Although Doug McDermott reached an agreement a few days ago to join the Spurs, he will not leave the Pacers empty. As announced by those of Indianapolis, the arrival of the forward to the Texas franchise will take place through a sign & trade, in which Indiana will receive a future second round while San Antonio, in addition to the player, will get another second round and the possibility of exchanging another pick second round in a future draft. This a priori may be irrelevant, but the key to the operation is in the Traded Player Exception that is generated with it.
These exceptions are generated when a team transfers a player but does not receive in exchange a salary equivalent to that of the player who leaves (or does not receive any at all), and in recent years it has become relatively common to create sign & trades with free agents that give rise to these situations. Without going any further, in the last market the Celtics achieved the Traded Player Exception biggest ever ($ 28.5 million) by sending Gordon Hayward to Charlotte in exchange for a second round of the draft.
This exception may be used later by the franchise to make a transfer even if it is exceeding the salary limit, so having reached this agreement will facilitate Indiana to make future movements. In this case, the exception is about $ 7.4 million, which adds value to an unavoidable exit.
It should be remembered that this is not the only trade exception with which the Pacers have, who already achieved one with the transfer of TJ Leaf to Oklahoma City and another when they sent Victor Oladipo to Miami, although this is the largest. Such exceptions expire a year after they are created and many are never used, so this may remain a simple anecdote without consequences, but at least it gives Indiana greater flexibility in assessing future moves.
(Cover photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
