Marion Might Get Traded Again

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>In acquiring Marion, the HEAT actually added to this season's payroll. In fact, if Marion does not opt out of his $17.8 million contract Miami has pickup an additional $1.6 million for next season as well. The team won't gain any financial benefit until the summer of 2009, where O'Neal was schedule to earn another cool $20 million.

Considering there are so few teams with cap space this summer (perhaps the Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers, Memphis Grizzlies, etc), there's no guarantee Marion will look to free agency. If he can lock down at least a guaranteed $45-50 million, it'd probably be worth it - but would he be open to a pay cut down to $8-10 million in the first year?

Do the HEAT look at Marion as their long-term acquisition to play alongside Wade or are they in fact rebuilding?

Coach Pat Riley can be quite proactive when he puts on the General Manager hat - would he be willing to quickly re-route Marion for expiring contracts and draft picks to make sure the opt out is no longer a HEAT issue?

Interestingly enough, HOOPSWORLD reports Marion could already be involved in talks, perhaps with the Dallas Mavericks and New Jersey Nets in a multi-team swap (although owner Mark Cuban refuted the idea).

While the rules are easy to misconstrue, Marion can be traded at any point until the deadline. He cannot be packaged with another player. For instance (and completely made up for illustration purposes), the HEAT would not be able to trade Marion and Banks together to acquire Kevin Garnett.

In a similar nonsense vein, Marion can be traded straight up for someone like Baron Davis - or for a combination of players as long as the salaries match.

There is a loophole to get around the trade restriction: if the trade financially can be broken down into separate transactions. For instance, Marion for Antawn Jamison and Banks for Brendan Haywood is a completely a fictitious scenario that technically works under the cap rules.

There's no 48-hour waiting period to trade a player after acquiring him, and there also is no limiting time period to make another trade. Where urban legends like that come from are beyond the scope of this column.

Considering the trade deadline is less than two weeks away and already the league has seen two monster deals, who knows what craziness will go down in the coming days?</div>

Source: Hoopsworld

 

I wonder who they are implying they would move from the Nets. Won't make sense to move Kidd if you are adding Marion.

-Petey