The Boston Celtics were able to get something for Gordon Hayward after all. After all the consternation about Danny Ainge missing out on whatever the Indiana Pacers offered, he was able to pivot and get a valuable asset from the Charlotte Hornets.
The $28.5 million traded player exception (TPE) Boston received in exchange for a pair of second round picks is the largest TPE in NBA history. It can be quite valuable for the Celtics, even, possibly, more valuable than what the Pacers were offering.
Here’s a full breakdown on what it is, how Boston can use it, and who they might target.
What is the TPE?
A traded player exception is basically a coupon a team receives in exchange for a player traded to a team that can absorb him into cap space or an exception.
In the NBA, salaries have to match in order for a trade to work. When a team, like Charlotte, can sign a player outright but decides to trade for him without sending players back, the sending team gets a TPE instead. It’s a way to match salaries but, basically, do it later.
So Boston gets a sort of coupon in the amount of Gordon Hayward’s first year salary, and they can use it to match salary in a trade or trades later on.
Why would Charlotte do that?
Because they got two second round picks for it, and those can be valuable either as cheap players to fill out a roster or as sweeteners for trades down the road.
How can Boston use it?
The fine print on this coupon reads “can’t be combined with any other assets.” They can split it up and trade for more than one player or in trades with more than one team. They can make a trade tomorrow with one team and in March with another. Some key rules:
- It can’t be combined with anything else to increase its value. They can’t add a player making $5 million, or the $5 million TPE created by the Enes Kanter deal, to a trade and make it worth $33.5 million. This TPE stands alone.
- It can’t be used past its expiration date. Typically it’s one year but because of the weird timing of this season, it will expire sometime before the next season starts.
- It can’t be used to sign a free agent. It’s not money to spend. Maybe you can think of it as a sort of gift card instead, and it can only be used in the “trade store.” However, if there is a free agent they wanted to sign, they could probably easily negotiate a sign-and-trade with his original team and that team would create a TPE of its own.
Who can Boston get with it?
Step one: you can go here and scroll down to D’Angelo Russell at 31 to start looking at who actually fits into the exception. Everyone above him is out (sorry, Bradley Beal fans).
From there, we can eliminate some obvious names. Giannis Antetokounmpo isn’t getting traded into an exception. Also keep in mind that because Boston is signing Tristan Thompson to a full mid-level exception, they’ll be hard-capped at about $139 million, so using the full $28.5 million TPE might not be possible unless they move some other players.
Step two: Find realistic scenarios
I’m going to break this into a couple of tiers. The first is of players on whom the entire TPE would be used and the second is mostly guys who would take a piece of it.
Tier 1:
- Otto Porter, $28,489,239
- Nikola Vucevic, $26,000,000
- Buddy Hield, $24,931,817
- Harrison Barnes, $22,215,909
- Gary Harris, $19,160,714
Personally, I think Boston should be targeting wings. Vucevic is on this list because he’s an intriguing stretch-5 option with a declining contract, but he’s still super-expensive and I’d be wary of that move.
Porter is 27 years-old and a career 40.4% shooter from 3. He’s overpaid in Chicago but it’s an expiring contract and trading for him brings his Bird rights in, so Boston can either sign him to a more reasonable deal next season, or trade him at the deadline. Hield and Barnes are candidates to move in Sacramento, but Hield is just starting a big five-year extension and that might be too much for Boston.
Barnes is a tremendous shooter who can fit Boston’s multi-positional style. He is also on a declining contract, Making $20.3 million next season and $18.3 the following season. Those are very tradeable numbers should Boston continue to retool.
Harris is an intriguing “change of scenery” guy who has one more season on his deal with the Denver Nuggets. Injuries have cost him opportunities and the team has done well without him. Their offseason moves have hard-capped them so a salary-clearing trade to create a TPE and fill his spot over the summer when the hard cap is gone makes sense. Boston would hope some good health and a new team could make him the 40% shooter that he was two years ago.
Tier 2:
- Aaron Gordon, $18,136,364
- Evan Fournier, $17,150,000
- JJ Redick, $13,013,700
- Kelly Olynyk, $13,598,243
- Al-Farouq Aminu, $9,720,900
- George Hill, $9,590,602
- PJ Tucker, $7,969,537
If I’m Danny Ainge, I’m basically calling the Chicago Bulls and Orlando Magic and asking who on their roster is available in this situation. Gordon could do very well with the Celtics if he just plays within himself and a system that doesn’t expect too much from him.
Personally, I’d rather get Fournier if possible. He’s expiring this season and could provide immediate help. He’s 28 years-old and a killer shooter from deep, so Orlando could just be looking to dump him rather than pay him next season. The real questions with a Fournier trade are whether Orlando would ask for too much in return, and would Boston want to pay him moving forward.
There is no doubt in my mind that New Orleans would love to get an asset back for Redick. Boston can certainly use a dependable shooter like him off the bench.
Miami probably wouldn’t mind clearing cap space in an Olynyk trade if Boston was hoping to try out his floor-spacing ability one more time.
Aminu is a very low probability guy but if he’s healthy, can be a strong, versatile defensive wing. If he is able to recapture any of his Portland shooting magic, he’d be a good bench option.
Hill would be a very capable backup to Kemba Walker and he could step in and run the show if Walker’s knee became an issue. His $10 million salary next season is not guaranteed, but $10 million could make him a valuable trade chip next summer.
Tucker would make the frontcourt a bit more crowded, but there’s no harm in calling the financially strapped Houston Rockets and seeing if you can get a steal.
It’s important to note that guys in this tier are all also very tradeable, and could be valuable to the Celtics in future salary-matching scenarios. Right now, Marcus Smart is the only mid-sized contract on the team, which means he’d have to be included in most trade scenarios for a superstar. Getting players who are also around his contract size could help Boston keep him should a bigger trade materialize down the road.
However the Celtics play this, they will have some options. Some of these names make more sense than others, and some may not end up being available at all, but these are the types of players in play for Boston with the TPE.
Danny Ainge did get something in exchange for Gordon Hayward, and if he can make the right moves, his haul through the TPE could end up becoming much better than anything the Indiana Pacers had to offer.
This was the entire focus of the most recent Locked On Celtics podcast, which is embedded below. It goes into even deeper detail about what the TPE is and other questions about how it’s used. You can subscribe to the podcast on Google, Apple, Stitcher, or Spotify, or wherever else podcasts exist.
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