The Indiana Pacers have been granted a Disabled Player Exception (DPE) following the potentially season-ending injury to star forward Paul George, according to a report from the Indianapolis Star.
A DPE gives a team additional room to exceed the salary cap when a player is ruled out for the season, something the Pacers are expecting from George. The amount of the exception is 50 percent of the player's salary or the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, whichever is less, which in this case would be the latter, valued at $5.305 million.
While that is a nice chip to have, team president Larry Bird was adamant on Tuesday that the team will not spend into the luxury tax. With the team less than $2 million from the tax line, that makes the DPE - which expires on March 10 - more of a long-term asset, something the team may be able to deploy at a later date for a signing or in a trade.
In any case, there's no replacing a player like George. The DPE affords the Pacers a little additional flexibility in trying, but with the team unwilling to cross the tax threshold, it's impact could be minimal.