Actually i am not even sure this pertains now that i am re-reading it. i think this pertains to combining exceptions.
87. Can exceptions be combined when making trades?
Only to a very limited extent -- teams can combine exceptions in the same trade if they are used on different players. Teams cannot combine exceptions in order to acquire one player. For example, a taxpaying team may trade a $5 million player for a $5.5 million player and two veterans earning approximately $1 million each on minimum-salary contracts. The minimum salary exception is used for the two minimum-salary players, and the $5.5 million player is acquired using the Traded Player exception ($5.5 million is within 125% plus $100,000 of $5 million). This is allowed because two exceptions were not combined to acquire any one player.
However, if that team has a $5 million player and a $1 million trade exception from a previous trade, it cannot add the trade exception to the 125% plus $100,000 margin from their $5 million player ($6.35 million), in order to trade for a player making $7 million. This cannot be done, as it would invoke using two exceptions on the same player.
If a team has two trade exceptions from previous non-simultaneous trades, they can't combine them into one larger trade exception. Suppose a team trades a $5 million player for a $4 million player (generating a $1 million trade exception) and separately trades a $3 million player for a $1 million player (generating a $2 million trade exception). They cannot combine the two into a single $3 million trade exception. A rule of thumb is that a trade exception can only be used to acquire a player making up to the amount of the exception plus $100,000.
(See question numbers
82 and
84 for more information on the Traded Player exception and non-simultaneous trades. See question number
85 for more information on the minimum salary exception.)
The legal combining of exceptions sometimes gives the appearance of teams getting away with illegal trades. For example, as detailed in question number
99, when a team is over the cap and acquires a player in trade, they cannot re-trade that player in combination with other players for two months. Technically, however, this applies only to players whose salaries are aggregated to acquire a more expensive player. For example, New Orleans acquired Jerryd Bayless from Portland on October 23, 2010, and traded him with Peja Stojakovic to Toronto on November 20, 2010. This trade did not violate the two-month rule because New Orleans did not aggregate the salaries of Bayless and Stojakovic to acquire any of the Toronto players.
