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NBA Players Who Can Veto Trades In 2025/26

July 29th 2025 at 9:19am CST by Luke Adams

No-trade clauses are rare in the NBA, since a player must meet a specific set of criteria in order to qualify for one. And even those players who become eligible may not have the leverage to demand a no-trade clause, which significantly limits a team’s flexibility in future trade negotiations.

To be eligible to negotiate a no-trade clause, a player must have at least eight years of NBA experience and has to have spent at least four years (not necessarily the most recent four years) with his current team. He also must be signing a free agent contract, rather than an extension.

[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: No-Trade Clause]

For the second consecutive season, multiple players will have no-trade clauses in their contracts during the 2025/26 league year. In addition to LeBron James, who got his no-trade clause when he signed his current contract in 2024, Damian Lillard negotiated a no-trade clause into his new deal with the Trail Blazers.

A year ago, it was James and Bradley Beal who had no-trade clauses, but Beal gave his up when he agreed to a buyout with the Suns this offseason.

Prior to 2024/25, the last time more than one player had an actual no-trade clause in his contract was in ’17/18, when three players – James (as a Cavalier), Dirk Nowitzki, and Carmelo Anthony – had them.

Although James and Lillard are the only players who have explicit no-trade clauses in their current deals, there are several others who will have implicit no-trade clauses in 2025/26, giving them the ability to veto trades during the current league year.

A player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year contract – or a two-year deal with an option year – is given no-trade protection, unless he agrees to give up that protection when he inks his deal. That group doesn’t include players on two-way contracts, but it does include players who accept standard (non two-way) one-year qualifying offers.

A player who signs an offer sheet and then has that offer matched by his previous team also has the ability to veto a trade for a full calendar year.

With those criteria in mind, here are the players who must give their consent if their teams want to trade them during the ’25/26 league year:

Players with a no-trade clause:

Players whose offer sheets were matched:

  • None

Players who re-signed for one year (or two years, with a second-year player/team option):

If any player who re-signed for one year approves a trade during the 2025/26 league year, he’ll have Non-Bird rights at season’s end instead of Early Bird or full Bird rights.

Any player who approves a trade will retain his veto ability on his new team, and would have to consent to any subsequent deal during the 2025/26 season.

The following players were re-signed to one-year contracts (or two-year deals with an option year), but have agreed to forfeit their right to veto a trade in 2025/26:

Giving up the right to veto a trade was introduced as an option in the 2023 Collective Bargaining Agreement.

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