I thought maybe it woudlent count cuz he was already on our team kinda like bird rules? i guess not

It looks like Isiah is mainly trying to get Dampier through a sign-n-trade, but I wonder what Isiah would do if he had a chance to get Dampier with the MLE? That would be a golden, though unlikely, opportunity for the team. If that could someway happen, I hope Baker could settle down for the LLE.

The LLE is limited to 2 yrs, can't be used 2 yrs in a row, can be split and had that value over the last few yrs :

98-99 $1.00 million
99-00 $1.10 million
00-01 $1.20 million
01-02 $1.30 million
02-03 $1.40 million
03-04 $1.50 million
04-05 $1.60 million


MID-LEVEL SALARY EXCEPTION -- This exception is also called the "Middle Class Exception." This exception says that a team can offer any player a contract equal to the average NBA salary every year, even if they are over the cap. This exception is new to the current CBA, and was "ramped up" to the average salary over a period of four years.Here is the value of the mid-level salary exception for each year of the CBA:

98-99 $1.75 million
99-00 $2.00 million
00-01 $2.25 million
01-02 $4,538,000
02-03 $4,546,000
03-04 $4,917,000


This exception may be split and given to multiple players. It may be used for contracts of up to six years in length. Signing a player to a multi-year contract does not affect a team's ability to use this exception every year. For example, a team can sign a player to a six-year contract using this exception and still use the exception the following year to sign another player.

For any question related to the exception, the cap or nay rules linked in a way or another to salaries, I kindly suggest you to check this page (http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#17).

Hope this helps.

You need to have a guy for three years to get his Bird rights, or you have to trade with a team who owns the guy's bird rights.

Neither scenario applies to NYK and Baker.