Hoops Rumors Originals

Unless he’s part of a sign-and-trade deal, an NBA free agent who signs a new contract can’t be traded immediately. The Collective Bargaining Agreement states that a newly signed free agent is ineligible to be traded until December 15 or until he’s been under contract for three months, whichever comes later.

Based on that rule, the majority of the free agents who signed new contracts in July, August, and the first half of September will become trade-eligible on December 15 (a smaller group of free agents who met certain specific criteria won’t become trade-eligible until January 15).

By our count, at least 87 players are currently on track to become eligible to be moved on December 15. That doesn’t take into account any players signed to Exhibit 10 contracts who might earn regular season roster spots, since they’re not included on our list (they’ll be added if they haven’t been waived by opening night).

However, with the exception of camp invitees who unexpectedly stick around for the regular season, that list won’t continue to expand to include any additional names after Sunday, which will be exactly three months away from December 15. A free agent who signs a new contract after September 15 will remain trade-eligible for a full three months, rather than becoming trade-eligible on December 15.

For instance, a player who signs on September 22 would become eligible to be dealt on December 22; one who signs on October 4 would become trade-eligible on January 4, and so on.

November 6 is an important date in this discussion, since this season’s trade deadline will land on February 6. A player who signs a free agent contract on November 7 or later will be ineligible to be dealt during the 2024/25 season.

Once the season begins next month and we have a better sense of which players signed after Sept. 15 have earned spots on regular season rosters, we’ll publish a new list of those players’ trade eligibility dates to complement our December 15 and January 15 round-ups.

Nearly two-and-a-half months after the 2024 free agent period opened, 48 of the 50 players who showed up on our list of this summer’s top 50 FAs have signed new contracts.

Cavaliers forward Isaac Okoro, the only restricted free agent remaining on the market, is easily the top player left from our top-50 list, having come in at No. 20. As we wrote at the time, Okoro’s age (23) and defensive ability make him an intriguing option, but he certainly doesn’t come without risk:

“Okoro has flashed real three-and-D upside but has never contributed enough offensively to become an above-average starter. This past season was his best, as he bumped his 3PT% up to 39.1%, but he’s still not shooting all that much (3.1 three-point attempts per game) and his dud of a postseason (5.5 PPG on .357/.257/.778 shooting) did nothing to boost his stock heading into the offseason.”

When we asked over the weekend how Okoro’s free agency will resolve, approximately 60% of our poll respondents predicted that he’d eventually accept his $11.8MM qualifying offer, which would line him up to return to the market as an unrestricted free agent in 2025.

The only other unsigned player on our top-50 list is former No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz, who ranked 43rd. When I first previewed the point guard free agent class in a Front Office article last May, I said that Fultz’s value was difficult to pin down and that I wouldn’t be surprised if he returned to the Magic on a deal in the $10-15MM range or if he ended up settling for the veteran’s minimum. Clearly, the latter scenario is the more likely outcome at this point.

Here’s part of what we wrote about Fultz in our top-50 breakdown:

“Injuries have limited him to 234 total regular season games since he was drafted in 2017, but his performance in 2022/23 as Orlando’s starting point guard was legitimately impressive (14.0 PPG, 5.7 APG, 3.9 RPG, 1.5 SPG, .514 FG%). Unfortunately, he took a step back this past season in terms of both availability and production, and between his injury history and his shortcomings as a shooter, it’s unclear how popular he’ll be on the open market.”

I’d still be surprised if Fultz doesn’t end up on an NBA roster in 2024/25. If you don’t need to rely him to stay healthy and play a major role, he’s a nice option to have off the bench as a change of pace. But it doesn’t bode well for him that he has yet to find a new home.

Here are some other free agents who didn’t make our top 50 but who could receive consideration from NBA teams before the season begins:

Guards

Outside of Fultz, the point guard market looks pretty bare, but Dennis Smith Jr. is a player with a similar skill set (strong defense; not much of a shooter) who is still seeking a home.

Jacob Gilyard would make sense for a team looking to sign a point guard to a two-way deal. Javon Freeman-Liberty and Lester Quinones are among the other youngsters who could warrant a look. Veterans like Isaiah Thomas, Ish Smith, and Ryan Arcidiacono are also available but don’t have the appeal they once did.

A team seeking shooting help should take a long look at Landry Shamet, who is coming off a down year but made 38.8% of 5.2 three-point attempts per game across five seasons from 2018-23.

Other intriguing names still on the market include Victor Oladipo, James Bouknight, and Joshua Primo. A two-time All-Star, Oladipo hasn’t been able to get healthy enough to contribute positive minutes in recent years. Bouknight and Primo are former lottery picks, but Bouknight didn’t establish himself as a reliable rotation player during his three years in Charlotte and Primo has had trouble finding consistent work since being accused of exposing himself to women in San Antonio.

Wings

Jae Crowder, Robert Covington, and Wesley Matthews were once highly coveted three-and-D wings, but they’ve lost a step since their prime years. That’s probably true of Justin Holiday and Reggie Bullock too. All five of those guys are at least 33 years old.

Doug McDermott, who will turn 33 during the 2024/25 season, has long been one of the NBA’s best outside shooters (career .410 3PT%), but his defensive shortcomings have made him a little-used specialist — his 14.1 minutes per game last season represented his lowest mark since his rookie year in ’14/15. Danuel House and Troy Brown are among the other unsigned wings who saw their playing time dip last season.

I thought Oshae Brissett would have an easier time finding work after he declined his player option with the Celtics. He wasn’t great in a limited role last season, but he’s still just 26 years old and has shown promise in the past. Nassir Little is another player coming off a down year who is still young (24) and flashed upside in previous seasons.

Eugene Omoruyi, Lamar Stevens, Kevin Knox, and T.J. Warren are a few more of the wings still seeking contracts.

Bigs

A team in the market for a backup center still has a few veterans to choose from, including JaVale McGee, Bismack Biyombo, Robin Lopez, and Boban Marjanovic.

Those are the safe options. A club looking for more upside might want to take a shot on Montrezl Harrell, who is now over a year removed from a torn ACL, or Moses Brown, an athletic big man who has played for six different teams before his 25th birthday.

Veteran power forwards like Thaddeus Young and Danilo Gallinari may be nearing the end of the road. Gallinari, at least, has expressed interest in playing one more season.

The best power forward still on the market is probably Marcus Morris, who played a major role (65 starts, 28.1 MPG) for the Clippers just two seasons ago and made 40.3% of his three-pointers for Philadelphia and Cleveland in 2023/24.

Beginning in 2024/25, the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, room exception, and bi-annual exception can all be used to acquire players via waiver claims, giving teams new ways to land other clubs’ roster casualties whose salaries don’t exceed the MLE (approximately $12.8MM in ’24/25)

[RELATED: Values Of 2024/25 Mid-Level, Bi-Annual Exceptions]

In the past, in order to claim a player off waivers, a team generally had to be able to fit the player’s entire salary into cap room, a traded player exception, or a disabled player exception.

Despite the new options available to teams eyeing a player who has recently been cut, waiver claims will likely continue to be infrequent going forward. Once the draft and the early part of the free agent period have passed, many teams around the NBA aren’t in position to take on additional salary or don’t have excess roster spots available for newcomers. Plus, most of the players who end up on waivers are being cut because their current contracts aren’t considered great values.

With all that in mind, it’s perhaps no surprise that the players most frequently claimed on waivers are those on minimum-salary deals, since any club is eligible to place a claim on those players using the minimum salary exception.

Even for minimum-salary claims, there are some caveats — the minimum salary exception can only be used to sign players for up to two years, so the same rules apply to waiver claims. If a player signed a three-year, minimum salary contract, he can’t be claimed using the minimum salary exception, even if he’s in the final year of his deal. And if a player received more than the minimum salary in an earlier season, he can’t be claimed using the minimum salary exception.

Essentially, the minimum salary exception can only be used to claim a player whose current contract could have been signed using the minimum salary exception.

Taking into account all the factors that reduce the odds of a waiver claim, it makes sense that nearly all of the players who get released ultimately clear waivers. The 2021/22 and ’22/23 league years each featured just six waiver claims, for instance, while there were just three in ’23/24.

Despite how infrequent they are, we still want to track all the waiver claims that take place during the 2024/25 league year, since you never know which claim may end up being crucial. Last season, for instance, the Pelicans claimed Matt Ryan off waivers from Minnesota in October. Ryan ended up spending the entire year in New Orleans and remains on the team’s roster heading into training camp in 2024.

We’ll track this year’s waiver claims in the space below, updating the list throughout the season to include the latest moves. Here’s the current list:

• Pistons claim Paul Reed from Sixers (July 9) (story)
  • Reed enjoyed a career year in 2023/24, setting new personal highs in points (7.3), rebounds (6.0), blocks (1.0), and minutes (19.4) per game, while appearing in all 82 contests and making 24 starts for the Sixers. But his $7,723,000 salary, which was fully non-guaranteed, became expendable when Philadelphia needed to create a little extra cap room to finalize its signings of Paul George, Caleb Martin, and Andre Drummond. The Pistons, one of the NBA’s few teams with cap space still remaining, used some of that space to claim Reed. The big man will provide frontcourt depth in Detroit, still has some upside, and comes with little risk, since his full-season salary doesn’t become guaranteed unless he remains under contract through January 7.
• Pelicans claim Trey Jemison from Grizzlies (July 26) (story)
  • A year after claiming Ryan and having him fill one of their two-way slots, the Pelicans are looking to replicate that success with Jemison, whose two-way deal with Memphis – signed in February – included a second year. Jemison played pretty well in 23 games (14 starts) for Memphis last season, averaging 7.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in 24.9 minutes per night. The Grizzlies decided to waive him when they signed Jay Huff to a two-way contract, but Jemison will remain in the Southwest and could play a role for a New Orleans team that lost big men Jonas Valanciunas and Larry Nance over the summer. It’s worth noting that, like minimum-salary contracts, two-way deals can be claimed off waivers without requiring cap room or any special exceptions.
• Pelicans claim Brandon Boston Jr. from Spurs (October 21) (story)
  • October 21 was the deadline this season for a team to convert a player on an Exhibit 10 contract to a two-way deal. Because most players on Exhibit 10 contracts were cut on October 19, that meant teams around the NBA had an opportunity to place a claim on one of those players and convert him to a two-way before the regular season tipped off. That’s what the Pelicans did with Boston after he was waived by the Spurs. Boston gained 105 games of regular season experience with the Clippers in his first three NBA seasons and was among the more seasoned options available to New Orleans for its last two-way slot.
• Hornets claim Jared Rhoden from Raptors (October 21) (story)
  • Like the Pelicans with Boston, the Hornets took advantage of the two-way conversion option for players on Exhibit 10 contracts, claiming Rhoden and his Exhibit 10 deal after he was cut by the Raptors, then converting him to a two-way just before the season began. Rhoden will provide some additional backcourt depth in Charlotte after appearing in 31 total games for the Pistons while on two-way deals over the past two years.

The NBA has no shortage of rules affecting which players can and can’t be traded at any given time, which complicates our understanding of which players are actually moveable. That’s especially true leading up to the regular season, when players who recently signed free agent contracts, extensions, and rookie contracts all face different sets of trade restrictions.

In an effort to clear things up, we’re looking today at which players around the NBA are currently affected by trade restrictions of one kind or another. Let’s dive in…

Recently signed free agents

In most cases, a free agent who signed a contract in the offseason is ineligible to be traded until December 15.

Currently, our list of players who will become trade-eligible on December 15 features 85 names, including several of the guys who signed the biggest free agent contracts of the summer, such as Paul George, Pascal Siakam, and Isaiah Hartenstein.

But the list is technically even longer than that, since we haven’t included players who signed non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contracts. Most of those players will be waived by opening night, but if they earn spots on regular season rosters, the December 15 trade restriction would apply to them as well.

A free agent who signs after September 15 won’t become trade-eligible until three months after his signing date.

Any player who has his two-way contract converted to a standard deal during the offseason also doesn’t become trade-eligible until December 15 or until three months after the move, whichever comes later. However, no players were promoted from two-way contracts to standard deals this summer. All the players who finished last season on two-ways either became free agents on July 1, were waived, or are still on their previous contracts.

A select group of players who signed free agent contracts this offseason won’t become trade-eligible until January 15. These 16 players all meet a specific set of criteria. Not only did they re-sign with their previous team this offseason, but they got a raise of at least 20%, their salary is worth more than the minimum, and their team was over the cap, using Bird or Early Bird rights to sign them. That group includes Tyrese Maxey, Immanuel Quickley, and Nic Claxton, among others.

The above rules apply to players who sign standard contracts, not two-way deals. A player who signs a two-way contract is ineligible to be traded for 30 days. So Luke Travers, who signed with the Cavaliers on August 28, will become trade-eligible on September 27. Two-way players are almost never traded, but it happens every now and then, like when RaiQuan Gray was included in this summer’s three-team DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade.

Recently signed draft picks

Like a player who signs a two-way contract, a draftee who signs his first NBA contract is ineligible to be traded for 30 days. Currently, this restriction only impacts Jazz second-rounder Kyle Filipowski, who signed a four-year contract on August 12 and will become trade-eligible on September 11.

The rest of this year’s draftees can currently be traded.

That list of tradable 2024 draftees includes all the players besides Fililpowski who have signed, since more than 30 days have passed since their officially completed their deals.

It also includes the two players who remain unsigned – Nikola Djurisic and Quinten Post – since their draft rights can be traded until they sign their contract. If Djurisic and Post officially sign NBA contracts for 2024/25, they’ll become trade-ineligible for 30 days.

Players with veto ability

Suns guard Bradley Beal and Lakers forward LeBron James are the only NBA players who have genuine no-trade clauses in their contracts, but several other players have the ability to veto trades this season due to various quirks of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Clippers guard James Harden, Grizzlies sharpshooter Luke Kennard, Sixers guard Kyle Lowry, and Nuggets center DeAndre Jordan are some of the notable players whose consent will be required to trade them during the 2024/25 season.

Under the new CBA, a player who would normally meet the no-trade criteria due to re-signing with his current team on a one-year contract (or a two-year deal with a second-year option) can opt to waive his right to veto a trade.

Eleven players have done so this season, including Knicks big man Precious Achiuwa and Sixers forward Kelly Oubre, so once they become trade-eligible (on either December 15 or January 15), they can be moved without any issue.

Players who have signed veteran extensions

A player who signs a rookie scale extension becomes more difficult to trade due to the “poison pill provision,” but he could theoretically be moved immediately.

That’s not necessarily the case for a player who signs a veteran contract extension. A player who signs a veteran extension becomes ineligible to be traded for the next six months if the deal locks him up for more than four total years (including his current contract), includes a first-year bump higher than 20%, and/or includes a raise exceeding 5% anytime after the first year of the extension.

With the help of our extension trackers, here are the players currently affected by that rule, along with the dates they’ll become trade-eligible:

• October 11: Jrue Holiday (Celtics)
• October 16: Grayson Allen (Suns)
• January 6: Bam Adebayo (Heat), Jonathan Isaac (Magic), Derrick White (Celtics)
• January 7: Donovan Mitchell (Cavaliers)
• January 12: Jalen Brunson (Knicks)
• January 23: Sam Hauser (Celtics)
• January 26: Andrew Nembhard (Pacers)
• February 2: Jarrett Allen (Cavaliers)
• February 7: Lauri Markkanen (Jazz)
• March 3: T.J. McConnell (Pacers), Ivica Zubac (Clippers)

Since the trade deadline will land on February 6, Markkanen, McConnell, and Zubac won’t be eligible to be traded until the 2025 offseason.

This restriction will also apply to any player who signs an extension meeting the terms outlined above between now and the trade deadline, such as Jamal Murray, who has reportedly agreed to terms on a new four-year extension with the Nuggets.

Warriors star Stephen Curry and Wizards big man Richaun Holmes also signed extensions this offseason, but those deals didn’t exceed four total years or include raises greater than 5%, meaning Curry and Holmes remain eligible to be traded. Obviously, that’s a far more realistic outcome for Holmes than Curry.

Players who have signed Designated Veteran extensions

A Designated Veteran contract is also known as a “super-max” deal — it’s a maximum-salary contract that starts at 35% of the cap instead of 30% because the player has met certain performance criteria before achieving 10 years of NBA service.

A player who signs a Designated Veteran contract or extension can’t be traded for one full year after his signing date.

Only one player has signed a super-max contract this offeason: Celtics forward Jayson Tatum. He’ll become trade-eligible on July 6, 2025, the one-year anniversary of his signing.

Players affected by aggregation restrictions

When a team trades for a player via salary-matching or using an exception (ie. not by absorbing the player into cap room), that team can’t “aggregate” the player in another trade for two months. Aggregating a player means combining his salary with another player’s for matching purposes.

The majority of the trades made this offseason so far were completed before July 9, so this restriction only applies to two players at the moment. Here are those players, along with the dates when they’ll become aggregation-eligible:

• September 19: Ziaire Williams (Nets)
• September 29: David Roddy (Hawks)

Any player who is traded this season after December 6 (without being acquired via cap room) won’t be eligible to be flipped prior to the trade deadline in a second deal that aggregates his salary with another player’s.

This aggregation restriction also applies indefinitely to any player on a team who is operating over the second tax apron. Currently, four teams fit that bill: the Suns, Celtics, Bucks, and Timberwolves.