Trade to free roster spots vs. Waiving Guys

[Rondoholic]

Just a quick question, probably CBA related.  Danny clearly made the Harongody/Erden (and Marquise) trades to free up roster spots.  What's the advantage of doing trades like this as opposed to just cutting a guy like Harongody midseason.  I mean even if you have to pay some/all of Harongody's contract for instance, that can't be a lot of money.  Just curious why teams infrequently outright waive guys.  If this were the case, they could have selectively cut Gody and kept Erden.  But obviously there must be a reason.  Anyone care to explain?

[BballTim]

  I'm guessing it affects how much they have to pay in luxury tax.

[Fafnir]

if you waive a player you still pay him, and pay tax on him.

By trading instead of cutting Danny saved the C's around 3 million in salary and tax payments.

[The DarkPassenger]

If a player is waived they are still on the books for the remainder of the contract I believe. If you trade them then they are off the books and the team that gets them has the contract now. A player can be picked up immediately I believe after a team waives them but I think that if a team does that they take on that contract versus signing them to one of there own, under there terms.

A player can be bought out and waived and then they do come off the books. It's a cap thing and a luxury tax thing basically. I could be wrong though.

[Roy H.]

My guess is that this had as much to do with the #2 pick as it did saving money.  I think the chances are 100% that Semih would have been claimed off waivers, and 50/50 that Luke would have.

[lon3lytoaster]

if you waive a player you still pay him, and pay tax on him.

By trading instead of cutting Danny saved the C's around 3 million in salary and tax payments.

Probably a little over 3 mil would be my guess. And if I'm not mistaken, we got some cash thrown in for Marquis, I believe. Enough to cover the salary of Troy Murphy for the rest of this season. So no loss out of Wyc's pocket.