The peak of the NBA’s transactions season has calmed down after an active start to July, but a few more players have become eligible to be traded on the final day of the month, notes Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).
The 30-day trade restriction window has expired for draft picks who signed their contracts on July 1, along with six players who inked two-way contracts on that date.
The designation won’t matter for those at the very top of the draft, as the Spurs and Trail Blazers obviously won’t consider trading Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson, respectively. However, it could come into play for a few others, especially if more big-name players are on the move as the summer winds down.
In addition to those top-three picks, first-rounders who signed on July 1 are the Magic’s Anthony Black and Jett Howard, the Pacers‘ Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard, the Trail Blazers‘ Kris Murray and the Heat’s Jaime Jaquez. The No. 18 pick out of UCLA, Jaquez has been mentioned as a potential asset in a trade to bring Damian Lillard to Miami.
Two-way players who signed on July 1, according to NBA.com’s transactions log, are the Sixers‘ Terquavion Smith and Ricky Council, the Heat‘s Dru Smith and Jamaree Bouyea, the Trail Blazers‘ Ibou Badji and the Rockets‘ Trevor Hudgins.
Most veteran free agents who signed this summer won’t become eligible to be traded by their teams until December 15 or January 15, depending on their circumstances. Those signings didn’t become official until July 6 or later because of the NBA’s summer moratorium.
Will this begin a flurry of trades? Portland doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to trade Lillard. I guess we’ll find out if these July 1st signings were actually part of the Blazers possible trade scenario or just talk!
It might be that the Lillard of Harden trade only occurs after December 15 or January 15 until trade deadline.
But some contracts will become unavailable at the start of the season due to the roster crunch. Many teams also dont want to wait that long.
I wonder how long some of the bigger expiring salary matching contracts will stay on the rosters. Certainly with teams like OKC, Washington and the Spurs.
I expect Fournier to end up with the Spurs as a consolidation of multiple expiring contracts. McDermott, Bullock, Birch, Osman and Payne are expiring contracts of Spurs that can be traded for the good price.
Hayward, DeRozan, P. Williams, Okoro, Joe Harris, Wiseman, Burks, Killian Hayes, Monte Morris, Buddy Hield, Lowry, Tobias Harris, Thaddeus Young, Otto Porter Jr, Tyus Jones, Delon Wright, Gallinari, TJ McConnell, Nesmith, Mwora, Toppin, Muscala and Avdija are the expiring Eastern Conference contracts that might be on the move before the season starts.
In the Western conference there are much less expendable expiring contracts of a decent size: Morris, Batum, Covington, Conley, Oladipo, Olynyk and Horton-Tucker.
Bertans is a semi-expiring contract with 5 million next year. Wonder if OKC will keep it for now and find some unexpected value in it, just for financial reasons.
I wouldn’t hold my breath. Some of these players may wind up being dealt but it’s highly unlikely any will be a deciding factor in the next series of trades. Unless the Spurs find some way to turn Victor Wembanyama into Lillard, Harden and an Jarrett Allen in a foolhardy attempt to win now it’s unlikely this deadline means much.
I agree there are many players with a low or negative value in my list, but salary matching rules make them have some value in these deals.
We’ll see. We might also see some trades with these players for tax reasons or to create a trade exception I guess.
I had heard previously that Hero couldn’t get traded until this period passed. I am not sure if that’s true but if it is, a trade could be in the works soon. I doubt Lillard will be here in PDX to start the season. I miss the days when “trader Bob” was the GM. He was able to bring in stars like Pippen, Kemp and many others. It’s not that Portland is a bad place that others don’t sign here, I am sure it has more to do with WHO they’re playing with. If you are a player who would you rather play with Lillard or Henderson? The comments from teammates about Scoot are “he’s so unselfish” just the reason people want to play with Jimmy Butler. I truly believe FA’s didn’t want to play Dame-time! How do you build around a ISO ball dominating PG who only passes in desperation? Lillard is the greatest shooter PDX has ever had but that doesn’t make him a good teammate. To me the biggest knock on Lillard besides his lack of D is his inability to make his teammates better, as a point guard that should be priority #1. Lillard never made his teammates better and in fact teammates regressed under his leadership.
I said a few players affected could be involved in the deals.I just doubt that any will be the reason for the deal.
I wasnt implying that :)