Portland Trail Blazers: Three players to target with trade exception

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The Portland Trail Blazers have a $7 million trade exception they can use to trade for a salary of this size. Which three players could they trade for?

When the Portland Trail Blazers traded Kent Bazemore for Trevor Ariza, they created a $7 million trade exception. A trade exception was created because when trade was made, the Blazers were over the cap, and took back $7 million more salary than they sent out. When a team over the cap trades more salary to a team under the cap, they get a trade exception for the difference of the amount they would’ve been able to take back.

Ariza was earning $12 million, and Bazemore was earning $19 million at the time of the trade, thus creating this $7 million exception.

There are a few rules for trade exceptions. They can’t be used to sign free agents, only used to trade for players already under contract. The player’s salary also can’t be higher than the value of the trade exception, in this case, $7,069,662.

Also, when using the exception, no player needs to be sent out in the trade. The exception is used as the salary, rather than trading a player.

The Blazers are very likely to be over the cap this year, so using the trade exception means they have a means of spending over and above the salary cap.

Keeping this $7 million in mind, which three players could the Blazers trade for?