I believe that is wrong. To put it simply, a trade exception is equal to the difference between salaries in a trade between a team over the cap and a team under. The Nets sent McInnis' contract, then $3.64 million, to the Bobcats in return for Bernard Robinson's $1 million contract. So the exception should be $2.64 million. It expires in two weeks.</p>
And remember two things: It has limited utility. It can't be used in combination with players. You can trade it and a draft choice or draft rights (to Drejer) for a player making less than $2.64 million...a very limited number of valuable players. You can't trade Magloire and the exception to get a player making $6.4 million, for example. You can use it to pick up a player off waivers if that player makes less than the value of the exception. The league also permits a $100K cushion when using a trade exception, so it's real value is worth $2.74 million.</p>
Also, if the Nets use the exception along with pick(s) to get someone making say $2 million, that would put the Nets over the luxury tax threshold, unless they can make some other moves. Also, the Nets had two exceptions last year and didn't use them: a $2.1 million exception and a $719,000 exception, from the Marc Jackson/Linton Johnson for Boki Nachbar trade, and let them expire.</p>
The Nets don't have a lot of luck with exceptions. They had $15 million in exceptions after the KMart and Kittles trades...and wound up with Cliff Robinson, Elden Campbell and Marc Jackson after the SAR deal fell apart. I still believe they wanted to black mail the Pistons into making a deal for Milicic when they grabbed Campbell off waivers, wasting nearly $5 million TE.</p>
