The unofficial NBA trade season typically doesn’t open until December 15, the day on which most players become eligible to be traded. Why? Because the CBA prohibits teams from trading players whom they signed as free agents during the offseason for three months or until December 15, whichever is later. A few can’t be traded until later in the season but that number is usually much smaller (17 this year) than those who can be traded starting on Dec. 15 (85 this year). Don’t expect a lot of trades to happen early after December 15 but there are likely to be a few with the amount growing rapidly as the Feb. 6 trade deadline draws near.
In this article, I’m NOT going to propose any trades. Instead, I’m going to attempt to give you an overview of the difficulties that the [Phoenix Suns](https://www.brightsideofthesun.com) as a 2nd apron tax team will face...and it’s not a pretty sight.
As most Suns fans are painfully aware, being over the 2nd tax apron comes with some harsh trade restrictions, one of which is not being able to take back more than 100% of the outgoing trade value (salary) in any trade. This rule also applies to teams over the 1st tax apron so this alone makes it **virtually impossible** for the Suns to make two-team trades with ANY team that is over the 1st or 2nd tax apron. The following list includes all of those teams:
### Over 2nd Apron
1. Minnesota
2. Boston
3. Milwaukee
### Over 1st Apron
1. LA [Lakers](https://www.silverscreenandroll.com)
2. New York (2nd apron hard cap)
3. Miami
4. Denver (2nd apron hard cap)
5. Philadelphia
That’s eight teams that the Suns just can NOT make a simple two-team trade with unless the dollar value exchanged between the two teams is EXACTLY the same. 99.9% of the time, those figures won’t match which means the trade just won’t work. Under certain circumstances, three or more team trades involving 2nd apron teams and 1st apron teams are possible if a the third team is NOT an apron team and willing to act as a facilitator. That would be quite difficult to work out but not impossible. It already happened once in the Minnesota/New York/Charlotte trade earlier this year. That won’t work for two 2nd apron teams though.
### Hard Capped Teams
That leaves 21 teams that the Suns could theoretically make a simple two-team trade with but there are other factors that would make trades with some of them very difficult... such as a hard cap. There are presently 18 teams that are hard-capped at either the 2nd (4) or 1st (14) tax apron. That means that they are limited by the CBA on how much salary they can add to what is already on their cap sheets this season and they cannot go over those limits under any circumstances.
Two teams that are in a really tight salary squeeze because of a hard cap are Dallas and Golden State. Both are presently just a bit over $500K below their hard caps which means they can only take back a tiny amount more in salary than they send out in trades which would make trading with the Suns very difficult but not completely impossible.
New Orleans, LAC, Brooklyn, Atlanta, and Sacramento are in similar situations but have a little more flexibility with $4 to $6 million in space left before hitting their hard caps. Trades with them would be a little easier but I doubt their GMs would agree to take back much salary unless the trade was a definite win for them. Also, they wouldn’t likely want to send multiple players back in a trade for a single player (which is all the Suns can send out in a single trade) as they would have to have to spend even more money to fill out their rosters again.
Chicago, Toronto, Washington, Houston, and OKC are all also hard-capped at the 1st tax apron but have anywhere from $9.5 to $16.2 million to play with. Trades with them wouldn’t likely be as financially difficult but count on them being at least a bit thrifty in trades.
Charlotte and Indiana are also hard capped at the 2nd tax apron but are actually still below the 1st apron threshold which still gives them a fairly large amount of room to maneuver so I’ve included them in the following group.
### The Rest
That leaves the Suns with just 9 reasonably viable trade partners with fair to large amounts of cap space to spare.
As the Suns are incapable of taking back more salary than they send out, trade partners with cap space are a necessity for them. Among those 9, there are also a few that, while not hard capped, are still pretty close to the 1st tax apron and might be reluctant to take back excessive salary to avoid going over that. Those teams include Cleveland, Memphis, Indiana, and Portland, each of which could take back various extra salary amounts between $4.1 million (Cleveland) and $9.5 million (Portland) before exceeding the 1st tax apron. This doesn’t rule them out as trade partners for the Suns but it does mean that none of them are likely going to be willing to take back an excessive amount of salary in any trade unless it’s a big win for them.
And then that leaves us with just **FIVE** potential trading partners who are at least $16.5 million below the 1st tax apron and have no existing hard cap they have to worry about - Charlotte, San Antonio, Orlando, Utah, and Detroit. Trades with any of them would be the easiest to make financially. That of course doesn’t mean that they would be easy though. Other teams’ GMs aren’t likely to do the Suns many favors.
So there you have it. Trade season is almost upon us but the new CBA restrictions are going to be a real hindrance in many ways for many teams. Under the new circumstances, many teams just aren’t likely to be willing (or able) to make some trades that they might have in the past and the Suns now have to deal with the most restrictive trade rules in NBA history.
It’s going to be an interesting trade season for sure.