NBA

85 Free Agents Signed in the Offseason Will Become Eligible to Be Traded on December 15th

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By
Charlie Rhodes
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Charlie Rhodes Sports Editor

Charlie is an accomplished journalist with years of experience producing sport-orientated content. A passionate basketball expert and analyst, Charlie has garnered considerable experience on both sides of the pond including published work on popular online news outlets such as 90min and FootyAccumulators. He has also worked alongside former Goldman Sachs executives on a peer-to-peer fintech trading start-up.

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Sports Editor

Updated09 Dec 2024

NBA trade deadline

Although most deals will go down around the official NBA trade deadline in February, teams can unofficially begin slightly earlier with 85 free agents signed in the offseason becoming eligible on December 15th.

When is the NBA Trade Deadline?

While the NBA trade season unofficially gets underway this week, the 2024/25 trade deadline is set for February 6th.

With a whole host of differing exemptions and exceptions across the league, deals may also start to trickle through as we approach the new year.

December 15th marks the first lifting of restrictions with most recently signed free agents eligible to be traded.

NBA Trade Rules and Salaries Teams Can Acquire

Several teams have trade exceptions and can acquire a player without sending back salary – this is a result of existing trade exceptions created previously.

As well as this, teams existing below the luxury tax have benefited from a shift in trade rules, allowing them greater spending power to pick up new trade acquisitions.

Salary cap restrictions, known as first and second aprons, are designed to limit the highest-spending teams. They are defined by the NBA as follows:
First apron
Teams that exceed the first apron are not allowed to use a pre-existing trade exception and take back additional salary in a trade. 

Second apron
Teams that exceed the second apron face all the restrictions of the first apron, plus additional restrictions: 

  • No access to the mid-level exception in free agency 
  • Cannot aggregate contracts in trades 
  • Cannot send cash in trades 
  • Cannot acquire players when they sign-and-trade their own free agents elsewhere 
  • Cannot trade a first-round pick seven years in the future

Below are the current salaries teams can acquire (courtesy of ESPN).

Teams Traded Player Exception Explanation
Boston, Denver, Lakers

Miami, Milwaukee, Minnesota

New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix

 100% First & Second Apron
Dallas, Golden State 100% Close to the First Apron
Atlanta, Brooklyn, Charlotte

Chicago, Cleveland, Houston

Indiana, Clippers, Memphis

New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Orlando

Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio

Toronto, Utah, Washington

 $0-$7.5M: 200% plus $250K;

$7.5M-$30M: Outgoing salary plus $7.5M;

$30M+: 125% plus $250K

 Different brackets

based on outgoing salary
Detroit N/A Cap space

85 Players Who Become Trade-Eligible on December 15th