While the NBA is on break for the All-Star weekend, teams can quietly talk trades. The 2014 All-Star weekend has been different and has reportedly been an unusually quiet weekend in terms of trade talk.
From CBS Sports:
"Trade talk at All-Star weekend has been “as slow as it’s been in a long time,” said one executive who has not received a single phone call. A lot of teams have made it known which players they are open to moving, but the problem is finding trade partners. Very few teams are willing to part with premium draft picks or take on future salary, which are the two key drivers for trades."
Teams are trying to avoid salary cap problems by taking on bloated contracts. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said the new collective bargaining agreement was changing the way they did business, and teams being reluctant to make trades could be a result of that.
“The money is secondary to the team-building strategy,” Cuban told ESPN Dallas in 2012. “Once you get above the tax apron [the $70.307 million luxury tax plus $4 million], there are limitations in player movement that I think have a big impact on how to build a team.”
“It will be interesting to see what happens next summer, when we hear lots of talk about teams not being eligible to receive free agents in sign-and-trades due to being over the tax apron.”