Andre Roberstan wrote:If this were to be something that happened, the Hawks are definitely an obvious third team. Good idea.
The main issue here is that the Thunder can't eat $14million of extra salary (1). Carmelo's value aside, the Knicks would have 3 shooting guards that should get minutes after this (if you're counting Bazemore as a SF, which...maybe?). (2)Having the Thunder eat Plumlee helps balance out value, but it also makes the trade illegal. (3)
In addition OKC can't trade a first-rounder till at least 2022, because of the Stepien rule and their current pick commitments. (4) And you can't trade trade exceptions—they can only be used by the team that has them originally. (5)
I like the idea of bringing the Hawks in, but this has too much wrong with it via CBA rules.
1. Got a little ahead of myself, and screwed up some of the initial numbers... those have been corrected, and everything now fits--actually it comes down within about $4,000 of the allowed take-back (125% + 100,000) for OKC.
It assumes that Melo will waive his kicker, but while many have assumed he would, it's not a given.
2. True, Bazemore has gotten some minutes at SF at times for ATL, and one would suspect he could do so for NYK.
3. As for Plumlee, he's legal in a trade package as-of two months following the trade that took him to ATL... which will be in August. This obviously would be one of those trades, then, that wouldn't be officially announced until that point.
4. As for draft picks, OKC has some flexibility with the #1-#14 and #1-#20 as designated by our good friends here at RealGM...
5. Then, I'm sorry to have not communicated very well regarding the trade exceptions... those would be exceptions that ATL and NYK presumably would gain from having made the trade, since they're dealing out more than they're taking back.
Hope that helps.
