Shaun Livingston had been reported to be one of the early victims on the traditional early January guillotine. If Livingston survived Wednesday, he'd see his full-season contract guaranteed. But the team told Livingston Tuesday he'd be waived on Wednesday. Miami instead shipped Shaun to Memphis for a conditional future second-rounder. [UPDATE: Memphis waived Livingston.]Meanwhile in Memphis, Darius Miles saw his shot at a real comeback delayed (at least) as the Grizzlies cut him before his guaranteed contract kicked in. Miles has been with Memphis for a while, serving a 10-game suspension earned for alleged use of banned diet pills before playing limited minutes in two games for the Grizzlies. Portland's cap space gets a last-minute (possibly temporary) pardon from Memphis, I suppose.
The Clips played facilitator over the past two days. On Tuesday, L.A. took Cheikh Samb off Denver's hands in a Nuggets salary dump. (A minor one, at that.) Similarly, Toronto sent cheap swingman Hassan Adams to the Clippers Wednesday. L.A. promptly cut Adams.
Why even do this trade? The Raps could have cut Adams to prevent the guarantee of his full-season contract. But doing so would have set the already paid portion (a few hundred grand) against the team's 2008-09 cap. If Toronto ends up over the luxury tax line (likely), every dollar on the cap figure matters. L.A. is under the tax line, so the few hundred grand tagged as Adams' cap figure won't hurt at season's end (and L.A. isn't paying a dime of it). Team cap figures are calculated at season's end, so you'll see more meaningless moves like this in February.
