we have an agreement with a team that wants marbury. we will:

1. buy him out MINUS the full MLE amount (so in essence, $60 mil he's owed minus $30 mil)
2. the team that wants him signs him for the FULL MLE.
3. we then make a trade with the same team giving them jerome james for a player we want in a sign and trade.

for example:

minny wants marbury and steph wants to go there, but since things don't really match up talent and dollars wise, we agree to buy him out so he can sign there for the MLE. but b/c we do this, they agree that after a few weeks have passed, we then trade jerome james in a S&T for marcus banks. 3 seperate transactions at 3 different times (the buyout, the MLE signing, and the s&t)

so in essence, we trade them steph + jerome for marcus but we also pick up 1/2 ($30 mil) of steph's contract.

another example would be to buy him out and let atlanta sign him outright. then two weeks down the road do a s&t harrington for mo. in this case, again, we would get harrington for steph+mo, but in essence pay for 1/2 of steph's contract.

would that be collusion and would that raise red flags?

it seems legal, no?

[Edited by - djsunyc on 03-31-2006 11:09 AM]

Sounds legal to me.

Steph is a free agent and can sign anywhere.

Of course the buy out is still on our cap, but WTF, Dolan don't care, why should I?

I wonder if Steph would sign for the MLE? Net-Net its the same thing, but he got his reputation to look out for. He would no longer be a "max" player!

Other thing is what if he don't want to be traded? He could also try to get a bigger payoff AND the MLE.

But your thinking the right way and it would be great to move him and Jerome.

would a full mle take Minny of the cap? They won't like to pay tax, and hav to take Jerome.