Sign-and-trade

A sign-and-trade is the move that lets a team turn a free agent it is about to lose into something instead of nothing. The team signs its own player, then trades him in the same breath, getting players or picks back instead of watching him leave for free. His old team can start him at a first-year salary only it could offer with his Bird rights, but a sign-and-trade contract is capped at four years with 5% raises, fewer years and smaller raises than the five years and 8% raises a straight re-sign would allow.

There is a catch for the team receiving him: taking a player this way hard-caps it at the first apron for the season, and a team already over that line can't do it at all.