Raptors can learn from the Randle, Towns trade how to use a weapon in the new CBA

The Toronto Raptors have a lot to learn.

That's not meant as a putdown of the organization but rather an acknowledgment that the league's new Collective Bargaining Agreement, only full phased in this summer, is deep and detailed and its implications and permutations are vast. It takes a lot of time to get to know it, and even longer to see all of the ways to use it to your team's advantage.

One consequence that was potentially unintended by the league is that teams are unable to make a variety of trades because they are hardcapped at either the first or second luxury tax apron, or executing the trades they would like to make would do the same. For many teams, that ends the trade discussion. For others, they have to get creative.

The weapon revealed in the Towns - Randle trade

This weekend's blockbuster trade between the New York Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves falls into that latter category. The two sides just agreed to a trade to send Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to Minnesota in exchange for Karl-Anthony Towns. The Timberwolves are well above the second tax apron, meaning they can only trade one player at a time and have to bring back less than they send out. The problem is that the Knicks couldn't afford to make this deal themselves.

New York couldn't make the deal at face value because it would hardcap them at the first apron, but making this trade would put them above that apron. Essentially, both teams needed to send out more money than they were taking back, something impossible in a two-team deal. Instead of that ending conversations, the two teams pulled in a third club, the Charlotte Hornets, to help make things possible.

The Hornets, however, needed to take back a large amount of salary without sending any out. They solved that issue through a new wrinkle in the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement that allows teams to take back players in a trade into their Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception, or MLE.

Before, a team could only use that money to sign a player; now teams can use it as a traded player exception, taking a player's salary entirely into it. That will allow the Hornets to eat up to $12.9 million of salary; the Knicks likely only need to send $8.8 or so to Charlotte, and the Hornets won't want to bump all the way to the first apron, but they have a lot of flexibility because of the new rule.

Most of the teams in the league still have their MLE available, but functionally can't use it. Signing or trading for a player using the MLE hardcaps you at the first apron, and teams around the league are either already over it or would cross that line using any representative amount of it.

That means the Toronto Raptors are in position to be one of the few teams this season that can take back a significant amount of salary without sending any back, a real weapon on the trade market. If two teams are trying to work out a deal like the Towns-Randle trade, the Raptors may be able to extract an arm and a leg in the process.

The new NBA landscape is one of tight windows and restrictive rules, and the Raptors can take full advantage by using this new weapon to add precious assets to improve the team moving forward. In many cases, the salary being taken back is attached to a good player they can develop or flip later for other assets. Having financial flexibility in the moment opens up a world of possibilities.

The Raptors weren't in on this trade, but moving forward, they can gain knowledge to help them be a more potent trade partner and a better team. That's what smart franchises do: they learn, they copy, and they perfect. Maybe the Raptors can pull off the trifecta.