Better recheck you numbers. It's $71 mil with IT's cap hold of $2.8 mil. Add another $3 mil to that for collison and thats $74 mil.
Collison is reportedly signed to a $16 million contract ($5.1 million with 4.5% annual raises, not $3 million) and I assumed IT is shipped to the Suns for the rights to Oriakhi (creating TPE along the way), that's why his cap hold is irrelevant or becomes so very soon. But it seems I lost one of many $6 million salaries Kings have, when counting, and it takes team salary to $76.2 million with a few hundred thousand below LT level and $4.6 million below the "apron".
This also means that Kings will go into LT territory with another minimum contract.
I am pretty sure it allows you to take back extra salary in return equal to that of the Trade Esception. So player X makes 3 mil and you trade him for player Y that makes 8 mil. The trade exception allows the salary difference.
edit: The key here is to understand the concept of a non-simultaneous trade. Every trade that fans understand is simultaneous. All the assets traded are traded at once. A trade exception creates the possibility of a non-simultaneous trade. The monetary difference of the TPE exists for a year and can be used in a new trade that essentially becomes a part of the original trade at a much later date.
So instead of the Kings traded IT to Phoenix for nothing. The Kings trade IT to Phoenix for 7 million dollar TPE. Later on, 3 million dollar Kings player is traded for another 9 million dollar player. The 7 mil TPE balances out the 6 millin dollar difference for cap rules. The two separate trades are essentially one trade that had two steps taken at different times.
No it does not.
CBA's main idea is to trade for a player(s) teams over the salary cap must have an exception. They can either generate it by sending back salaries or use TPEs left from previous trades.
TPEs left from previous trades cannot be combined together or with those generated from salaries.
For example, Thornton-Terry/Evans deal was structured this way from Kings side:
1. Both teams generated TPEs equal to that of Thornton's salary. $8,050,000 (within 125% of Terry's deal as Nets were an LT team)
2. Kings had TPE of $8,050,000, but only acquired Terry's salary of $5,625,313 with it.
3. Kings kept the difference as a separate TPE (around $2.4 million).
4. Evans' salary on the other hand was absorbed using TPE left from a previous trade.
Now to the reported S&T of IT:
1. In every trade both teams must receive at least some asset: a player, a pick or rights to the player. Suns dug deep and instead of usual top-55 protected pick, they found rights to the 57th pick from 2013.
2. Suns have cap space, so they don't need TPE and can just absorb IT's salary. But from Kings perspective $7 million TPE is generated.
3. Kings are not getting salary back, so they keep a TPE equal to IT's new salary.
