The NBA trade deadline comes unusually early this season
In the summer of 2017, the NBA announced through its new Collective Bargaining Agreement changes to the NBA trade deadline. Prior to then, the annual end of the trade market was the 17th Thursday of every season, which would come after the All-Star break. Then came the awkwardness of the 2016-17 season when reports of the Sacramento Kings trading DeMarcus Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans came out in the middle of the All-Star Game, which Cousins was participating in. The league, obviously, didn’t want that to happen again, so they decided to make a change.
Now, the trade deadline falls on the Thursday 10 days before the All-Star Game every season, so teams have their rosters settled before the festivities.
As far as the 2019-20 season, that means the trade deadline lands on Feb. 6, at exactly 3 pm EST.
Meanwhile, the 2020-21 season’s trade deadline falls on Feb. 4, the 2021-22 trade deadline will be on Feb. 10 and the 2022-23 trade deadline projects to be Feb. 9.
Interestingly enough, this year has the longest stretch between the trade deadline and the end of the season since 1986-87, with 69 days separating the two important dates.
That should allow teams to get more acclimated with playing together after the deadline, a problem that sometimes arises when teams undergo major midseason changes.