How It Works

Building a Trade

1. Add Teams

Click "Add Team" to add up to 4 teams to your trade. Select each team from the dropdown.

2. Select Players & Draft Picks

Choose players to trade from each team's roster. You can also add draft picks, including protections and pick swaps.

3. Sign-and-Trade & Free Agents

Sign free agents to contracts using cap space, or use sign-and-trade to acquire players. For players with options, you can decline the option and re-sign them to a new deal.

4. Decline Options

For players with player or team options, check "Decline Option" to let them walk (no compensation) or combine with sign-and-trade to re-sign them to a new contract that can be kept or traded.

5. Set Destinations

For each player and pick, select which team will receive them.

Validating & Sharing

6. Validate

Click "Validate Trade" to check your trade against real NBA salary cap and CBA rules. Results are split into errors (the trade cannot legally be made as built) and warnings (allowed, but worth knowing about - e.g. a poison pill provision or an incentive that could push a team into the luxury tax).

7. View Lineups

Switch to the "Lineups" tab to see how each team's roster looks after the trade, and build starting lineups for each team.

8. Share

Any trade can be saved and shared via a unique URL - even an invalid one, so you can show others exactly why it doesn't work. Lineups can also be shared as an image.

Rules We Check

NBA Trade Machine validates trades against the current CBA's trade rules, including:

• Salary matching - how much incoming salary a team can absorb based on whether it's under the cap, over the cap, a taxpayer, or over the first/second apron.
• First and second apron restrictions - sign-and-trade limits, salary aggregation limits, exception usage, and cash-consideration restrictions for teams above those thresholds.
• Trade exceptions (TPEs) - generation and usage of traded player exceptions.
• The Stepien Rule - a team can't trade itself out of having a first-round pick in any two consecutive future years.
• Sign-and-trade eligibility, including Bird rights and hard-cap implications.
• The Rose Rule - limits on acquiring designated veteran (supermax) players via trade.
• Player eligibility - recently-signed/acquired trade restrictions, poison pill provisions, and two-way contract limits.
• Roster size limits for every team involved.

Limitations

Validation results are estimates based on our understanding of the CBA and publicly available contract data, not to serve as an official or legally binding determination. Feel free to contact us with any questions or suggestions.