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 5, that means a player who signs a new deal with a team anytime after Wednesday, November 5 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 this Thursday, his trade restriction wouldn’t lift until February 6, a day after this season’s deadline has passed.
If no new deals are completed by midnight Eastern on Wednesday, the last signee who will have trade eligibility later this season will likely be Precious Achiuwa, who is expected to sign with the Kings today or tomorrow. If Achiuwa officially signs on Tuesday and is still under contract with Sacramento three months from now, he’d become trade-eligible on February 4, the day before the deadline.
Pacers guard Mac McClung (January 28), Pelicans center DeAndre Jordan (January 23), Hawks guard Keaton Wallace (January 18), and Kings guard Russell Westbrook (January 16) are a few of the other players who would become eligible to be moved in the weeks leading up to the Feb. 5 deadline, assuming 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 6 would still become trade-eligible ahead of this season’s deadline.
We previously shared lists of players who won’t become trade-eligible until December 15 or January 15 after signing new contracts in the offseason. We’ll soon publish one more list detailing which players have special, specific trade eligibility dates — that group will include Achiuwa, McClung, and the rest of the players mentioned above, plus many more, including several who signed offseason contract extensions.