DET/SAS

Would the Spurs do this to cut tax dollars?:

Ratliff (1.3 mil) + Mason (3.8) + Bonner (3.2) + Haislip (0.4) for Kwame (4.1) + Wilcox (3.0)

Haislip would just be cut (no roster spot). All of them are expiring deals so we'd essentially get Wilcox off the books for free.

It wouldn't do a whole lot for us, but maybe Joe would then be willing to move Tay or RIP for any expiring deal to sign a decent FA next year (Lee?) with an extra 3 mil in space.

I'd still like to move Kwame for a pick and a one year deal, but this is another alternative.

Quote:

The Miami Heat have indeed expressed interest in San Antonio’s Roger Mason, but the Miami deal that interested the Spurs most is no longer possible.

The Spurs were hoping to tempt Miami into absorbing Mason’s $3.8 million expiring contract into a $4.3 million trade exception that would have enabled the teams to complete a deal without San Antonio needing to take back another player. A future second-round pick from the Heat would have completed the transaction.

But the Heat, dealing with their own luxury-tax issues like San Antonio and reluctant to add to their payroll, ultimately declined.

And the trade exception in question -- created through the departure of Marcus Banks in Miami’s Shawn Marion trade with Toronto on Feb. 15, 2009 -- expired Monday at midnight.

The Spurs and Mason’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, have mutually agreed to pursue trades before Thursday’s 3 p.m. trading deadline, but it’ll take a new trade construction to get Mason to Miami now if the Heat want to try again.

San Antonio is more than $10 million over the luxury-tax threshold, so the deal proposed Monday to Miami would have cut its tax bill by nearly 40 percent. Miami is roughly $2.8 million over the tax threshold.