Full Bird rights are given to players who are with a team for 3 years or longer. This allows the team to exceed the salary cap to resign their own players.
Since Lebron, Wade, and Bosh opted out couldn't they offer Melo a max deal and then go over cap to sign all 3? Or did the players waive Bird rights when opting out? Would all 3 of them of needed to be actual free agents without opting out to retain this right?