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If the Heat, Nets and Blazers struck a three-team trade, the Blazers would almost certainly have to take substantial salaries in return. They may need to take back a combination of players from both teams like Lowry, Robinson or Ben Simmons. Portland would likely prefer to see a third or fourth team hire to pick up salaries from Miami and Brooklyn, but that could require additional funding from both teams.
But what if the Heat and Nets didn’t have to pay more salaries, just send the Blazers draft equity and prospects? And what if the Blazers didn’t have to take back significant salaries? These scenarios are certainly in play thanks to the deals already agreed between the Heat and Nets and can only become official once the moratorium period has expired on July 6th.
The Heat have already agreed to sell, sign and trade Oladipo to the Thunder Max straw to the Cavaliers. Oladipo has a salary of $9.5 million, while Strus’ salary is expected to be around $14.6 million. The base year pay rules would limit Strus’ outgoing salary to half that amount from the Heat’s perspective. Those two outstanding salaries, along with Herro’s $27 million, would cover the $41.5 million the Heat need for Lillard.
The Nets are in a similar position with their agreed trade to send Harris to the Pistons. His $19.9 million salary is just enough to cover the $19.5 million needed to cover Herro’s $27 million. If the Nets and Heat were to combine their existing Pistons, Thunder, Cavaliers and Spurs deals into a seven-team deal with the Blazers, neither the Nets nor the Heat would have to pay additional salaries.
While a seven-team trade is unprecedented and unlikely, there is an opportunity for the Heat and Nets to combine some of their current trades with this hypothetical one. For the Heat, they don’t need to find a team to take Lowry’s or Robinson’s salaries and hold them for future trades. As the season progresses, it will be easier to swap Lowry’s expiring contract and break it up into smaller chunks.
The same idea applies to Brooklyn, though there would still need to be a payroll cut afterwards to stay under the tax and under the apron. You could use a player like royce O’Neale or Dorian Finney–blacksmith, which have been mentioned in trade rumors to achieve this. Alternatively, they could enforce their Mills trade against Houston by pairing him and Harris for Herro. That would increase the payroll by less than 10 percent and allow the Nets to go over the apron if they want to.
For the Blazers, such a framework would avoid the withdrawal of negative-value salaries. In fact, they would only have to take back the share capital and the minimum salaries in the form of the prospects they want. They could potentially generate a trading exception on the order of Lillard’s $45.6 million salary, giving them a ton of trading flexibility over the next year.
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