For what it's worth, let's take a quick look at these numbers bearing in mind the Clippers trade exception. Williams is reported to have signed for 5/$37.5M. With a $7.3M trade exception plus the $100K cushion in the CBA, the Clippers could have started him at $7.4M. With 10.5% increases, the Clippers could have offered 5/$45.6M by my math. That's $8M more than he got from the Hawks. Would they have gone that high? Hard to say. They also had no incentive to play the game, since the Clippers could NOT offer him that much money via free agency - the ONLY option the Clippers had was the S&T, so they would have had to sweeten the pot to get the Hawks interested.

My point is simply to think about the possibilities. Here's the former number two pick in the draft, signing for less than the exception that the Clippers hold. Would Marvin Williams be worth 5/$45M? Maybe not. But that's the kind of leverage this trade exception represents. It is not insignificant, especially in this market.