How does this trade between the Suns and Sonics work?

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Ak...

Kurt Thomas, and two first round picks for a conditional second round pick? I thought salaries had to match? This doesnt make sense.

How does this trade between the Suns and Sonics work?nba live

The salaries actually do match up...the suns got the 2nd round pick and the 8 mil trade exception which is like getting a player making 8 mil add that with what the base pay for a 2nd rounder and you get close to what Thomas made

How does this trade between the Suns and Sonics work?tv on pc ,nba teams

the salaries do not have to match. they just have to stay under the cap.

the reason why alot of trades dont workout as you said becaus ethe salaries dont match. however if you have two teams like phoenix and seatlle where seattle has one of the lowest salaries in the NBA while phoenix has the 4th highest it kind of balances each other.

the sonics salary is not higher while phoenix is lower.

the reason the suns couldnt get get Garnett and Stoudemire was because it would of put Phoenix over. which is why they tried to sell off marcus banks and his 6 million dollars a year contract...no one went for that bait.

the suns can trade anyone to any other team as long as thier contracts dont put the other team over the salary cap. that is the only real requirement for any trade.
well... the suns had cap issues so they wanted to dump Thomas... if they released him they would still have to pay him the money he is owed... by trading him they've opened up room to try and resign shawn marion
keep reading past the first line and ur answer is there
It's because the NBA has trade exceptions. I'm not sure how the teams get them but they do. The Supersonics had a 9 million dollar one somehow because of doing a sign and trade of Lewis and that's how they did it.
Seattle gave PHX a contract spot worth $8mill. Instead of SEA looking for a big man, they took Thomas and now PHX has to look for one more player.
it might work if the sonics had cap room. if you have cap room the salaries don't have to match. not totally sure. but that might've been the case. there was cash involved going from the sonics to the suns.
the suns got cash considerations too
i dont have a clue. sorry, i just found out too.
cap space, maybe making room for a big deal