A NBA Trade?

When is a trade not really a trade? How about the trade that came down between the Seattle Supersonics and Phoenix Suns today. The Suns traded a player (Kurt Thomas) and a first round draft pick in 2008 and 2010 to the Sonics for a 9 million dollar trade exemption. Basically, the trade exemption allows a team to go over the salary cap by that amount of money. So the Suns traded a player and 2 draft picks for the right to go over the salary cap. Sounds like a great deal to me for the Super Sonics who got a useful player for this year, plus a young player in 2008 and a young player in 2010. This may serve some need for the Suns today, but I don't see how this helps them in any year after this one.