We’re not even a full month into the 2013/14 season, but already trade rumors have been swirling around several teams for weeks, with the first swap of the season having been finalized yesterday. Derrick Williams may be off the market, but big-name trade candidates like Omer Asik and Iman Shumpert remain available, and it looks as if we may see more deals than usual completed well in advance of February’s trade deadline.
However, as has been noted several times on Hoops Rumors and elsewhere, many teams won’t start seriously discussing trades until after December 15th. That’s the day when most players who signed free agent deals this offseason become eligible to be traded. The Mavericks, for instance, signed nine players as free agents this summer, so they’re currently unable to trade more than half the players on their roster. That doesn’t mean they can’t make a move in the next couple weeks, but they’ll certainly have more flexibility to do so after December 15th.
Not all players in the league will be trade-eligible even after December 15th though. The rules for trading recent signees state that the player can be dealt after three months or after December 15th, whichever comes later. That means players signed between September 16th and today will have to wait the required three months before becoming eligible for a trade.
Additionally, if a player entered the 2013 offseason as an Early Bird or Bird free agent, and his over-the-cap team re-signed him to a raise of 20% or more, the player can’t be moved until after January 15th.
Here’s the full list of players who fall under one of these two categories, and are therefore ineligible to be traded until the date indicated in parentheses:
- 76ers: Hollis Thompson (Dec. 24th), Daniel Orton (Jan. 15th), Brandon Davies (Jan. 27th), Lorenzo Brown (Feb. 20th), Elliot Williams (Feb. 20th)
- Bulls: Mike James (Dec. 23rd)
- Cavaliers: Henry Sims (Dec. 30th)
- Grizzlies: Tony Allen (Jan. 15th)
- Hawks: Cartier Martin (Jan. 15th)
- Heat: Roger Mason (Dec. 27th)
- Jazz: Mike Harris (Dec. 30th), Diante Garrett (Feb. 13th)
- Knicks: Cole Aldrich (Dec. 23rd), J.R. Smith (Jan. 15th)
- Magic: Solomon Jones (Dec. 27th)
- Mavericks: Brandan Wright (Jan. 15th)
- Nuggets: Timofey Mozgov (Jan. 15th)
- Pacers: Rasual Butler (Dec. 25th)
- Pelicans: Louis Amundson (Feb. 12th), Josh Childress (Feb. 12th)
- Raptors: Julyan Stone (Dec. 18th)
- Spurs: Tiago Splitter (Jan. 15th)
- Timberwolves: Robbie Hummel (Dec. 23rd), A.J. Price (Dec. 30th), Chase Budinger (Jan. 15th), Nikola Pekovic (Jan. 15th)
- Warriors: Dewayne Dedmon (Feb. 18th)
ShamSports and RealGM were used in the creation of this post.