NBA trade deadline 2023: Player eligibility as of Dec. 15
Many players who signed new contracts this offseason, like P.J. Tucker, become eligible to be traded starting next week. Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
The NBA trade deadline is still two months away, but Thursday marks the unofficial start to trade season. When the calendar flipped to Dec. 15, 74 free agents who signed with their teams in the offseason became eligible to be traded.
Although we're now almost two months into the season, many teams are still in the evaluation period with their rosters -- which helps explain why there have been no trades since Sept. 30. Still, even though a new crop of players becomes trade eligible Thursday, don't expect a flurry of moves. The last time there was a trade on Dec. 15 itself was 2010, when the then-New Jersey Nets, Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers agreed to a three-team deal that sent Joe Smith, who had signed with the Nets in the offseason, to Los Angeles. Additionally, there are still more than 70 players who have some type of trade restriction on them even after this week.
To get a better sense how trades might shape up ahead of the 2023 trade deadline, we have organized the entire player pool into different roster types (franchise centerpiece, All-Star, starter, reserve, etc.), with info on salary and years remaining on their contracts. You can use these tables when attempting to determine what trades are possible across the league -- especially since 28 out of the 30 teams don't have cap space (only the Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs have room) and will need to trade salaries that match within 125%, 175% or $5 million.
Teams like the Boston Celtics ($6.9 million and $5.9 million), Denver Nuggets ($9.2 million), LA Clippers ($9.8 million), Oklahoma City Thunder ($10.2 million and $4.2 million) and Utah Jazz ($9.8 million, $9.7 million and $6.8 million) have large trade exceptions and can acquire a player without sending back salary.
These 74 players who signed new contracts in the offseason are now eligible to be traded -- though some of them can veto trades because of the one-year Bird restriction (see full explanation below).
Additional trade restrictions
Not every trade-restricted player became eligible to be traded Thursday. Here are the players who'll still have some kind of restriction preventing them from being traded (or in some cases, being traded to specific teams) even beyond this week.
Explaining the trade restrictions
Signing (SR): The majority of players who signed contracts in the offseason have a Dec. 15 trade restriction. The Jan. 15 restriction is for free agents who re-signed with their previous teams (with either Bird or early Bird rights) on contracts that have starting salaries 120% greater than the previous season. Free agents who signed after Sept. 15, such as Boston Celtics big man Blake Griffin, are not eligible to be traded until three months after they signed their contracts.
There is a group of 11 players, including the Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, who signed extensions and have six-month restrictions from the date the contracts were executed. The restrictions are because the extensions and remaining years left on the original contracts exceed three seasons and the percentage increase is more than 5%. Nikola Jokic, Devin Booker and Karl-Anthony Towns signed designated veteran player extensions (better known as the supermax) and cannot be traded until July.
One-year Bird rights (1YB): This restriction applies if a free agent signs a one-year contract and will have Bird rights with his current team when he becomes a free agent. A player can still be traded but must consent to the deal. If he does, the Bird rights do not transfer to his new team.
Poison pill provision (PPP): For players still on their rookie deals before an extension kicks in, the NBA counts their fourth-year salary as outgoing money and the average of the extension amount and last year of their rookie contract as incoming money. One example: Jordan Poole would count as $3.9 million in outgoing salary for the Golden State Warriors but $26.38 million for an acquiring team.
NTC (No-trade clause): Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal is the only NBA player that has a true no-trade clause. Beal was eligible to negotiate the clause in his contract because he has played seven years in the NBA and four with his current team in Washington, and he was signing a new contract (not an extension).
Matched offer sheet (MR):Deandre Ayton signed an offer sheet with the Pacers and has veto power on any trade. He is not allowed to be traded to Indiana this season. Ayton also has a Jan. 15 signing restriction.
Designated rookie scale player (DRSP): There are 17 players who signed five-year rookie max extensions. Those players, including Ben Simmons of the Brooklyn Nets, are eligible to be traded. However, a team is restricted to a maximum of two DRSPs per roster and cannot have two such players acquired via trade.
Designated veteran player (DVP): There are eight players under contract who signed supermax contracts or extensions. The players who do not have date-based signing restrictions are eligible to be traded, but teams are restricted to only two per team (and not two players who were traded for). For example, the Minnesota Timberwolves have two such players: Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns. They are restricted from adding a third supermax player.
