The Spurs have agreed to trade center Jackie Butler and Argentine forward Luis Scola to the Houston Rockets for guard Vassilis Spanoulis, a future second-round pick and cash considerations, an NBA source said Thursday evening.




Looks like were not the only team doing what it takes to stay under the luxury tax....

if the pistons were adequately addressing their needs, the financial trades wouldnt be discussed. i dont recall anyone being THAT upset that we traded corliss at the time. its that we have continued to tear this thing apart, ignoring obvious needs and having less success every year in favor of the balance sheet.

btw, we should probably stop comparing the pistons to the spurs. i recall 3 or 4 years ago espn.com called spurs/stons the best two franchise in basketball with the brightest future. now i'd say its the spurs and everyone else.

I'd agree with you except that we continuously used the MLE until this year, The problem is that we used it for Nazr, Evans, and Dale Davis. If we spent that same money on players that actually helped us, we wouldn't be having this discussion...

Also, the Spurs and Scola have had a pretty rocky relationship with him thinking they weren't doing enough to get him to the NBA.

the Spurs are always able to sign roleplayers to decent contracts, and if they dont work out, like Butler, they dump them...i think they had one really bad contract in Rasho the last couple of year, and got rid trading him for Bonner and some other dude

Wow, the Rockets just got big in a hurry.

I would have liked the Butler/Scola package for the Pistons (but not for Amir, as I mentioned in the Amir thread).

This is also good because the Bulls really wanted Scola's rights.

Now that the Rockets got their bigs, I suspect that Battier might be off the market.

That doesn't save money from a cap perspective. Butler and Spanoulis get paid essentially the same amount this year and are team options next year. I think they're just trading disgruntled pieces between each other and hoping something can work out.

When you combine payroll savings, Vassilis Spanoulis' virtually certain return to Europe and Houston's cash contributions, San Antonio saved an estimated $7 million by trading the draft rights to Argentine power forward Luis Scola and little-used Jackie Butler to Houston on Thursday.

The Spurs were hoping to send Scola out of their conference -- as part of a three-way trade with the Kings and Cavs that would have landed Scola and Bibby in Cleveland before collapsing Thursday -- but decided that the financial benefits were too significant to keep Scola away from the neighboring Rockets.

<confused>
How is Scola counting against their cap? He's an unsigned 2nd round pick.
http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#43

Spanoulis only partially gets offset if he goes to Europe: http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#55

the savings is in Jackie Butler's salary.

I can see how they could save about 3 mil, but I can't get 7.

Butler (2.35m) doubled due to luxury tax = $4.7m

Take back Spanoulis (1.67m) which puts them under the tax:

4.7m - 1.67m= ~3m

Spanoulis' salary this year is $1.94 million.

If I understand the CBA right, what the Spurs can get back if he is released and signs with another Euro team is "limited to one-half the difference between the player's new salary and the minimum salary for a one-year veteran". So, unless someone's throwing a big-ass contract at Spanoulis in Europe, the Spurs don't get much back. Right?

If they can invoke some other mechanism other than releasing him, I'm all ears.

I think some of the money involved is the "cash contributions" from the Rockets.

I think some of the money involved is the "cash contributions" from the Rockets.
That's what it seems like to me. How exactly do cash contributions work with the cap? Do they give you more cap space or what?

My understanding is it really is just a check cut to a team that doesn't affect the salary cap, but it would be helpful if a team goes into the luxury tax, having to pay extra money. So if a trade causes a team to go .5 mill in salary over the tax, the other team could offer a mill to cover the cost. That's how I've understood it, but I'm far from a CBA expert. I imagine there's a cash limit to how much can be added.

$3 mil was the limit, last I knew