# JJ Deal Hits Snag Plus a 10 Mil Trade Exception



## TucsonClip (Sep 2, 2002)

https://www.ajc.com/hawks/userreg/ursignup/signup.jsp?UrUsecase=800100&SendBackURL=%2Fhawks%2Fcontent%2Fsports%2Fhawks%2F0805%2F03hawks.html 

*Hawks' co-owner Belkin hasn't signed off on trade*

By SEKOU SMITH and TIM TUCKER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/03/05

The Hawks' pending deal for Joe Johnson hit a snag Tuesday because one of the team owners, Steve Belkin, has not signed off on completing it, two people familiar with the situation said.

The team's other owners and management are in favor of the deal. Belkin plays a pivotal role as the team's NBA Governor. The NBA requires the governor's endorsement on a deal before it can go through.

Calls to Belkin's home and cell phone were not returned Tuesday night.

Indications are that Phoenix wants to complete the deal. Team president Bernie Mullin, reached at home Tuesday night, declined comment.

Reached in Las Vegas Tuesday afternoon, Hawks general manager Billy Knight admitted there was a procedural "snag," but expressed hope the deal will be completed.

"There are some things we have to work out, some things that have to be taken care of," Knight said. "But we'll get it taken care of and move on."

Suns president Bryan Colangelo would not comment on the deal "until our business is complete."

The Hawks and Suns agreed in principle to the sign-and-trade deal Sunday. The Hawks get Johnson for five years and $70 million, in exchange for Boris Diaw and two future lottery-protected draft picks. *The Suns would also receive a trade exception of about $10 million.*The 6-foot-8 Johnson, averaged 17.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists last season for the Suns, who won a league-best 62 games and advanced to the Western Conference finals.

The Hawks also extended an offer sheet to Milwaukee center/forward Zaza Pachulia, like Johnson a restricted free agent. The Bucks have seven days to either match the four-year $4 million offer to Pachulia or lose him without compensation.

Colangelo told reporters in Phoenix Monday they had every intention of matching any offers to Johnson. But that was before he informed them late last week he wanted to play for the Hawks.

"The intention was to match. But we started hearing stuff about Joe not wanting to come back which we didn't want to believe," Colangelo said. "What it really gets down to is this: how can you go ahead and match a contract that's $70 million for someone who tells you point blank that he'd rather be somewhere else? You can't do that. The risk is too high."


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## Kekai (Jan 12, 2005)

Yeah saw this. I just want the trade to hurry and go through I hate this waiting.


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## Carbo04 (Apr 15, 2005)

10 mill? Awesome.


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## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

This is just a sick joke. Trying to give us some false hope that he comes back. I'm not buying into it. JJ is gone.


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## kamego (Dec 29, 2003)

Thats a monster trade exception.


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## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

kamego said:


> Thats a monster trade exception.


prolly 10 mill because he's getting a front loaded deal around 20 mill in his first yr. 

maybe the owner who hasn't signed off on it is a Suns fan? haha. j/k


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## Ezmo (May 11, 2003)

haha...that TE is monster...wonder what we could do with it...


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## Tiz (May 9, 2005)

There is a lot that could be had with $10mil.


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

Didn't I say that trade exception would be 8-10 million? Where is cpaw at? I want my props.


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## Tiz (May 9, 2005)

HKF said:


> Didn't I say that trade exception would be 8-10 million? Where is cpaw at? I want my props.


:worship:


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## deannahum (Aug 7, 2003)

does it mean we can get both Payton and Finley ???


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## ShuHanGuanYu (Feb 3, 2005)

No, because those are free agent signings, and unfortunately it can be used only to acquire existing contracts from other teams.


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## Damian Necronamous (Jun 10, 2002)

deannahum said:


> does it mean we can get both Payton and Finley ???


No, but in terms of a trade, you can think of the Suns having about $10M in cap room.


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

Well yes it does mean it. All Finley has to do is take a cheap contract. I mean he is making his overpaid salary of 51 million for 3 years from the Mavs, why does he need anymore? He would be smart to take one for the team and help the Mavs get Payton too. Then the Suns can use the TE on a big man.


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## Kekai (Jan 12, 2005)

Tiz said:


> :worship:


Props


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## TucsonClip (Sep 2, 2002)

Yeah with a 10 mil TE the Suns can do some serious damage, especially if they add in Barbosa. However I am a Barbosa fan, he just needs to play SG.


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## ShuHanGuanYu (Feb 3, 2005)

HKF said:


> Well yes it does mean it. All Finley has to do is take a cheap contract. I mean he is making his overpaid salary of 51 million for 3 years from the Mavs, why does he need anymore? He would be smart to take one for the team and help the Mavs get Payton too. Then the Suns can use the TE on a big man.


The trade exception doesn't help them get Finley or Payton though, sadly. In fact, if the Suns don't renounce it, the TE adds to the Suns salary cap. That means they are over the cap now and only have their remaining exceptions to extend to those two. If Boston could be convinced to sign and trade Payton to us for part of our TE, that'd work...but Boston might want some other kind of compensation for helping us. Finley has to be a pure free agent signing though out of our exceptions, so we're just praying he'll play for 1.7-2.5 million...which I don't think he will.

The trade exception also can't fundamentally be packaged with a player, like Barbosa. It has to be used separately for players straight up. On that note, there may be a way to structure it to avoid this though. Like, if they traded Barbosa for one guy straight up and then use the TE for another guy on the same team. By using that little complicated loophole and separating one multiplayer trade into two separate trades, we'd be able to trade Barbosa and use the TE at the same time.


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## Ownerofpueblo (Aug 17, 2003)

Should we start a separate thread for talking about the 10 million trade exception? 

Maybe we could use this exception to get chandler?


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## ShuHanGuanYu (Feb 3, 2005)

Nah, they won't get anyone like Chandler. Pretty sure the Bulls are fully intent on keeping him. The problem with having a TE is that the other team has to get something out of it. They have to give up a player they no longer necessarily want on their team. Easiest place to use a TE is with a team that wants to rebuild, like Portland giving up Shareef. Or with teams over the luxury tax threshhold that wants to obtain the TE and then revoke it to save cap room. Teams that have logjams at certain positions are usually better to deal with. 

Indiana for instance has Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, Danny Granger, Fred Jones, and James Jones at the SG/SF spot. Perhaps they'd like to save some cap room and unload a guy like Stephen Jackson and his $5 million contract to both save long term money and give Danny Granger more playing time. This is purely a hypothetical situation, Indiana I believe is set for next year other than buying out Croshere.

I think the Suns will wait until December or so and then decide to use it. There really aren't a lot of teams looking to shop good players right now. Once teams start out with worse records than they had imagined, they might look for some cap relief or something.

Things I'd look at:
Does Milwaukee want Desmond Mason?
Does New Orleans want PJ Brown?
Does Boston want Mark Blount and is he not a waste of space?
Does Orlando want Doug Christie and is he not a waste of space?
Does San Antonio want Ginobili? Kidding.
Does Utah want Gordon Giricek and is he not trash?

Of course there are a lot of options to look at, but those are a couple I came up with...


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## TucsonClip (Sep 2, 2002)

ShuHanGuanYu said:


> The trade exception also can't fundamentally be packaged with a player, like Barbosa. It has to be used separately for players straight up. On that note, there may be a way to structure it to avoid this though. Like, if they traded Barbosa for one guy straight up and then use the TE for another guy on the same team. By using that little complicated loophole and separating one multiplayer trade into two separate trades, we'd be able to trade Barbosa and use the TE at the same time.


Yeah that is the way the Suns would have to make the trade. Really wouldnt be hard to do, numerous teams have gone through that loop hole in the past. This 10 mil TE is going to be great for the Suns.


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