02-03-2026, 01:33 PM
(02-03-2026, 01:07 PM)omahen Wrote: Can Cleveland even aggregate salaries before getting under the second apron as long as they end up under the second apron after the trade?
If yes, than perhaps a deal is a bit easier. Cleveland needs to send out at least 68 mil of salaries to get Giannis and be under the second apron after the deal. A bit more as they will need to get some more players to get to 14 players minimum. So lets say some 72 mil at least assuming they get a couple of vet min.
If Mobley is the outgoing young player, it is a bit simpler. It basically takes Mobley, Allen and one of Ball, Merrill or Wade. For example, this trade works:
Mil: Mobley, Rui, Knecht, FRPs from LA and Cle
Cle: Giannis, 2 vet min
Brooklyn: Ball and some SRPs from Cleveland
LAL: Allen (this deal also works if one vet min from Milwaukee is going to LAL and one to Cle)
Cleveland could still do Garland for Harden.
If Garland is the outgoing, than it would take Allen and either two of Ball/Merill/Wade or Strus to get to at least 72 mil.
"Can Cleveland even aggregate salaries before getting under the second apron as long as they end up under the second apron after the trade" .... Yes. The CLE status would be where they are at the end of any trade. So if a trade ends under the A2 line, they can aggregate within that trade, regardless of where their payroll used to be. They would also end up hardcapped at A2. The issue is finding a team (or teams) to absorb the extra 13M or so in payroll they need to shed.
In your proposal above, the one move of Ball-to-BKN (for air) is the catalyst, and after that they would be less than $4M over A2 which is a fairly workable margin to navigate in any number of ways. Add Wade to that move and they are below A2, able to simply match salary dollar-for-dollar in any way they wish. So they would no longer need to include a 3rd team if they were swapping talent-for-talent to get Giannis.