Of the many deals executed around the NBA Draft, the De’Anthony Melton/Danny Green swap between the Memphis Grizzlies and Philadelphia 76ers stands out as an excellent case study of how even a seemingly simple trade can be quite complex.

Descending Salary

While most contracts climb from year to year, some are flat, like Green, who is under contract for $10 million in both 2021-22 and 2022-23. Others descend, specifically Melton, who dips from $8,805,976 to $8,250,000.

While that wouldn’t impact a trade from July to the February deadline, it does matter after the season through the end of June. Melton’s outgoing trade value for the Grizzlies is $8,250,000. For the Sixers, Melton’s value is the higher 2021-22 salary.

Green’s is $10 million of incoming salary to Memphis, which easily fits within the $5 million trade padding on Melton (allowing up to $13,250,000 of incoming salary).

And since Green’s salary is higher than Melton’s, that would suggest Philadelphia would generate a $1,750,000 (non-simultaneous) trade exception for the difference.

But that’s not the case.

Don’t Teams Have to Pay Injured Players?

Before the trade, Green’s $10 million for next season was non-guaranteed. Typically, if a player is injured with non-guaranteed salary, the team is responsible until he recovers. But that only applies through the end of that particular season (unless the player signed an Exhibit 9 and the injury occurred before the season, then the obligation is just $6,000).

Green suffered a severe knee injury in Game 6 of the second round of the playoffs, but the rule only impacts the 2021-22 campaign. Even if he misses next season, the Sixers were not obligated to pay any of his non-guaranteed salary.

But Green did have some of his 2022-23 locked in ahead of the trade with Memphis.

Non-Guaranteed Salary is a Zero

While the Grizzlies needed to account for Green’s entire salary, his outgoing value to the Sixers was his guaranteed amount—which was zero.

Green earned his entire $10 million for the most recent season but had nothing locked in for 2022-23. Similar to Melton, Green’s trade value to Philadelphia is the lower (guaranteed) amount between the previous and next seasons–which was zero.

That’s why the 76ers needed to guarantee a portion of his salary to execute the Green swap for Melton.

How Much was guaranteed?

A little investigation reveals that the Sixers did not generate a trade exception for Green (technically, while a simultaneous trade exception was used, “trade exception” generally refers to the non-simultaneous variety that gives a team a full year from the transaction date to complete the transaction).

As a team above the tax, Philadelphia made the trade for Melton by matching up to 25 percent plus $100,000 above Green’s outgoing salary. That means Green’s guarantee was less than Melton’s 2021-22 salary of $8,805,976–and that the 76ers locked in between $6,964,781 and $8,805,975 (at least $1 short of Melton).

Greens’ guarantee had to be lower than Melton’s salary since the team needed to use the simultaneous trade exception, but it couldn’t be lower than $6,964,781 (which has since been confirmed as Green’s guaranteed amount by a league source).

How Much Did Roddy Count in the Trade?

The rights to drafted players have zero value in trade matching.

A recently drafted player can be dealt 30 days after signing his contract, but that’s trading a player, not the rights to a player.

Email Eric Pincus at eric.pincus@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter, @EricPincus.