NBA sets trade deadline for 2026 season

The NBA’s trade deadline for the 2025/26 season will be on Thursday, February 5 at 3:00 pm Eastern time, according to the league’s official list of key dates for the upcoming season.

That date for the 2026 trade deadline had been expected based on a previously confirmed regular season start date of October 21, but it hadn’t been officially listed on NBA.com until now.

That deadline is worth highlighting today due to how it will affect players who sign veteran contract extensions for the rest of the 2025/26 league year. When a player signs a veteran extension, he may become ineligible to be traded for six months if his new deal meets certain criteria. Six months from today would be February 6, one day after the trade deadline.

That means a player who signs a veteran extension between now and the Feb. 5 deadline will be ineligible to be traded this season if his new deal meets any of the following criteria:

• His current contract and new extension exceed four years in total.
• His starting salary on the extension is worth more than 120% of the final-year salary on his current deal (or 120% of the NBA’s estimated average salary, for a player earning below the average)
• He receives a raise greater than 5% between the first and second years of the extension (or in any subsequent seasons).
• His current contract is renegotiated as part of the extension.

Knicks forward Mikal Bridges is one example of a recently extended player who meets one or more of these criteria. He’s now under contract for five years in total, received a 2026/27 salary exceeding 120% of his ’25/26 cap hit, and will get 8% annual raises. That means Bridges is ineligible to be traded for six months, but because his deal was finalized on August 1, his trade restrictions will lift on February 1, a few days before this season’s deadline.

This rule doesn’t apply to players who sign rookie scale extensions. They can be traded immediately, though the poison pill provision might make it difficult to do so.

Players who sign veteran extensions that don’t meet any of the criteria above are also eligible to be traded immediately. Mavericks big man Daniel Gafford is an example of a player who falls into this category. The three-year extension he signed last month resulted in him being under contract for four years in total, and his new deal starts at 120% of his previous salary and features 5% annual raises. As a result, no trade restrictions currently apply to Gafford.

November 5 is another date worth keeping in mind now that the trade deadline for 2026 is officially set. A free agent who signs with an NBA team after Nov. 5 won’t become trade-eligible this season.