Since the NBA’s 2024 offseason began, 29 trades have been completed, as our tracker shows. A total of 26 teams have been involved in those 29 deals, with 20 clubs (two-thirds of the league) making multiple trades.
The defending champion Celtics are one of the four teams not to have made a trade this offseason, having been content to essentially run it back with the same group that went 16-3 in the postseason this past spring. The Bucks, Cavaliers, and Lakers also haven’t completed any deals since the season ended.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Knicks have been the most active team on the trade market, completing an eye-popping seven deals, two more than any other team.
Most of those trades were minor moves made during the draft — New York entered day one holding the 24th, 25th, and 38th overall picks, but ended up trading down in (or out of) the draft multiple times using the Nos. 24 and 38 selections, then acquired the No. 34 pick in a separate deal. Of course, the Knicks’ one non-draft trade was a big one, as they acquired Mikal Bridges from their cross-town rivals in Brooklyn.
Besides the Knicks, the Thunder were the most active team on the trade market this summer. They kicked off trade season by completing the first of this offseason’s 29 deals (acquiring Alex Caruso from Chicago) and then made four more, for a total of five. The Spurs and Trail Blazers made four trades apiece.
Here are some more details on this offseason’s deals:
- The Nets, Hawks, Wizards, Mavericks, Pelicans, Timberwolves, Suns, and Warriors have each made three offseason trades, while the Raptors, Bulls, Pistons, Hornets, Grizzlies, Rockets, Nuggets, and Kings completed two apiece. That leaves the Sixers, Pacers, Heat, Magic, Jazz, and Clippers as the teams that have made just one trade.
- A total of six 2024 first-round picks were traded this offseason, with one of those picks (No. 26) changing hands twice. The highest 2024 picks traded this summer were No. 8 (Rob Dillingham; Spurs to Timberwolves) and No. 14 (Carlton Carrington; Trail Blazers to Wizards).
- Predictably, this year’s second-rounders were involved in far more trades than the first-rounders. Sixteen of the 28 second-round picks in the draft changed hands at least once since the offseason began, with four of those selections having been included in multiple deals — the No. 40 (Oso Ighodaro) and No. 52 (Quinten Post) picks were dealt three times, while Nos. 51 (Melvin Ajinca) and 56 (Kevin McCullar) were each moved twice.
- A total of 12 future first-round picks and 30 future second-round picks changed hands in trades this offseason, along with six future first-round pick swaps and four future second-round swaps.
- While some of those future traded picks included most/least favorable language, nearly all of them should convey as planned — only two traded first-rounders (and one swap) included any form of protection, and that protection was light (no more than top-four protected). Additionally, just three of the 30 traded second-rounders were protected.
- Of the 29 trades made this offseason, 25 were straightforward two-team agreements. A pair of deals were three-teamers, one involved four teams, and one was the first six-team trade in NBA history.
- A total of 29 veteran players on existing NBA contracts were traded this offseason, with two of those 29 players – Mamadi Diakite and E.J. Liddell – on the move twice and one of them – RaiQuan Gray – on a two-way deal. Another eight players were signed-and-traded, while an additional four players who were selected in a draft prior to 2024 draft had their NBA rights sent to new teams.
I also count 17 trade exceptions generated from these trades while 8 pre-existing trade exceptions were consumed. The most notable examples are the Nets (using a Dinwiddie TPE to take Bojan and a Mills TPE to take Milton, creating a 23.3M for Bridges) and Hawks (using a Collins TPE to take all the players they received for Murray, creating a 25.3M for him). Minnesota’s 8.8M TPE for Kyle Anderson is not available unless they trim their payroll below the second apron since Anderson was sent out via sign and trade.
There were 3 deals involving cash (two of which involved the Knicks) that counted towards 2023-24 and 9 that counted towards 2024-25. Minnesota, Portland, and San Antonio each received cash twice while Charlotte and Golden State each sent cash twice. None of those amounts should be greater than the 4.3M the Clippers sent the Jazz as sweetener in the Dunn/Russ sign and trade.
7 players who were traded were subsequently waived. Diakite and Liddell both received the stretch provision. Gray was on a two way, Graham had a small partial guarantee, and the rest gave up all or part of their salary.
Thank you for the analysis