The NBA has severely restricted the ability for teams to trade players under its new collective bargaining agreement, which follows an era where the league office appeared to want the buzz surrounding player movement.
"One thing the league has loved is player movement," one East executive said. "They were very invested in that, and now they have done something that's made it clearly much harder to make a trade."
Teams at the first luxury tax apron are had-capped if they take in a dollar more than they send out in trades.
"How are good teams going to navigate through the financial realities of keeping their teams together?" another East executive said.
There could be opposing factors where teams are unable to afford to retain some of their own players, but also unable to trade them for commensurate value. These situations are already beginning to manifest with Brandon Ingram and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as Jimmy Butler with the Miami Heat.
