Charlotte Bobcats' trade exception could come in handy

I have a wide-ranging interview in Sunday’s Observer with Charlotte Bobcats president of basketball operations Rod Higgins and general manager Rich Cho. One of the things they emphasize in that interview is they don’t intend to do anything panic-driven or short-sighted to make the team cosmetically better between now and the Mar. 15 trade deadline.

            That doesn’t mean the Bobcats would necessarily sit out the trade deadline, which comes a month later than usual due to the lockout delaying the season. The Bobcats would certainly listen to a deal that would send them an asset (a draft pick or a young player) in return for another team or teams borrowing some of their salary-cap flexibility.

            The Oklahoma City Thunder often did that sort of deal when Cho was with that organization. Here’s how such a deal could work, concerning the Bobcats:

            The Bobcats created a $3.5 million trade exception – Shaun Livingston’s salary this season – when they included Livingston’s salary in the June deal that brought the No. 7 pick and Corey Maggette to the Bobcats. That trade exception expires on June 23, a year removed from the day Livingston was dealt to Milwaukee.

            That means the Bobcats could acquire a player with a salary comparable to or smaller than Livingston’s without sending a salary to the other team. The Bobcats’ current payroll is just under the $58 million salary cap, so they’re more than $12 million below a payroll requiring them to pay luxury tax.

            All that’s important this way: Say there’s a team looking to get below the luxury-tax number. (By my count, seven teams are currently above the $70.3 million tax threshold.) Maybe they’d be willing to send a first-round pick to the Bobcats in return for parking a veteran salary on the Bobcats’ payroll. Such a team could even compensate the Bobcats, up to $3 million, for what remains of that veteran’s salary.

            Or say there are two teams that want to make a trade that doesn’t quite conform to cap rules. But that deal would work if a third team would absorb up to $3.5 million in salary. The Bobcats could facilitate that deal in return for some sort of compensation, like a draft pick.

            By my count, the Bobcats are one of just eight NBA teams under the salary cap. I’m thinking that Livingston trade exception could be pretty handy, as they look to pick up an extra draft pick.

            ON THE PICK THEY OWE THE BULLS: I’m often asked about that first-round pick the Bobcats eventually owe the Chicago Bulls, as compensation for acquiring Tyrus Thomas two years ago. According to an NBA document I saw, there are various levels of protection on that pick that could push it out as far as the 2016 draft. The first-round pick the Portland Trail Blazers still owe the Bobcats in the Gerald Wallace deal could be conveyed as early as 2013 and as late as 2016.

            The Bobcats owe the Thunder a second-round pick in 2013.