I’d like to start off with a welcome to all readers, followers, subscribers and all participants who are reading this! This is my second annual Mock Trade Deadline for SportsEthos and this year we expanded it even further.

As you’ll see below, we have 30 participants, each representing one NBA team in negotiations. These kind folks are beat writers, reporters and podcasters of the NBA team they were assigned, while others are general NBA media or CBA/Front Office and Salary Cap experts.

With this large variety of basketball knowledge assembled, I anticipate this becoming one of the biggest Mock Trade Deadlines in the world for everyone to follow along with each year! Each team page will feature a full agenda so you can figure out what each team is expecting to do leading up to February’s trade deadline, including the decisions they’re facing, players they’re targeting, and what players fans can expect to be dangled in trade talks.

Hopefully our participants, as well as those following along, find this guide helpful. If you have any questions on how the process works or any advice on what can be improved upon, follow me on Twitter @BirdRightsPod and message me. Alternatively, you can email me at birdrightspod@gmail.com. Thank you for reading!

Steven R. Bagell, J.D.
Host of Bird Rights Pod

There’s a few other rules we should go over before we jump into the frenzy of the deadline; some of the nitty gritty things that will make life more difficult for trading partners.

Salary Matching 101

Salary Matching as a Luxury Tax Paying Team

Taxpaying teams can take back 125% of outgoing salary + $100,000.

Example: Taxpaying team sends out $10 million in salary, they can take back $12.6 million

Salary Matching as Non-Luxury Tax Paying Team

$1-$6.5 million: Non-tax paying team can bring back 175% of the outgoing salary plus $100,000

Example: Non-taxpaying team sends out $6.5 million in salary, they can take back as much as $11,475,000

$6.5 million-$19.6 million: Outgoing salary + $5 million

Example: Non-tax paying team sends out $10 million in salary, they can take back $15 million

More than $19.6 million: Non-tax paying team can bring back $125% of outgoing salary plus $100,000

Example: Same as requirements for a Luxury Tax Paying Team (Taxpaying teams can take back 125% of outgoing salary + $100,000.)

Be on the lookout for other teams’ TPEs. You may be able to salary match to bring in player X and Y, but player Z may be able to taken in via TPE. 

Stepien Rule

Remember that you can’t trade draft picks in consecutive years… so if you only have one 2023 first and trade it, you must have a 2024 first… if you want to trade multiple picks, then you have to trade 2023 & 2025, for example.

The Roster

*Hosted by SportsEthos Salary Cap and Front Office Expert Steven Bagell