http://www.blazersedge.com/story/2007/6/29/7560/55490

Francis, the cap, trades, and small forwards
By Blazerholic
Posted on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 07:56:00 AM EDT

First, let me say I'm absolutely shocked by the hostile reactions of the Zach trade. Despite all the good things that he's done for the franchise so far, it's clear people have little faith in Pritchard's abilities, judging by the knee-jerk reactions. Today I can honestly say I was embarrassed to be a Blazer fan.

Coming down off my soapbox, it is clear that Pritchard was determined to trade Randolph this summer for 1) a small forward and 2) payroll reduction. Tom Penn's abilities as a cap lawyer not only got him the assistant GM job, but he was tasked with figuring out the payroll reduction aspect of Zach's trade. Years from now this may be known as the "Tom Penn Draft".

When a team over the cap performs a trade, they must use an exception, even if they reduce payroll. To have the salaries match, Portland receives an exception equal to the difference in salaries. This becomes important later. Why did the deal have to be done draft day? It's because of the moratorium between July 1 - 11. Since July 1 is Sunday, it was imperative the deal be done to facilitate other trades, as you will see below.

New York had agreed to a buyout with Francis. The buyout has Francis giving up his player option and taking about 10-15 million. Francis keeps the money, becomes a free agent, and may sign with another team. The buyout is transferable to Portland, meaning that if Francis signs with another team for the mid-level exception (5 million), the Blazers would only have 7.5 - 12.5 million count against the cap for this year, and nothing for next year. Letting Freddie and Dan expire this year would only have saved us 6.1 million. This way we eat the buyout and dump Zach's ridiculous contract. Francis will never wear a Blazer uni.

There are two schools of thought as to why we must wait until the New York trade is finalized, and both involve Phoenix. The first option concerns the reports that the Blazers are getting James Jones. In this case, the trade exception from the New York deal is used, along with the 3 million in cash, to get Jones and Fernandez. Phoenix gains some small cap relief (Jones), the trade exception (they can use later), and frees a roster spot and a guarenteed contract (the 24th pick).

The second is that the Blazers are targeting Shawn Marion. In this case, Francis is traded, with the exception, cash, and probably another cheap piece such as Webster or Jack, for Marion. By gaining the Francis buyout and dumping Marion, the Suns gain a ton of cap space, and Francis is a Blazer for about 10 days.

Even after the New York trade is approved, nothing further can happen until after the moratorium, which corresponds to Pritchard's and Penn's comments in the news conference.

This is all speculation on my part, but it seems to make sense. Would Francis give up that much money? I think he would to get out of New York and STILL would get to collect 2 paychecks. Maybe the buyout figure is a little higher, like his full 20 million this year...we'll know more later.

And if I'm wrong and Francis is wearing a Blazer uni next year?

Just shoot me.

not sure about the validity of all this...

if that's true, the Knicks are paying out roughly $78 million & Channing Frye in exchange for 4 years of Zach Randolph, & that's not even counting the luxury tax dollars over that span... ouch!

HOLY CRAP if this happened My Oh My Oh My!!!!

again - this is from a guy's blog - i don't know the validity of this.

at this point, i don't think it really matters... Dolan obviously doesn't give a crap how Isiah spends his money... speaking for myself, i won't be going to any Knick games to finance this anymore until we get a real legit superstar player to make it worth my while.

Wow that is just unreal, Dolan is the dumbest guy i know. Isiah is such a ****ing joke, he takes on that much salary and buys out the contract, serious in buyouts alone isiah is upwards of 100 million when factoring this, coaches, rose, etc. just shocking

Posted by JohnWallace44:

I don't think that this type of thing is allowed in the NBA or the Knicks would be doing it all the time.

it may be allowable b/c francis has a player option on his final year.

Posted by JohnWallace44:

I don't think that this type of thing is allowed in the NBA or the Knicks would be doing it all the time.

there is a limit to how much cash you can send in a trade - I can imagine that the buy out was negotiated before the trade.

Posted by VDesai:

I'm still a little foggy on this- Francis' contract still counts against Portland's cap for the next 2 years, regardles of whether they are paying him that cash, right?

if it's a buyout, wouldn't the salary remain on our books when determining cap?

This doesn't make sense to me. He has one year left before the player option, so then why would he take a buyout of $10-15 when he is owed $33.5 over the next two years. So he can sign as a free-agent with another team? He can't even play a full season so what team is going to award him a contract that makes up the difference ($18.5-23.5 million) had he not accepted a buyout? And if the buyout is transferable, then he still counts against the Blazers cap for the next two years right? Even if this is true (which we have no legit evidence to believe) it does not effect the Knicks cap position.

I can't imagine how this can be allowed by the league anyway. We need some kind of real evidence to support such a statement. Where is this person getting such information? Ahhh...the new world of blogging...

Posted by PresIke:

why would he take a buyout of $10-15 when he is owed $33.5 over the next two years.

good point. the blogger might be making stuff up