The Cleveland Cavaliers received a traded player exception in their deal with the Chicago Bulls that swapped Isaac Okoro for Lonzo Ball. Yesterday, it was reported and written by me that the exception was for $11 million. Today, it has been clarified by Keith Smith that Cleveland has only a $1 million traded player exception.
Correction on this:
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) July 18, 2025
CLE has a $1M TPE for Okoro, not a $11M TPE.
The CHI side is all still valid. https://t.co/ZPNVmfbLKX
A traded player exception is created when a team trades
a player with more salary for one with less or no salary at all. Cleveland did that when they sent out Okoro — who is set to make $11 million this upcoming season — for Lonzo Ball and his $10 million deal.
This difference would mean that the Cavs would have a traded player exception of $1 million.
The confusion came from an injured-player clause in Ball’s contract that would’ve allowed a team to trade him as if his salary were $0. This, in theory, would’ve created an $11 million trade exception. That reading of the contract was incorrect.
So, where does that leave the Cavs?
A trade exception like this allows a team to acquire someone who makes as much or less than their exception in a trade as long as they didn’t send out a player of their own. That would’ve been beneficial if you could acquire a player a team is trying to salary dump who is making $11 million or more.
Since the exception is for $1 million, the Cavs could only acquire a player making that much or less in a deal. And unfortunately for Cleveland, no players would fit into that exception as the minimum contract for a player with no years of service time for the upcoming season is $1,361,969.
In short, this is essentially worthless for the Cavs.
The CBA is confusing. Even the experts get things wrong. But at least we all learned something about traded player exceptions.
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