Jazz Mailbag: What Is A Traded Player Exception?

SALT LAKE CITY – Welcome to the Utah Jazz mailbag, where this week we explain the concept of a traded player exception, and how it can be used.

Each week, we will send out a prompt on X and BlueSky asking for the questions you have about the Jazz.

Then, we’ll respond to as many as we can in that week’s Jazz mailbag in the Jazz Notes podcast.

Jazz Mailbag: How Can Jazz Use Traded Player Exception?

Can you explain to me like I am 5 what a trade exception is and give an example (realistic or not) of what it could do before it expires next year?

— Mathew Wheatley (@matwheatley) July 7, 2025

Question: Can you explain to me like I am 5 what a trade exception is and give an example (realistic or not) of what it could do before it expires next year?

Answer: On Monday, the Jazz completed a three-team trade that sent John Collins to the Los Angeles Clippers, who sent Norman Powell to the Miami Heat, and Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson, a second-round pick, and a potentially massive traded player exception to Utah.

While players being traded is a straight forward concept, traded player exceptions are more nuanced.

Traditionally, in a trade, the salaries of the players changing teams are requried to match one another within a certain threshold. This preserves parity across the league, especially among the NBA’s highest priced rosters.

However, in an effort to aid roster flexibility, specifically for teams who are over the salary cap, the league allows for traded player exceptions to compensate for salary matching requirements.

The Utah Jazz can create a massive $26.6 million trade exception for John Collins if they absorb Kyle Anderson & Kevin Love with the mid-level exception.

They have plenty of tax room for more salary dumps.

Lauri Markkanen is now the only veteran holdover from previous seasons. pic.twitter.com/tmoNWle9rD

— Yossi Gozlan (@YossiGozlan) July 7, 2025

Let’s look at the Jazz’s recent three team trade, and namely the player salaries to explain how the rule works.

In the deal, the Jazz sent out Collins $26.5 million salary, while taking back $13 million between the $9 million salary owed to Kyle Anderson, and the $4 million salary for Kevin Love.

That leaves a $13.5 million gap between the salaries of the outgoing Collins, and the incoming Anderson and Love, which, without the use of a traded player exception, would have voided the deal.

However, to make the deal work, the league can grant the Jazz a $13.5 million traded player exception to close the margin between the outgoing and incoming money, creating an additional trade asset to use in future deals.

The @utahjazz are reportedly trading John Collins to the @LAClippers in exchange for Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson, and a second-round pick. #TakeNote https://t.co/wyRAB49sJd

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) July 7, 2025

From the date of the initial trade, the Jazz would have one year to use the exception in a future deal to acquire a player making $13.5 million or less, without having to send a player back in the move to make the financial figures match.

Essentially, a traded player exception is a salary placeholder that can be used in an unrelated future trade for one year.

If it goes unused, it simply expiries, and is no longer availabe to be used in transactions. It doesn’t involve any actual money, and it can’t it be used to sign a player in free agency.

But, let’s take a step back, because the Jazz, Clippers, Heat trade is actually slightly more complicated.

Rather than acquiring Anderson and Love into their traditional salary cap space, which would have left a $13.5 million gap in salaries, thus creating a $13.5 million traded player exception, the Jazz will use their mid-level exception to acquire the two players combined $13 million salaries.

From soaring high for the big jams to showing love in the community, 20 was all in. Thank you for the fun, the dunks and the veteran wisdom you showed to this team 💜

Once a Jazzman 🏔️#TakeNote | @jcollins20_ pic.twitter.com/2b0nnmF1fm

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) July 7, 2025

The mid-level exception is a roughly $14 million tool the NBA grants teams under certain tax aprons to use each offseason to sign free agents.

While teams traditionally use the mid-level exception to sign free agents, they can also use it to absorb player contracts in trades, which is what the Jazz will do for the $13 million owed to Anderson and Love.

By using the mid-level exception, the $13 million owed the newest players doesn’t count towards matching the $26.5 million outgoing salary for Collins.

So, instead of generating a $13.5 million traded player exception to bridge the gap between the incoming ($13 million) and outgoing money ($26.5 million) in the deal, the Jazz will be granted at $26.5 million exception, matching Collins full price tag.

This is advantageous for the Jazz who can now acquire a player worth up to $26.5 million in a trade over the next year, rather than just $13.5 million without the use of the mid-level exception.

But how does that help the team?

In it’s simplest form, the Jazz could use the traded player exception to aquire a single player with a contract as large as $26.5 million.

Jazz Mailbag: How Can Walter Clayton Help In Utah?

However, they can also split up the exception to acquire multiple players from one team, or divide it up in deals with multiple teams to acquire multiple players.

The Jazz could do this to improve the quality of talent on their own roster, or to grant financial relief to another team in the trade who needs to cut money from their salary cap.

In these salary relief situations, the Jazz would require a future draft asset to be attached to the player coming to Utah to create value on their end for taking on the larger contract.

Ultimately, the Jazz acquired a $26.5 million trade chip that they can use over the next 12 months to improve the roster, or eat an opposing team’s salary with adding another valuable draft asset.

Want to ask questions in next week’s Jazz mailbag? Give us a follow at @kslsports.

Are you on Threads yet? Let’s connect, give us a follow @kslsports.

Download the new & improved KSL Sports app from Utah’s sports leader. You can stream live radio, video and stay up to date on all of your favorite teams.

Ben Anderson is the author of the Jazz Mailbag, a Utah Jazz insider for KSL Sports, the author of the Jazz Mailbag, and the co-host of Jake and Ben from 10-12p with Jake Scott on 97.5 The KSL Sports Zone. Find Ben on Twitter at @BensHoops, on Instagram @BensHoops, or on BlueSky. 

Follow @benshoops