When can the New Orleans Pelicans make a trade again?

As we established in our last post, championships are won and lost during the offseason. And while the NBA Draft and NBA Free Agency play a large part in shaping a team’s offseason, trades are an important piece of the puzzle too.

With that in mind, when can the New Orleans Pelicans start making trades again so that they can start building their own version of the Denver Nuggets?

Interestingly enough, the Pelicans have been able to make trades since they were eliminated during the play-in tournament by the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The way the rule works is that after the NBA Trade Deadline (which, this year, was on February 9th), teams can’t make a deal until their season has ended. For New Orleans, their season ended on April 12th after that loss to the Thunder. That means that, since that point, New Orleans has been eligible to negotiate trades.

This continues throughout the playoffs. So, when the Memphis Grizzlies were eliminated in the first round by the Los Angeles Lakers, they could then start making trades again (if they so pleased). And when the New York Knicks were eliminated by the Miami Heat in the second round, they could begin wheeling and dealing again too. Etc, etc.

The only kicker here is that the teams that are eligible to begin trading again can’t make trades with teams that are still in the playoffs. That means that, as of right now, New Orleans can’t try to make deals with the Heat, Nuggets, or Boston Celtics.

So, the Pelicans are theoretically allowed to make trades to bolster their roster in anticipation of next season right now if they please. Who they can/should trade is a different story for a different post (this post, actually), but the main conclusion here is that they can do it now.

For those wondering, the Pelicans did not make an offseason trade last season. The last time they made a trade during the off-season was during the summer of 2021 when they moved Lonzo Ball in a sign and trade with the Chicago Bulls. The Pelicans got Garrett Temple, Tomas Satoransky, and a second-round pick back in that deal.

In that same off-season, New Orleans also traded two first-round picks, Steven Adams, and Eric Bledsoe, to the Grizzlies for Jonas Valanciunas and the 17th overall pick in that draft (which became Trey Murphy III).