The NBA Cup final is Tuesday, but the lead-up to the game could see some fireworks as the league welcomes the unofficial beginning of trade season.

Monday marked the first day that players who signed a free-agent contract in the previous offseason are eligible to be traded, according to the NBA’s CBA. An additional 82 NBA players were eligible to be traded starting Monday.

According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, 90% of NBA players can officially be included in a trade as of Monday. 

One of the trade-eligible players is Chris Paul, who was sent home by the Clippers from a road trip two weeks ago before the team announced it was “parting ways” with the 12-time All-Star. Paul signed a minimum deal with Los Angeles in the summer.

There is an additional CBA quirk that could incentivize teams to make a trade by Tuesday.

If a player is traded on or before Dec. 16, he can be repackaged and his salary aggregated with other players in another trade before the trade deadline on Feb. 5. Players dealt after Dec. 16 can be traded again this season, but they must be traded without the ability to include other salaries to aid in matching with a trade partner.

The rule discourages teams from trading a player multiple times in one season. But in the NBA’s notorious two-apron world, any additional salary restrictions further complicate a team’s roster flexibility.

The Warriors took advantage of this CBA nugget last year when they dealt for guard Dennis Schröder on Dec. 16. Less than two months later, they traded Schröder to the Jazz as part of a five-team trade to acquire Jimmy Butler. A few days later, Schröder was moved a third time to the Pistons.

Most of the rest of the league will become eligible to be traded on Jan. 15, including those who signed multiyear extensions. 

One notable example is Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga, who signed a two-year, $48.5 million extension in the offseason after a lengthy stalemate. After a strong start to the season, Kuminga has fallen out of head coach Steve Kerr’s rotation, logging three consecutive DNP-CDs.

The 23-year-old is a piece Golden State could use to improve its aging roster around Steph Curry, but he will be eligible for a trade only starting next month.

The NBA rumor mill has already been active for weeks, highlighted by the uncertainty around Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. 

The back-to-back defending champion Dodgers keep adding to their future salary bills, taking their deferral strategy to unprecedented heights.

The club’s signing of free-agent reliever Edwin Díaz to a three-year, $69 million pact includes $4.5 million in annual deferrals, paid out between 2036 and 2047. While on the smaller side of the Dodgers’ overall deferrals, the latest deal pushes their overall bill to more than $1.06 billion, involving nine players.

The Dodgers’ other deferrals that will come due over the next two-plus decades include:

• Two-way star Shohei Ohtani: $680 million between 2034 and 2043
• Infielder/outfielder Mookie Betts: $115 million in salaries between 2033 and 2044, and $5 million in signing-bonus installments from 2033 to 2035
• Pitcher Blake Snell: $66 million between 2035 and 2046
• First baseman Freddie Freeman: $57 million between 2028 and 2040
• Catcher Will Smith: $50 million between 2034 and 2043
• Outfielder Teoscar Hernández: $32 million between 2030 and 2039
• Utility player Tommy Edman: $25 million between 2037 and 2044
• Reliever Tanner Scott: $21 million between 2035 and 2046

The deferral strategy may come into play again this offseason, as the Dodgers are expected to be an active suitor of talent in what remains a vibrant player market. Los Angeles is hardly the only Major League Baseball team to embrace salary deferrals, but nobody else has done so to the level of the Dodgers. In 2038 and 2039, the Dodgers have more than $102 million in annual deferral obligations—a sum greater than the 2025 payrolls of three MLB clubs.

Dodgers owner Mark Walter and his partners retain strong confidence in their ability to pay the hefty future bills, as the club just led MLB in attendance for the 12th straight year. There is no letup in sight on that front, as the club remains consistently competitive and plays in the league’s largest stadium. The 2025 total of 4.01 million set a franchise record and represented the first MLB team to reach that mark since 2008.

The club is also still midway through a 25-year, $8.35 billion local media-rights deal with Spectrum, another major pact providing significant revenue to the Dodgers.

With Díaz in the fold, the Dodgers already have a $342.2 million luxury-tax payroll for 2026, tops in MLB. 

One of the most downtrodden franchises in U.S. pro sports is hitting the reset button—again—and the team’s reclusive owner briefly reemerged from the shadows.

The Sabres introduced on Tuesday their new GM, Jarmo Kekäläinen, with predecessor Kevyn Adams “relieved of his duties,” according to the team, after more than five years in the post. The move arrives as the Sabres have not reached the postseason since 2011, tied with the NFL’s Jets for the longest such streak in major U.S. pro sports. 

After entering this season with elevated hopes of finally breaking that ignominious run, Buffalo ranks next to last in the Eastern Conference, even amid an active, three-game winning streak.

“We’re very close. I firmly believe we can make the playoffs this year,” said Kekäläinen, who previously had been a senior advisor for the Sabres since May, and before that spent 12 years as Blue Jackets GM. 

“I told the players to forget the 14-year [non-playoff] thing, forget about the 14 years that are hanging around like a black cloud. … We’re going to have a plan. The plan is to win the Stanley Cup. We’re not going to take any shortcuts,” he said.

Sabres owner Terry Pegula, meanwhile, surprised local observers by participating, at least somewhat, in the Kekäläinen press conference, making his first public remarks since firing Jason Botterill from this same Sabres GM position in June 2020. Pegula, however, did not take questions, leaving Kekäläinen to fulfill that responsibility.

“Over the last seven months, [Kekäläinen] has shown to me that he is capable of leading our organization into the future,” Pegula said in his brief remarks. “He has made bold moves in the past … and he has a confidence that I believe will help our organization.”

Kekäläinen is the fifth person to hold the GM position since Pegula and his family acquired the Sabres in 2011, just before that most recent playoff appearance. Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff, in his second stint with the team, remains in place, and Kekäläinen spoke highly of him.

The Contenders Next Door

The situation with the Sabres, meanwhile, could hardly be more different than the neighboring Bills. The NFL team is also owned by Pegula and there is some crossover in senior leadership, particularly Pete Guelli, the COO of both teams.

The Bills, however, are a perennial contender and have reached the NFL playoffs each of the last six seasons, largely coinciding with the tenure of star quarterback Josh Allen, the reigning league Most Valuable Player. After a big road win Sunday in New England and the regression this year of the Chiefs, the Bills now have the third-best odds to win Super Bowl LX behind the Rams and Seahawks. The team also has a new stadium under construction that will open next year, contrasting sharply with the increasingly aging and worn-down KeyBank Center in downtown Buffalo. 

Kekäläinen, however, pointed to the intensity of Sabres fans and said he wants to reward that support.

“To see the passion of the fans here in Buffalo, it’s something that reminds me a little of my home in Finland,” Kekäläinen said, referencing the significant hockey culture there.