Quote:
what are the rules on a sign-and-trade with P.J. Brown involved - Is there some rule against maxing him for 1 year as our own free agent, or can we only give him what we have available under our cap currently
Okay, BD, I think I may have your answer, and that answer seems to be: not likely.
There is no specific rule that prohibits this. However, the CBA has a more blanket rule on cap circumvention in which the league office can step in. So technically, you could sign & trade PJ to a large 3-year deal with only the first year guaranteed. Unfortunately, the league would probably not allow such a transaction to go through, because it'd be pretty obvious what the Bulls were up to, and it's called cap circumvention. Expiring contracts are valuable, but they would cease to be so if you could simply create one out of thin air.
here is a link to the CBA agreement:
http://www.nbpa.com/cba_articles.php
along with the specific link for this rule:
http://www.nbpa.com/cba_articles/article-XIII.php
and here it is explained in layman's terms by CBA savant, Larry Coon:
http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#87