It's a weird loop hole that's entirely related to the fact that we only signed him to a 2 year deal on his first contract, so we didn't get full bird rights. And the provision allows you to match anyways even though you wouldn't technically have the cap space or exceptions to do so. I think there would probably be better solutions though, like allow a QO system on the third year of any rookie deal, allowing a team to get that third year and bird rights. Then again, perhaps the Bulls should have pushed harder for that third year on the first contract. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I'm talking specifically about how the cap hit counts one way for the signing team and another for the matching team. There's absolutely no reason to allow it to work like that. But agree, Bulls should have fought harder for a 3rd year. But all indications are that Asik really only wanted a 2 year deal so he could cash in on a larger payday sooner. How else would you structure it though? It's not fair to the Rockets to be forced to have 5/5/15 structure when they have cap space to sign him to a normal contract. The Bulls couldn't have a 8/8/8 structure without Bird rights. It's a strange rule, but it's one the league specifically put in to help the team potentially losing the player. It was designed to help players stay with teams, while before they had no chance of staying. I guess I feel that teams drafting and bringing these international guys over should automatically get bird rights, even if they only sign a 2 year deal. Also it's dumb that the signing team has to only be able to fit the average value of the contract under the cap, despite backloading it in the 3rd and/or 4th year. I don't know, just seems less than ideal. But the only reason it's backloaded is to accommodate the original team. You can't just choose to backload a contract like that. And there's definite logic in the 3 year rule for bird rights. It's be nice like you said if there was just an exception to allow bird rights on rookie players even if they only signed a two year deal, but the current set up is an immense improvement over before. NBA salary cap is whack all around though and the NFL and NHL have much better cap systems. Just make a hard cap around the current apron level and be done with the soft cap experiment. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk