I’ve received clarification that the information in this post related to Terry Rozier and how trades clear incomplete roster charges simultaneously is incorrect. I’m leaving the post up for reference but you should ignore most of it. Apologies for the misunderstanding on the league mechanics.

When Gordon Hayward announced that he would be signing in Boston everyone knew that the team would need to clear a few salaries to make enough space for a maximum salary. The initial read on this by most people, including me, was that the salary cap decrease from the projected $101M to $99M meant that they would need to shed someone making at least as much as Marcus Smart, with the obvious choice between he, Avery Bradley, or Jae Crowder.

If the team waived or traded out Jordan Mickey, stashed Guerschon Yabusele out of the NBA, and then traded out Terry Rozier and Demetrius Jackson for no incoming salary they would be left about $300,000 short of the max slot promised to Hayward. The issue in this series of moves was something called an incomplete roster charge. If a team has fewer than 12 players accounted for, a number of incomplete charges up to 12 are assigned each at the value of the league’s minimum salary, currently $815,615.

In the above example, the team would be left with eight players (Horford, Bradley, Crowder, Thomas, Tatum, Brown, Smart, Zizic) meaning they would have four incomplete charges assigned. The problem is that when you sign a free agent the spot that they fill is not accounted for until AFTER they sign, so you still have to count all four holds when signing the player.

However, when a team executes a trade the player replaces a hold simultaneously. That means that if the Celtics were to stash Yabusele and waive Mickey but then trade Rozier and Jackson to Utah (or one with the other going elsewhere) in a Gordon Hayward sign-and-trade they would land $500,000 under the salary cap. Salaries do NOT need to match if the team receiving the higher salary lands under the cap after the trade, as Boston would.

This does not mean that Boston is definitely going to do this. Utah would almost certainly agree as they would get Rozier functionally for free and create a large trade exception in the process. The important thing is that it sets a baseline for Boston and gives them leverage. At absolute worst, they could give Rozier away for nothing but keep all of Bradley, Crowder, and Smart.

That means that they can shop those three players around the league without “having a gun to their head” with every other team knowing that they have to shift one out. If the team can get an offer that they feel is better for one of them than just letting Rozier go for nothing, they would still want to do that, and then keep Rozier and maybe bring Yabusele directly over in the process. It’s also possible that they see Rozier’s team control as more valuable that one of the previously considered three and would prefer to send one of them to Utah as the baseline.

This additional option of executing a simple sign-and-trade with Utah is, I’m sure, known to the team. I simply hadn’t thought of it or seen it reported anywhere.

Larger sign-and-trades are also theoretically possible. The Celtics rescinded Kelly Olynyk’s qualifying offer making him an unrestricted free agent but have not yet renounced his Bird Rights. Jae Crowder is being reported as part of sign-and-trade negotiations already. It’s possible that by including another player they could get Rodney Hood or Dante Exum, though I imagine Utah values them highly. Getting to a number that works with Derrick Favors is harder, though simply trading Crowder and Bradley for him without involving Hayward would work fine.

I don’t know exactly how this will play out (we’ll know shortly) but the sign-and-trade option looks to give at least leverage, and possibly a better return, than a straight salary dump.