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The collective bargaining agreement has an assortment of rules governing trades that can make it quite a headache for NBA executives to pull one off. Teams have to be cognizant of where they stand relative to the salary cap and structure the deal so it fits the league’s salary-matching requirements. Further complications exist with players who can veto trades.

Other players simply can’t be dealt at all. Players can’t be traded until three months after they sign a new contract, and with the trade deadline set for February 20th, that puts the following players who signed after November 20th off-limits for a deal:

• Chris Douglas-Roberts, Bobcats
• D.J. Augustin, Bulls
• James Johnson, Grizzlies
• Kendall Marshall, Lakers
• Alexis Ajinca, Pelicans
• Jeremy Tyler, Knicks
• Leandro Barbosa, Suns
• Hedo Turkoglu, Clippers
• Chris Johnson, Celtics
• Andrew Bynum, Pacers
• Luke Babbitt, Pelicans

Teams can’t trade a player for 30 days after they claim him off waivers. The Jazz claimed Malcolm Thomas off waivers from the Spurs on January 25th, but he was already ineligible to be traded because he signed with San Antonio on December 3rd.

Players claimed off amnesty waivers are ineligible to be traded for an entire season, but no one fits that description this year. All of the players waived via the amnesty clause this past summer became free agents, so the Knicks can trade Metta World Peace and the Grizzlies can trade Mike Miller, since they signed as free agents.

Any players who signed 10-day contracts this season are ineligible to be traded, regardless of whether they followed up the 10-day with a contract for the rest of the season. So, Sasha Vujacic, Darius Morris and Shawne Williams, the only players currently on 10-day deals, won’t be changing hands next Thursday. The same goes for any player who signs a 10-day contract between now and the deadline.

There are also three players who CAN be traded at the deadline but can’t be traded now because three months have yet to elapse since they were signed. The trio includes a pair of Sixers who won’t become trade-eligible until the day of the deadline:

Diante Garrett, Jazz (becomes trade-eligible February 13th)
Lorenzo Brown, Sixers (becomes trade-eligible February 20th)
Elliot Williams, Sixers (becomes trade-eligible February 20th)

Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.

There are a number of different ways to follow Hoops Rumors via Facebook, Twitter, and RSS, as we’ve outlined before. If you don’t want to follow all the site’s updates, you can subscribe to team-specific or transaction-only Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feeds. Although we don’t have Facebook pages or Twitter feeds for specific players, you can also easily follow all our updates on your favorite player.

If, for instance, you want to keep track of all the latest news and rumors on Carmelo Anthony as his free agency approaches, you can visit this page. If you’re interested in keeping tabs on the latest trade rumors involving Pau Gasol, you can find Gasol’s page right here.

Every player we’ve written about has his own rumors page. You can find any player by using our search box (located in the right sidebar); by clicking his tag at the bottom of a post in which he’s discussed; or, by simply typing his name in your address bar after hoopsrumors.com, substituting dashes for spaces. For example, Carmelo’s page is located at hoopsrumors.com/carmelo-anthony.

You can also set up an RSS feed for any of our player pages by adding /feed to the end of the page URL, like this: hoopsrumors.com/carmelo-anthony/feed. Entering that URL into the reader of your choice should enable you to get updates whenever we write about Anthony. It works for teams, too. If you’re a Bulls fan, you can enter hoopsrumors.com/chicago-bulls/feed into your reader and stay on top of all the latest on the Bulls.

In addition to players and teams, there are a number of other subjects you can track by clicking on the tags we use at the bottom of posts. Items related to the NBA D-League, for instance, can be found on this rumors page. If you want to follow updates on the 2014 NBA draft, those are all available here. Again, you can set up a feed with any of these pages by adding /feed to the end of the URL.

Hoops Rumors passes along the latest news and rumors on NBA player movement 365 days a year, but those aren’t the only updates you’ll see on the site. On our right sidebar, you’ll find a number of additional features and featured posts. Here’s a rundown of a few of them:

• You can follow all of our updates about your favorite teams or players on your iPhone or iPad using the Hoops Rumors app.
• We’re still keeping a close eye on free agency with the help of our list of 2013 free agents. If you want to look ahead to the summer of 2014 or 2015, we’ve rounded up those free agents as well. These lists be continually updated.
• Our list of 2013/14 roster counts is a convenient tool for keeping tabs on how many players your favorite NBA team is carrying and how many guaranteed contracts are on each club’s books.
• It’s trade season in the NBA, so we’re tracking this season’s deals and profiling players we consider trade candidates.
• If your favorite team has a better chance at Joel Embiid, Andrew Wiggins or Jabari Parker than a playoff berth, be sure to follow our reverse standings, which are updated daily to reflect the projected 2014 draft order.
• We’re keeping tabs on this season’s D-League assignments right here.
• Our agency database is a handy reference point for determining the representation for virtually every NBA player.
• Using our 10-day contract tracker, you can find any 10-day contract signed since the 2006/07 season, and you can sort by player, team, year and other variables.
• On Mondays at 4:00pm CT, I answer reader questions in a live chat. You can check out transcripts of our past live discussions here.
• Our list of outstanding traded player exceptions is updated whenever a trade exception is created, used or expires.
• We’re tracking each team’s use of the amnesty clause. Our complete table shows which clubs have used the amnesty clause and which will have it available next summer.
• The Hoops Rumors glossary helps explain some of the more complex concepts in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement.
• Zach Links rounds up the best of the blogosphere every Sunday in his weekly Hoops Links feature.
• If you’re looking to catch up, our Week in Review posts compile the top news and rumors from the past seven days, while our Hoops Rumors Originals posts recap the site’s original content for the week. Both roundups are published every Sunday.
• Be sure to check out the Featured Posts section on the right sidebar for more original pieces from the Hoops Rumors writing team. Recently, we detailed how January’s three-way trade between the Warriors, Celtics and Heat worked financially, explained how proximity to the luxury tax line could affect the moves the Bulls make the rest of this season, and listed the teams unable to trade first-round picks at this year’s deadline.

The trade deadline is just 16 days away, and uncertainty surrounds the Cavs and Kyrie Irving as they approach extension negotiations in the offseason ahead, so there will be plenty of notable stories to track on Hoops Rumors in the weeks to come, and beyond. There are a handful of ways you can follow us to keep tabs on the latest NBA news and rumors as the chatter intensifies.

You can Like us on Facebook, and receive headlines and links for all our posts via your Facebook account. You can also follow us on Twitter to have all our posts and updates sent directly to your Twitter feed. Our RSS feed is located here if you’d like to follow us using your reader of choice.

If you prefer to receive updates only on roster moves such as signings, cuts, and trades, you can follow our transactions-only feeds via RSS and Twitter.

Adam Silver has officially assumed the role of NBA commissioner, replacing David Stern, who steps down 30 years to the day after he inherited the position from Larry O’Brien. The move was first announced in October 2012, giving Silver ample time to transition from his post as deputy commissioner, which he’s held since 2006. That job now goes to Mark Tatum, who had been serving as the NBA’s vice president of global marketing partnerships.

Stern, 71, oversaw a period of remarkable growth, inheriting the NBA just as Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were entering their primes and a few months before Michael Jordan would enter the league. The game has continued to grow since their retirements, despite a pair of lockouts and four franchise relocations. The league’s annual revenue has risen from $165MM to $5.5 billion during Stern’s tenure, while the average player salary has gone from $290K to an estimated $5.565MM. He served longer than any other commissioner in the history of the NBA, National Football League and Major League Baseball.

Silver joined the NBA in 1992 and held numerous executive roles within the league until his appointment as deputy commissioner. There’s widespread uncertainty about just how Silver will govern, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com notes, but his track record suggests he’ll focus on the business and marketing side of the game in an attempt to continue revenue growth. Silver was involved in negotiations with the players union during the 2011 lockout, and the next battle on that front will likely come after the 2016/17 season, when the NBA and the union both possess options to terminate the current collective bargaining agreement.