Today is December 15, which means that – by our count – 85 NBA players who signed as free agents this offseason have officially become eligible to be traded.
The list of newly trade-eligible players, which can be found right here, features a number of guys who almost certainly aren’t going anywhere this season, such as Pacers forward Pascal Siakam and Sixers forward Paul George.
However, it also includes some players whose names have already popped up in trade speculation in the months since they were signed, such as Wizards center Jonas Valanciunas.
Additionally, two of the players on the list are part of trades that have already been agreed to, with Thomas Bryant heading from Miami to Indiana and De’Anthony Melton on the move from Golden State to Brooklyn. Now that it’s December 15, those agreed-upon deals can be officially completed anytime.
LeBron James, James Harden, DeMar DeRozan, Klay Thompson, Tobias Harris, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Russell Westbrook are among the other biggest names who are newly trade-eligible as of Sunday.
Twelve of the players on the list, including LeBron and Harden, can’t be dealt without their consent, since they have the ability to veto trades this season. The Nuggets and Suns are each carrying multiple players who fit that bill.
Ten more newly trade-eligible players are still on non-guaranteed contracts, including a pair of Pacers. If one of those players is included in a trade prior to the league-wide salary guarantee date of January 10, only the non-guaranteed portion of his salary would count for matching purposes for the team trading him away (the team acquiring him would still have to account for the player’s full cap hit).
[RELATED: Trade Rules For Non-Guaranteed Salaries]
Finally, it’s worth noting that there are still a number of recently signed players around the NBA who remain ineligible to be dealt. Many will become trade-eligible on January 15, while others have specific dates to watch.
Typically, teams wait until closer to the trade deadline (February 6) to make their moves rather than striking deals as soon as trade season unofficially opens on December 15, but this season is an exception to the rule, with two agreements already ready to be finalized. Assuming at least one of them is officially completed today, it will be the first time since 2010 that a trade has been made on December 15.
While it’s possible more trade agreement will be reached in the coming days as talks begin to heat up, we should count on most of the in-season trade activity occurring in January and February.
Source link
