Some of you have to realize, if rumors of Wallace being willing to take a small buyout are correct, he is instant savings. Not the kind of savings that you usually get with an expiring contract, where you still have to pay him for the season. Savings right now. That's why the Suns wanted him, and that's why other teams may want him too. If the rumors are correct, you can throw his $14.5 million salary figure right out the window -- it's meaningful for making trades work out mathematically, but that's it.
The savings seems to be as follows (numbers rounded):
Pav has $1.5 guaranteed of $5 mil. So by waiving him the Suns save $3.5 million.
Wallace and Pav together make $19 mil and Shaq was scheduled to make $20 mil, so there is another $1 million in savings just in the trade differential.
If Wallace accepts a buyout at $8.5 million (I think that is what is being discussed), it is another $5.5 million in savings.
That is a total of $10 million in savings off the cap and salaries outright (Wallace's buyout counts against the cap this year, the difference between the buyout and his contract amount does not). Double it because the Suns are over the lux tax level: $20 million. Then add another $500,000 that came in the trade.
Total savings to Sarver (if Wallace is not traded for someone else) could be somewhere around $20.5 million.
Plus, another $8.5 million (Wallace's buyout number) and $1.5 million (Pav's number) come off the books next year. Shaq would have come off the books too.
Plus, the buyout for Wallace could be paid out over several years, providing a cash flow break for the Suns. It doesn't change any cap numbers or overall numbers, but could be a cash flow advantage for the Suns.
For a cash strapped owner (and with the banking and real estate industry what it is in Arizona and CA, Sarver has to be in some trouble) this would be very hard to pass up.