The role of NBA presidents and general managers has always been one filled with ways to try and manipulate the rules in place in order to build the best team possible.
Take, for instance, Pat Riley’s salary cap purge in 2008 and 2009 that kept the team competitive while freeing up enough money to make the impossible happen with Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James‘ Big Three. Or now there’s the outlawed trick of trading a player the team knew would be released so that the organization could re-sign him and double the profits of their acquisitions.
However, the implementation of the highly punitive luxury tax rules seemed to wipe out a lot of those advantages. That is until Riley and Miami Heat general manager, Andy Elisburg, found a new way to manipulate the buyout season in a fashion that acts as unofficial trades — after the February deadline — while apparently angering several other teams, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
With names like Kevin Martin expected to join Marcus Thornton on the waiver wire — before the March 1 cutoff date to be waived and playoff eligible — the Heat brass once again found a way to circumvent the rules that were created to stifle them.
It is common knowledge that opposing NBA owners pushed for repeater tax penalties as a response to suppress free agency power moves like the Heat pulled off in 2010, with the hope that teams would be too scared off by the penalty to pay multiple All-Stars. But Elisburg figured out a way to get more with less.
After working out a deal with Beno Udrih, Miami put themselves in position to sink back under the tax if another club claims him off waivers. If not, the injured guard will work out a buyout that allows the Heat to still avoid payments that would have occurred after the signing of Joe Johnson. Either move will give Miami two open roster spots to play with, possibly as soon as now with Thornton or in another two weeks with others.
The magic of Riley and the cap logic of Elisburg have once again merged in the quest to do their best job of building a competitive team without Bosh. And so far, so good.
