When a free agent signs a standard contract with an NBA team, he becomes ineligible to be traded for at least three months. Since this season’s trade deadline will land on February 6, that means a player who signs a new deal with a team anytime after Wednesday, November 6 won’t be eligible to be dealt this season.
That three-month trade restriction also applies to a player who is converted from a two-way contract to a standard deal. So if a player signs as a free agent or is promoted from a two-way deal to a standard roster spot on Thursday, his trade restriction wouldn’t lift until February 7, a day after this season’s deadline has passed.
If no team completes a signing at some point before midnight Eastern tonight, the most recent signees who will have trade eligibility later this season are a pair of Knicks: Matt Ryan and Ariel Hukporti.
Ryan signed with New York as a free agent on Tuesday, while Hukporti was promoted from his two-way deal to the standard roster. Assuming they’re still on those non-guaranteed deals three months from now, Ryan and Hukporti would become trade-eligible on February 5, a day before the deadline.
Pelicans guard Jaylen Nowell (February 3), Thunder forward Malevy Leons (January 31), and Grizzlies center Jay Huff (January 28) are a few of the other players who would become eligible to be moved shortly before the Feb. 6 deadline if they remain under contract until then.
The three-month trade restriction doesn’t apply to players who sign two-way contracts — those players are ineligible to be dealt for just 30 days. Trades involving players on two-way deals are pretty rare, but it’s worth noting that anyone who inks a two-way contract on or before January 7 would become trade-eligible ahead of this season’s deadline.
We previously posted lists of players who won’t become trade-eligible until December 15 or January 15 after signing new contracts in the offseason. Later this week, we’ll publish one more list detailing which players have special, specific trade eligibility dates — that group will include Ryan, Hukporti, and the rest of the players mentioned above, plus many more, including several who signed offseason contract extensions.
Can you trade two-way players? If so, would those contracts be included for salary matching purposes or would they be excluded?
They can be traded, but they don’t count at all for salary-matching — it’s sort of like trading a draft-rights player, except you need an open two-way slot to accommodate them.