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Bledsoe and potential outcomes under the CBA

What are the possible scenarios for the ongoing negotiations with Bledsoe? In what cases can he be traded? Source for information on the CBA -> http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm

(a) Bledsoe accepts an offer sheet, Suns don't match

If Bledsoe accepts an offer sheet, the Suns have 3 days to decide whether they'll match or not. After Bledsoe has accepted an offer sheet and the clock starts running, he cannot be traded anymore. If the Suns don't match the accepted offer sheet, he becomes a player of the new team.

(b) Bledsoe accepts an offer sheet, Suns match

He remains the Suns player under the terms of the offer sheet. For the first year after the Suns matched the offer sheet, Bledsoe will have to consent to any trade the Suns will wish to make including him. He cannot be traded to the team with which he signed the offer sheet (for example if he accepted an offer sheet from Philadelphia and the Suns matched, he cannot be traded to Philadelphia, but only to the other 28 teams).

http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q100

(c) Bledsoe says he will sign an offer sheet, and then the Suns decide they'd rather trade him away in sign&trade.

The maximum length of the contract given in a S&T is four years, so if Bledsoe wants to be traded away in a S&T, he will be only able to get a 4 year contract, as opposed to the 5 year contract he can get if he signs with the Suns.

Also, Bledsoe cannot be traded away to a team in a S&T if that team's salary would be at the "apron" (around 4m$ above the tax line, so around 80.8m$).

Otherwise, normal rules apply for the salaries of players on both sides of the trade having to match. If we wish to trade away Bledsoe to a team that would still be under the cap (around 63m$) after the trade is done (so including Bledsoe's new salary), then the salaries don't have to match, so we don't neccessarily have to take back any players, we can take just picks, or picks and player(s) with less total salary then the salary we're sending away. But if we trade away to a team that would be over the cap after the trade, then we have to take back roughly the same amount of salary (for more info, check http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q84 ).

I haven't seen anything that would suggest it is impossible to combine multiple players in a S&T, or even have two players S&T for each other, so for example S&T Bledsoe to Detroit in exchange for Greg Monroe, who would sign a new contract at the same time in his own S part of the S&T.

(d) Bledsoe doesn't accept any offer from the Suns or other teams, takes qualifying offer (QO)

In that case, he'd play this year for a salary (and cap hit) of 3.7m$.

Also, he can only be traded during this year with his consent. If he is traded, then the new team will not have his Bird rights next year, which means among other things that his contract with the new team could only be 4 years long, and the teams will not be able to sign him and come over the salary cap. If, however, he stays with the Suns, they will have his Bird rights. See part of the question 100:

"When the player is playing under a one-year contract (excluding any option year) and will have Larry Bird or Early Bird rights at the end of the season. This includes first round draft picks following their fourth (option) season, who accept their team's qualifying offer for their fifth season. When the player consents to such a trade, his Larry Bird/Early Bird rights are not traded with him, and instead becomes a Non-Bird free agent3."

(e) Bledsoe signs directly with the Suns, without any offer sheets etc. involved.

In that case, he cannot be traded "for three months or until December 15 of that season (whichever is later) after signing a contract as a free agent". But his consent is not needed to be traded, however, I believe it would send a bad message to the rest of the league if the Suns would try to trick Bledsoe into signing a deal and then trading him against his wishes.

I hope you liked this short analysis of the potential outcomes.