Teams that make significant investments in re-signing their own free agents usually aren’t in a hurry to turn around and trade them, and the collective bargaining agreement has a rule designed to prevent that from happening anyway. Most free agents who sign new contracts in the offseason are ineligible for inclusion in trade until December 15th. A select group can’t be traded for an extra month on top of that.
Players who had full Bird or Early Bird rights and re-signed with their teams on a contract that gives them a raise of 20% or better in the first year of the deal are ineligible to be traded until January 15th, as long as their respective teams were over the cap once they made the signing. That covers many of the free agents sticking with their teams on lucrative deals this summer, including DeAndre Jordan, Kawhi Leonard and Marc Gasol.
Some prominent names fall outside those bounds. LeBron James is making less than 20% more than what he made last season, and that, plus the fact he merely had Non-Bird rights, makes him trade-eligible on the standard December 15th date. Tobias Harris and Paul Millsap aren’t listed here, because their respective teams were still under the cap when they signed them. Still, the Cavs, Magic and Hawks probably aren’t anxious to trade any of them anytime soon.
Here’s the full list of players ineligible to be traded until January 15th this year:
- Alexis Ajinca, Pelicans
- Lavoy Allen, Pacers
- Patrick Beverley, Rockets
- Corey Brewer, Rockets
- Jimmy Butler, Bulls
- Jae Crowder, Celtics
- Goran Dragic, Heat
- Mike Dunleavy, Bulls
- Marc Gasol, Grizzlies
- Drew Gooden, Wizards
- Danny Green, Spurs
- Draymond Green, Warriors
- Reggie Jackson, Pistons
- DeAndre Jordan, Clippers
- Enes Kanter, Thunder
- Brandon Knight, Suns
- Kawhi Leonard, Spurs
- Brook Lopez, Nets
- Kevin Love, Cavaliers
- Khris Middleton, Bucks
- Austin Rivers, Clippers
- Iman Shumpert, Cavaliers
- Kyle Singler, Thunder
- Dwyane Wade, Heat
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.