The Cleveland Cavaliers opened up another roster spot on Monday by trading injured center Chris “Birdman” Andersen. 

They traded him along with cash to the Charlotte Hornets for a protected 2017 second round pick. ESPN’s Dave McMenamin gave the details on the protection of that pick:

They also obtained a trade exception worth $980,000.

Andersen signed with the Cavaliers last July and seen limited action during his time with the Cavaliers until he tore his ACL in practice in mid December.

Charlotte immediately waived Andersen once they acquired him and this could be the end of his 15 year NBA career. 

Now that the Cavaliers have another open roster spot, I’m sure rumors will start flying as to what they’ll do. They still have multiple trade exceptions to absorb a player’s salary in a trade without giving up a player to match said salary

• 4.8 million from the Anderson Varejao/Channing Frye trade
• 4.8 million from the Mike Dunleavy/Kyle Korver trade
• 2.19 million from the Mo Williams/Atlanta trade
• 1.3 million from the Sasha Kaun/Philadelphia trade
• $980,000 from the Chris Andersen/Charlotte trade

The problems with those trade exceptions are you can’t combine those in a blockbuster type trade and not too many good players are making 4.8 million or less because of the inflating salary cap which has led to inflating NBA salaries.

Now the Cavaliers don’t have to go the trade route to add talent. They can only sign whoever they want for the veterans minimum because they’re already over the salary cap. 

They worked out some guards a couple weeks ago like Jordan Farmar and Mario Chalmers. They can also go after a big man with Kevin Love on the sidelines with a knee injury. Some free agent big men include former Cavalier J.J. Hickson and former Milwaukee Buck Larry Sanders who is attempting an NBA comeback after being out of the league for two seasons.