NBA
85 Free Agents Signed in the Offseason Will Become Eligible to Be Traded on December 15th
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.
All posts by Charlie RhodesUpdated09 Dec 2024
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.
- 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 |
