How are teams able to trade players who are out of the league, like Dallas did with Keith Van Horn?
There are usually a number players in a semi-retired state, neither actively playing nor officially retired. Sometimes the player is still looking to catch on with a team (or hasn’t yet decided whether he’s ready to hang ’em up). Other times the player is out of the league for good, but for whatever reason hasn’t filed his retirement paperwork. These players often have Bird or Early-Bird rights, which are held by the team for which the player last played. It can be useful for teams to retain the rights to these semi-retired players, because they might be used in a sign-and-trade (see question number 76) to provide enough salary ballast to make a trade legal under the Traded Player Exception (see question number 68). A sign-and-trade requires a three year contract, but only the first season needs to be guaranteed. So for the team receiving the player, it’s like receiving an expiring contract (see question number 86). This kind of deal occurred twice during the 2007-08 season. Dallas re-
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