The Great Who can be Traded When Thread

OK, that's the complete section on trade restrictions from Larry Coon's NBA Salary Cap FAQ. I "quoted" it for the tl:dr crowd. Admittedly there's a lot of stuff there and it's the interpretation of it has led to some confusion about who we can trade when.

This confusion mostly seems to be about our own players we re-signed and who we can trade on December 15 and who we can't trade until January 15.

For our FA and RFA signings, these seem to be the most relevant passages:

• For three months or until December 15 of that season (whichever is later) after signing a contract as a free agent or matching an offer sheet to a restricted free agent. This obviously does not apply to the trade completing a sign-and-trade transaction (see question number 91).
• For three months or until January 15 of that season (whichever is later) after re-signing a free agent with Larry Bird or Early Bird rights, if the team is over the cap, the player's new salary is above the minimum, and he receives a raise greater than 20%.

The first one seems to apply to Turner and Ezeli. We used cap space to sign them. So, we can trade either starting December 15.

The second seems to apply to Leonard and Harkless. They were the last two players we signed, using their Bird rights with a greater than 20% raise. I'm pretty sure were were already over the cap by the time we signed Leonard. So, it looks like we need to wait until January 15 to attempt to trade either Leonard or Harkless.

That leaves Crabbe (and possibly C.J.). Were we over the cap when we matched BRK's offer sheet for Crabbe? I actually think Crabbe's contract was the one that put us over the cap. If so, does Crabbe fall under the "matching an offer sheet to a restricted free agent" December 15 restriction or "the team is over the cap, the player's new salary is above the minimum, and he receives a raise greater than 20%" January 15 restriction?

WRT to C.J., not that I want to trade him, but does "For six months after signing a player to an extension that is over the limit (in terms of years, salary or raises) for an extend-and-trade transaction" apply to C.J.'s extension? He signed the extension on July 25. So, if this applies, we couldn't trade him until January 25.

So many questions. Does anyone know of a web site (link please) that sums this all up in a nice tabular form? Not just for the Blazers but for every player in the league on a team-by-team basis? After all, it takes two teams (at least) to make a trade. It would be nice to know what trade restrictions there are on guys we may want to acquire.

BNM

 

Not to say one doesn't exist, but I've never run across a site with a nice neat summary table like you suggest.

 

I looked Spotrac at and found that they show Crabbe was signed using cap space. If that's the case, I think the Dec. 15th date is applicable.

http://www.spotrac.com/nba/portland-trail-blazers/allen-crabbe-13344/

 

I'd trade anybody on the roster except Dame for Paul George, Gordon Hayward, Anthony Davis, Marc Gasol, Boogie Cousins, Paul Millsap and several other game changers.

 

That wasn't the question. The question is when can we trade anybody except Dame to improve our team.

BNM

 

The ESPN trade machine seems to have a fairly accurate list of trade restriction dates and salary compatibility.

http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine

 

ok....I'll add at the deadline then and probably remove Crabbe from the list along with Dame

 

I guess maybe they just use the estimated dates. Doesn't seem to be exact for the 3 month cutoff.

 

But, that's not the point of this thread. We don't need to wait until the deadline, nor should we. We need better rim protection and waiting until after the all star break may put us out of contention for HCA in the 1st round. We know what we need, lets get it as soon as possible. Depending on who we're talking about, we can trade them now, starting December 15, or January 15, or possibly January 25. That's what I'm trying to nail down.

BNM

 

Better rim protection? That's the whole reason they got Ezeli. I'd say it's a bit premature to trade for rim protection before Ezeli even gets on the floor.

 

Historically, he's good for about 50 games a season (when he doesn't miss an entire season) at about 16 MPG. We need more than that. We need someone in the starting lineup that can play 30 MPG. That's not, nor has it ever been, Festus Ezeli. He was cheap for a reason.

BNM

 

OK, I finally found the definitive source for who can be traded when (along with a lot of other great info on team salaries, drafts pick - including swaps, pick we owe other teams and picks other teams owe us, dates contracts become guaranteed, qualifying offer dates, etc.).

It's the BasketballInsiders Salary Page for the Blazers.

Most relevant to this discussion:

• 12/15/16 — No-trade restrictions lift on Festus Ezeli, Tim Quarterman and Evan Turner.
• 1/10/17 — Tim Quarterman’s $543,471 guarantees for 2016-17.
• 1/15/17 — No-trade restrictions lift on Allen Crabbe, Mo Harkless and Meyers Leonard.
• 1/27/16 — No-trade restriction lifts on C.J. McCollum.

I'd pretty much figured out the trade restriction dates for Ezeli, Turner, Crabbe, Harkless and Leonard, but this is the first place I've seen the trade restriction date listed for C.J. Could be relative with all the C.J. for Cousins discussions flying around this board.

Here's some future dates of note:

• 6/30/17 — Qualifying offer deadline for Mason Plumlee.
• 6/30/17 — Festus Ezeli’s $7,733,000 guarantees for 2017/18.
• 7/25/17 — Pat Connaughton’s $1.0 million guarantees for 2017-18.
• 10/31/17 — Extension deadlines for Noah Vonleh and Shabazz Napier.
• 1/10/18 — Tim Quarterman’s $905,249 guarantees for 2017-18.
• 6/30/18 — Qualifying offer deadlines for Noah Vonleh, Shabazz Napier, Tim Quarterman and Pat Connaughton.
• 6/30/18 — Jake Layman’s $1,050,262 guarantees for 2018-19.
• 6/29/19 — Estimated player option deadline for Allen Crabbe.
• 6/30/19 — Qualifying offer deadline for Jake Layman.

And, here's all the info on our pending pick swaps:

Pick Swaps

• 2017 — Owe second-rounder to Houston Rockets (Thomas Robinson).
• 2018 — Owed first-rounder (top-10 protected through 2019, if not conveyed, converts to lower second-rounder of Los Angeles Lakers/Minnesota Timberwolves, and a 2021 Cleveland Cavaliers second-rounder) from Cavaliers (Anderson Varejao).
• 2018 — Sacramento Kings have the right to swap second rounders (Tyreke Evans/Robin Lopez).
• 2019 — Owed higher of Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers second-rounders from Cleveland Cavaliers (Brendan Haywood).
• 2019 — Owe second-rounder to Orlando Magic (Jake Layman).
• 2020 — Owe second-rounder (top-55 protected) to Cleveland Cavaliers (Mo Harkless, Joe Harris).
• 2021 — Owed second-rounder from Miami HEAT (Brian Roberts).

BasketballInsiders has similar pages for all NBA teams. So, it makes it easy for all armchair GMs to check the availability dates of their favorite trade targets.

BNM

 

Seriously. Thanks BNM. Your research is a blessing to many of us I am sure. Ive been wanting this info for a while after getting so frustrated with the NBA trade machine. I gave up because my research time is limited and obviously less skills than most here.

Now you need to take it to the next level.
What are the three best options for the Blazers?
1. What is the best possible trade scenario we could do if we wanted to trade now
2. What is the best possible trade scenario we could do if we wanted to wait until Jan.27th?
3. What is the best possible trade scenario we could do at the deadline when teams are becoming more desperate(like maybe a Sacramento)?

I would attempt it, but you have much more of an overall encompassing view than I, i'm sure you will know of players in the league I haven't a clue about.

I am challenging you. Then when the Blazers do make a move ( which Im sure almost all of us agree at least SOME sort of move needs to happen) we can break it down compared to your thoughts and see how close you were.

 

the odds of him "hitting the floor" this season don't look very good at this pt, they took a chance on him and his well known bad knees, for now it appears that chance will not likely pay off - I hope that changes but I don't think we can count on his playing at all so other decisions need to be made

 

Exactly. Rim protectors cant protect the rim when they cant get off the bench....If a healthy rim protector is available without having to give up the farm, you have to look at it long and hard.

 

So because of his BYC status, Crabbe cannot "realistically" be traded until this summer?