Tiago Splitter to the 76ers?
By Nile Goodwyn
Tiago Splitter battled with the injury bug last season that limited him to 36 games. Should the Hawks give him another chance or look to get rid of the six-year Brazilian?
The Hawks’ roster currently sits at 17 players, and Tiago Splitter’s contract, paired with disappointing play in an injury- shortened 2015-16 season, makes him a viable option to be moved before or during the upcoming season. But, what team could use Splitter’s skill-set, while taking on his 8.25 million dollar contract? Enter the Philadelphia 76ers. The new-look Sixers, led by 2016 #1 pick Ben Simmons and 2015 #3 pick Jahlil Okafor, have won 28 games combined in the past two seasons, but are looking to turn a new page on their past failure, and begin developing relevance within the NBA world. But, the team currently employs zero NBA champions, and in order to create a winning atmosphere, you must have winners on your roster.
Related: Tiago Splitter’s Future as a Hawk
Enter Tiago Splitter.
The 31-year old Brazilian big man, who only played in 36 games during the 2015-16 season due to a hip injury, won a ring with the San Antonio Spurs in 2013-14, and played well in his last full NBA season (8.2 PPG, 4.8 RPG in 19.8 minutes per game). He would undoubtably bring the Sixers an “on-court coach”, who could teach the inexperienced talents the ropes of the league, while playing a role of second or third big off Brett Brown’s bench.
76ers receive: Tiago Splitter and a future second-round draft pick
Hawks receive: $8.35 million dollar trade exception
This deal would leave the Hawks with only one roster spot to clear, and give the front office a nice trade exception to work with. Larry Coon’s NBA Salary Cap FAQ describes trade exceptions:
"In some cases, teams have up to one year to acquire the replacement player(s) to complete a trade. These trades are considered non-simultaneous. In a non-simultaneous trade, a team can acquire only up to 100% plus $100,000 of the outgoing salary (as opposed to a higher amount in a simultaneous trade). A trade in which salaries are aggregated cannot be non-simultaneous.Here is an example of a non-simultaneous trade: a team trades away a $2 million player for a $1 million player. Sometime in the next year, they trade a draft pick (with zero trade value itself) for a $1.1 million player to complete the earlier trade. They ended up acquiring $2.1 million in salary for their $2 million player — they just didn’t do it all at once, or even necessarily with the same trading partner.In the above example, following the initial trade of the $2 million player for the $1 million player, it was like the team had a $1 million “credit” which was good for one year, with which they could acquire salaries without having to send out salaries to match. As with simultaneous trades, teams are allowed to acquire an extra $100,000 — so a $1 million credit can be used to acquire $1.1 million in salaries. This credit is often referred to as a Traded Player exception or a trade exception, but be aware that the CBA uses the name “Traded Player exception” to refer to the entire exception which allows teams to make trades above the salary cap (including both simultaneous and non-simultaneous trades). In this document “Traded Player exception” is used to refer to the exception, and “trade exception” is used to refer to the one-year credit."
In short, the Hawks would have up to a year after the proposed deal to make a trade in which they would take in no more than an additional $8.35 million dollars, and the money wouldn’t count negatively against the cap. This deal would open up money for Coach Bud and the rest of the front office to play with in trade talks, and the 76ers would add an NBA champion and a draft pick to their team, both of which could surely help a young, inexperienced team like the 76ers.
This would also open up a crowded Hawks frontcourt, one that currently employs eight players. That number could be cut down to 6 if the proposed trade went down and Matt Costello, who is on a partially-guaranteed contract that only promises a training camp berth, is released before his contract becomes guaranteed. The moves would leave the Hawks with a six-man frontcourt rotation of Dwight Howard, Paul Millsap (who may be on the trading block), Mike Muscala, Mike Scott, Kris Humphries, and Edy Tavares, who is expected by many Hawks fans to have his breakout year.