The definitive guide to NBA trade jargon
Explaining the NBA trade deadline to someone who doesn’t watch sports might be among the hardest things to do.
“So in the NBA there’s trades, where a team can trade one of their players to a different team for their players, and also they can give the other teams the chance to bring in new players in the future.”
“Okay…”
“So the Cavaliers traded away Ricky Rubio, a good player who’s injured ri—”
“Why would they trade him if he’s injured? That’s mean.”
“No, see, he’s on an expiring contract, so the Pacers wanted him—”
“Who are the Pacers?”
“They’re Indiana’s NBA team, and they got Rubio because—”
“That’s a dumb team name.”
“Yeah I know. But Rubio’s on an expiring contract, so the Pacers can—”
“Can we get Chick-fil-A?”
The conversations immediately fold on themselves, and it’d be impossible to even get to the punchline: this week, many NBA players could be uprooted from their homes and shipped across the country with a single tweet. Consider yourself lucky, NBA fan, because you’ve immersed yourself in a complicated world of backdoor dealing, asset management, and flat-out lying.
Thursday at 3PM EST marks this year’s trade deadline. Only a few deals have broken through so far: the Clippers’ robbery of the Blazers, Cleveland’s acquisition of Caris LeVert, Denver bringing in Bryn Forbes, and the Knicks bizarre move to swipe up Cam Reddish (and subsequently not play him).
It’s very likely that more trades occur as we get closer to Thursday. To be prepared, you need to be able to sift through all of the madness and understand the lingo that reporters like Adrian Wojnarowski, Shams Charania, Marc Stein, Zach Lowe, and Jake Fischer use when referring to players and teams on Twitter.
I present to you a glossary of all of the best terms used by basketball’s best news breakers, ranging in both severity and sincerity:
source: The person with an NBA team (from scouts to team presidents) who is leaking/revealing shit to reporters
intel: The shit that gets leaked to reporters.
asset: A player or pick deemed to have trade value around the league. They can be split into positive assets (ex. any Sacramento Kings future first round pick) or negative assets (ex. Davis Bertans’ insane 5-year, $80 million contract).
garnering interest: Multiple teams are calling about a certain player several times a week.
package: Multiple players and picks presented as an option in trade negotiations. (ex. “Houston GM Rafael Stone's return of picks -- including four unprotected first and four unprotected pick swaps -- is one of the strongest draft packages in league history.”)
discussions: A player’s name was mentioned on a phone call between executives of different teams.
asking price: What a team thinks their asset is worth. (ex. “Inside of two weeks until the February 10 NBA trade deadline, the Kings believe the asking price for Simmons is too steep and that a pathway to reaching an agreement with the Sixers doesn’t exist”)
has fans in the organization: effectively meaningless; a reporter has played Telephone with many different teams and can’t pin down a single person to pin a team’s interest in a player to.
interested in: A team had a conversation about acquiring a certain player; effectively meaningless, considering front offices are constantly discussing different players and teams.
inquired: A team reached out to another team in regards to acquiring one of their players. (ex. “Boston inquired about a (Kawhi) trade prior to the February deadline, sources said.”)
has been made available: A team’s just about ready to ship a guy out.
linked to: More than one source has repeatedly assured that a team is interested in a player (ex. “…while Boston also remains strongly linked to Fournier and other bidders could emerge depending on where Toronto's Kyle Lowry lands.”)
in pursuit of: A team is down bad about a player they really want.
in hot pursuit of: An even funnier way of saying a team is down bad about a player they really want. (ex. “Another team in hot pursuit of OKC's Reggie Jackson, league source tells Yahoo Sports: The Detroit Pistons" or “When it comes to LeBron James, still one consistent belief among participants: Bulls lead, with Heat, Nets and Cavs in hot pursuit”)
talks have progressed: There’s a lot of schmoozing and chicanery going on during trade negotiations — but things are in a good place overall, it seems.
engaged: There’s some teams definitely talking about a deal that seems rather imminent.
advanced talks: Start packing your bags. (ex. “Celtics, Nets in advanced talks on Kevin Garnett-Paul Pierce blockbuster.”)
serious talks: Your bags better be packed. (ex. “The Clippers are engaged in serious talks on a deal that would send All-Star forward Blake Griffin to the Pistons”)
closing in on: You’re on the next flight out, buddy. (ex. “Orlando is closing in on a trade to send Aaron Gordon to Denver”)
expanding the deal: Another team got word that the deal is happening and sees their opportunity to grift OR a team is about to make a trade in which the salaries/assets don’t match and need a favor from another team to complete the deal.
You’re going to see a lot of Mad-Lib style tweets today, tomorrow, and Thursday. NBA reporters use these terms to be dramatic, and it’s worked: Woj makes over a million dollars a year because of his ability to gather intel about players garnering interest around the league. He always knows which executives are engaged on several fronts with players that have been made available for serious talks.
How did all of this start, you may ask? My best guess is that LeBron’s The Decision kicked off the NBA Twitter era, and media outlets haven’t looked back since. You could make the case it goes back even before social media, to David Stern’s ultra-dramatic announcement of the Chris Webber trade in 1993.
Tell me Stern didn’t know exactly what the hell he was doing here:
Are there any of your favorite trade terms that I’ve missed? Which one is your favorite? Leave comment below:
Links
Klay Thompson making clutch threes in Oklahoma City: a tradition that has stood the test of time.
Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer on the latest trade deadline intel, including news on CJ McCollum and how the Pistons’ ridiculous asking price will likely keep Grant in Detroit until this offseason.
Zach Lowe and Ramona Shelburne dive deep into the Ben Simmons situation on The Lowe Post.
Bradley Beal’s agent made a surprise visit to D.C. to visit with Wizards’ management ahead of the trade deadline — what does it mean?
LaMelo Ball and Dejounte Murray each had awesome reactions to being named All-Star replacements.
The No Ceilings crew released their updated, 60-prospect big board for the 2022 NBA Draft.