The Trail Blazers on Wednesday made a minor trade that general manager Kevin Pritchard hopes will turn into an important piece of the Blazers' future.
The Blazers sent little-used forward Ike Diogu and $1 million to Sacramento in exchange for oft-injured forward Michael Ruffin, but the Blazers were more interested in a trade exception they received in the deal. In simple terms, a team gets a trade exception when it trades a player with a higher salary than the player they get in return. Diogu makes $2.93 million in the last year of his contract, while Ruffin makes $1.1 million in the last year of his deal.
The Blazers receive a $3.03 million trade exception --Diogu's salary plus $100,000 --which means the Blazers can make a trade with a team for a player worth up to $3.03 million without having to send a player back in matching salary.
The Blazers have 365 days to use the exception, and in these cash-conscious times, the Blazers are banking on finding a team that will be willing to unload a $3 million player. What the Blazers have done in the past is demand that a first-round pick be added to their deal in compensation for taking the $3 million player off the other team's hands.
The last time the Blazers benefited from a trade exception was the 2007 NBA draft, when they acquired a trade exception in the deal with New York that sent Zach Randolph, Dan Dickau and Fred Jones to the Knicks. The Blazers used that exception to acquire James Jones from Phoenix, in addition to the Suns' first-round pick, which turned out to be Rudy Fernandez.
-- Jason Quick
