Lakers News: Marc Gasol Trade Creates a Small, But Useful Trade Exception

In the current NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement, a trade exception allows a team to acquire a player or players without giving up anything of monetary value–as long as the total salary of the incoming players is less than the number of the trade exception within a year.

CBA E-11. Traded Player Exception: For a period of one year following the date of the trade of a player contract to another team, a team may replace the traded player with one or more players acquired by assignment.

Take for example last summer when Gordon Hayward engineered his way out of Boston, and ended up in Charlotte via a sign and trade. Because the Celtics only received a protected 2022 second round pick (no cash value) in the trade, it became a $28.5 million trade exception, the largest in NBA history. In layman’s terms, the Celtics could acquire players that total almost $29 million within a year period of the Hayward trade. 

During last season's trade deadline, they acquired Evan Fournier worth around $17 million directly infused into the massive trade exception. In July, the Celtics traded for Josh Richardson ($11M), which completed the entirety of the Hayward trade exception within the year period.

For the Lakers, this $2.7 million may look underwhelming and not important, but remember, this allows the Lakers to add another veteran minimum contract (these contracts go up to just under $2.64 million for players with 10+ years’ experience). Moreover, this opens up a roster spot, something that was previously reported by Yahoo about the Lakers planning to enter the season with an extra roster spot open, presumingly to sign another veteran with players that get bought out.