand it (or so I've been told), a team that takes someone off waivers although they only have to pay what's remaining on the players contract, they will have to absorb the entire hit of his salary on their cap figures. This may be prohibitive for any teams who are already are over the cap but if it's a low salary to begin with (as in the case of POBs) then it might make it workable for some teams.

Bottom line is that there are some constraints involved and would probably take some "Creative Management" (somewhat of an oxymoron for somes of us) to figure this out on both teams to accomplish this, assuming the league didn't step in. Considering what some of the elites have been doing lately, I don't think this should be that big of a deal, but who knows?

[FGump]

"Can guys be traded through waivers?"

Simple answer: No. (There is no loophole to make it possible for two teams to swap players via the waivers process.)