No-trade clauses are rare in the NBA, and they’ve become even rarer in recent years. To be eligible to negotiate a no-trade clause, a player must have at least eight years of NBA experience and four years with his current team. Even if a player qualifies, his team is unlikely to restrict its flexibility by including a no-trade clause in his deal.
Still, even though there’s not a single NBA player with an explicit no-trade clause in his contract at the moment, there are several who will have the ability to veto trades in 2019/20.
A player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year contract – or a two-year deal with an option year – is given no-trade protection. So is a player who signs an offer sheet and has that offer matched by his previous team. Players who accept one-year qualifying offers after their rookie contracts expire also receive veto power.
So far, no player has met the second or third of those guidelines in 2019/20, but there are plenty who have met the first one. Here are the players who must give their consent if their teams want to trade them during the ’19/20 league year:
No-trade clauses
- None
Players whose offer sheets were matched
- None
Players accepting qualifying offers
- None
Players re-signing for one year (or two years, with a second-year player/team option)
- J.J. Barea (Mavericks)
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (Lakers)
- Vince Carter (Hawks)
- Michael Carter-Williams (Magic)
- James Ennis (Sixers): Accepted trade
- Gerald Green (Rockets): Accepted trade
- JaMychal Green (Clippers)
- Shaquille Harrison (Bulls)
- Udonis Haslem (Heat)
- Rodney Hood (Trail Blazers)
- JaVale McGee (Lakers)
- Nerlens Noel (Thunder)
- Theo Pinson (Nets)
- Austin Rivers (Rockets)
- Rajon Rondo (Lakers)
- Brad Wanamaker (Celtics)
If any of the players who re-signed for one year approves a trade during the 2019/20 league year, he’ll have Non-Bird rights at season’s end instead of Early Bird or full Bird rights. That’s what happened to Rodney Hood last season — he lost his Bird rights when he approved a trade from Cleveland to Portland. In order to re-sign him this summer, the Trail Blazers had to use their taxpayer mid-level exception, since his Non-Bird rights weren’t enough.
Any player who consents to a trade will retain his veto ability on his new team, and would have to approve a subsequent deal as well.