The player empowerment era has seen the NBA change in ways many never thought it would. After LeBron James constructed the Miami Heat superteam in 2010, every player realized the power they have over their own careers and have been using it since.
Kevin Durant did it in 2017 when he left the OKC Thunder for the Golden State Warriors, Kawhi Leonard in 2018 when he forced a trade to the Toronto Raptors, Anthony Davis in 2019 when he forced a trade to the Los Angeles Lakers, and the most recent examples coming from James Harden demanding trades in consecutive seasons.
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving requested trades in the summer that weren’t granted. However, it was granted in February as both players were traded to Phoenix and Dallas within a few days of each other.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was asked by ESPN about players requesting trades and he had an interesting answer.
“There aren’t, again, any simple fixes here, or else we would’ve done it… We recognize that that ability for teams to rebuild, now it’s not just about players, but for teams to make changes in direction, and that’s healthy around the league. So again, it’s about finding the right balance around player movement. But trade demands are a bad thing. We don’t want them to happen, and we got to focus on that and make sure that everyone is honoring their agreements.” (h/t ESPN)
Silver also pointed out that 12% of the league switched teams at the trade deadline in this comment but reiterated that player movement is healthy until it leads to every disgruntled star in the league requesting a trade.
Silver’s response is relatively vague on what they can do to curb players requesting trades, there is a middle-ground that needs to be found.
Are Trade Requests Killing Continuity In The Modern NBA?
Every season, there is an All-Star caliber player that wants to be traded from their current franchise. It’s a trend that’s been carrying over in the last few years and saw 2 All-Stars get moved in the middle of the season in 2023.
Considering how teams are mortgaging their future assets to get players of this caliber, it’s severing team-building in the NBA.
If teams can trade players away at their own discretion, players should have the right to ask out of situations they don’t want to be in. Mikal Bridges and Dorian Finney-Smith are examples of extremely loyal players that were traded away without a second thought to acquire stars.
No collective bargaining agreement can walk this narrow line. Silver encouraged player movement in his statement because he knows it’s going to keep happening, whether it is stars asking for trades or teams trading away players that have been loyal to them.
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