“Early Qualifying Veteran Free Agent” means a Veteran Free Agent who, prior to becoming a Veteran Free Agent, played under one or more Player Contracts covering some or all of each of the two (2) preceding Seasons, and who either exclusively played with his Prior Team during such two Seasons, or, if he played for more than one Team during such period, changed Teams _only_ (i) by means of trade, or (ii) by signing with his Prior Team during the first of the two (2) Seasons.

Brian Cronin:
What Hahn says is, in general, correct. However, he is not describing “Bird Rights” there.

I think even though it’s called the “non-bird exception” it’s still technically part of the provision of rights that are designed to allow teams to keep their own players. Those rights are all called Bird rights as per Coon: “Non-Bird really is a form of Bird rights.” Great usage of terminology there by the NBA.

I do wonder in regard to Nash whether he will be traded before the deadline. Phoenix is currently 3 games out of the playoff race, and there’s really no prospect of them getting better. They’ve been healthy. They just have a weak roster. They must know Nash is not going to come back and play for them next year, so they might as well bite the bullet.

The question is, will they ask him where he wants to go, then trade him for peanuts, or will they sell him to the highest bidder? Nash has been so good to that franchise, so you’d think the former (they could just buy him out, even), in which case I could absolutely see him ending up with New York since he loves the city and MDA’s style. However, I think we’d be on the outside looking in in any trade.

Brian Cronin:
…And what if Nash drags his feet while another team makes Lin the offer early in the free agent period. They might be in a position where they let Lin go and then also lose Nash.

This looks like the Knicks, doesn’t it? :)))

And what if Nash drags his feet while another team makes Lin the offer early in the free agent period. They might be in a position where they let Lin go and then also lose Nash.

Ben R:
Why would we trade Fields? He is playing really good basketball right now. He was great pretrade and the combination of a very different team and style post Melo, the rookie wall, and no real training camp this year caused him to struggle but he seems to have figured it out and is playing very well right now.

I hope that’s true regarding Fields. I’m always a booster for homegrown. But quick scan of Fields is that he does a bunch of things in the average to slightly above average range. Very valuable, but I guess if Shump progresses and the Knicks has a competent PG (with Lin), then some of that value is mitigated.

Best case is Fields put my doubt to rest by just helping the team win. Or steps up whatever aspect of his game that needs stepping up.