The trade deadline is the date in the season after which teams may no longer make trades until the offseason, set in February in recent NBA seasons.
The trade deadline is the season's last chance to change a roster by exchange. Until the deadline, typically a February afternoon, teams may trade players and draft picks subject to the salary matching rules; after it, rosters are essentially locked, with only free agent signings and waiver claims left. The deadline concentrates a season of negotiations into a few frantic days.
Its logic is competitive balance and drama in equal measure. Contenders buy immediate help, sellers trade veterans for future picks, and the deadline's rumour economy has become an entertainment product of its own. The apron rules in the current agreement made deadline math harder for the most expensive teams, restricting how much salary they can take back, which changed which trades are even legal to propose.
Famous deadlines are quiz anchors: the blockbuster that built a champion, the star dealt at the buzzer, and the quiet deadline that signalled a rebuild. The term pairs in this glossary with the buyout market that follows it, when veterans released after the deadline join contenders for the minimum, the deadline's unofficial second act each spring.
In use"The trade deadline passed with the contenders loading up and the rebuilders collecting picks."