by Charlie O. Mallonee

If a NBA team signed a player as a free agent in the off season, most of those players are now eligible as of today to be traded. For example only, the following Kings players have just become trade eligible as of today: Arron Afflalo, Matt Barnes, Ty Lawson, Garrett Temple and Anthony Tolliver. Again, we are not saying these players are going to be traded, but where as yesterday they could not be moved – today they could be sent to another team.

The main reason the availability of these players becomes so important is the requirement in the NBA for trades to have salary balance. If a team is over the salary cap – which the Kings are over the cap, they cannot take back anymore than 125-percent plus $100,000 in salary in any trade. So, if they trade a player who has a  salary of $10-million per year the Kings could not take back a player(s) with contract(s) totaling more than $12.6-million. Confused? Now you know why every team has a salary cap expert on staff.

The big key is the ability to put together combinations of salaries and contract expiration dates that make player exchanges work for both (or more ) teams involved in the trade.

Now … let the games begin. The trade deadline is Thursday, February 23, 2017.