NBA Buyout Market 2024: All Things You Should Know About It

In addition to the dramatic matches on the court, the NBA trade deadline is also something that attracts the attention of fans. Some trades will change the fate of a team. So a lot of people pay attention to this issue every season. 

But the turning point can still occur after the trade deadline, and it has to do with buyouts. Although there is not too much impact, these players will still breathe new life into the team. Let’s learn more about NBA buyout with Scott Fujita in this article!

What Is A Buyout In The NBA?

The buyout free agency market in 2023 is active.

1. The Definition

Buyout market is a term that often appears in basketball. You can see it as a tradition of every season. However, what does buyout mean in the NBA? We need to understand more about this before we move on to the following sections.

A buyout usually takes place in case a player and a team want to part ways. During this process, the player will have to pay back a specific amount that they have agreed on in the contract.

This total amount will usually not be the full amount specified by the contract. Usually, the team and the player will discuss with each other to decide the amount of money to help them find another team. If a new team buys out a player’s contract, they will not be able to choose them again for a year.

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Usually, the buyout takes place under the agreement of the two parties to part ways. However, there are a few exceptional cases. Sometimes players want to become free agents without the team’s approval.

Sometimes the team wants to use players as a condition to exchange other talents. However, this will not be possible if a buyer loses a player after the NBA trade deadline.

2. The Goal of Buyout

There are many reasons for a buyout market to appear. The most common cause is to create a win-win deal for both the player and the team. In this case, the team can reduce the cost of paying the player’s salary. On the contrary, the player can go looking for a new opportunity. Usually, there will be playoff candidates or lineups that suit them better.

3. Types of Buyout Players

While it may sound strange, not all buyout players are equal. Usually, there are four types of players as follows:

• Veterans: They are the most experienced players of the season. They are in the buying and selling due to injury or a drop in form.
• The players were in the final year of their contracts.
• Trade packages: Some teams will select players to exchange in the market with the rest of the teams. The other teams can choose to admit players or not. If no team buys back players, they will become free-agent and can freely search for new teams for themselves.
• High maintenance players: They are the players the team wants them to leave as soon as possible. It could be because they didn’t fit the team’s tactics or caused problems for the team.

The buyout of Blake Griffin was a huge deal.

How Does NBA Buyout Work?

However, the structure of a buyout market is not so easy. It has rules-based rules that you need to learn more about.

Based on the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the team will have to guarantee the player’s base salary for the remainder of the season. This event takes place on January 10 of each year. That means the players ranked on this date will receive their base salary. It will happen even if their owner exempts or removes them from the team.

Therefore, to successfully buy a player’s contract, the parties involved need to discuss to agree on the purchase amount. The team that buys the player’s contract will have to pay a salary lower than the base salary. 

After agreeing, the player will enter the waivers phase. It’s like a short 1-2 day vacation. They eventually become free agents.

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Situation Of The NBA Market In 2024

This year, the buyout market is extremely active. It has consolidated two of the strongest teams in this year’s NBA season.

A prime example is Andre Drummond. He signed a maximum contract for the Cleveland Cavaliers with $28.8M per regular season. They then transferred him back to the Lakers for a salary of $794,536 for the rest of the season. It is a real bargain for the Lakers. They have added an All-Star player to the squad for a very comfortable cost.

Blake Griffin, a six-time All-Star, has also expired. He reached his $36.8M contract with the Detroit Pistons and accepted an acquisition. It means Griffin will have to refund $13.3M to the Pistons.

Meanwhile, Lamarcus Aldridge has also reached the end of his $24M contract with the San Antonio Spurs. He decided to refund $7.25M to facilitate a buyout.

Both players have signed new contracts with the Brooklyn Nets. Blake Griffin’s salary is $1,229,676 and $878,340 is the salary of Lamarcus Aldridge. They will be their salary for the rest of the season.

Andre Drummond is a hot free agent in 2024 buyout market.

Relationship Between Big Market And Small Market In Buyouts

There are of course some benefits to having these buyouts in place for incumbent franchises. 

Let’s take the Detroit Pistons as an example. They can save a lot of money to pay the players’ salaries in full. Changing a roster spot will also facilitate the development of young players on the team. They will have more time to play and mature.

However, there are some opinions that this mechanism is not fair. Some teams will get a superstar for a great price. These players will not get any benefits in return on their part.

Take the example of Blake Griffin’s deal. It is a fact that the Brooklyn Nets do not necessarily pay such a large amount for the Detroit Pistons. They can wait for Griffin to become a free agent and then buy him back. By doing so, the Nets will not have to exchange anything for the Pistons. But that would be a gamble and the Nets don’t want that. They want to actively choose the best seed for their squad.

Indeed, the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement does not establish an acquisition market. It has developed on its own. So we think perhaps now is the right time for the NBA to take control of the reality of the market. 

However, they will renegotiate the Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2024. We can hope for the possibility that they will resolve the matter at the earliest.

The Timeline Of Mid-season Free Agency Market

Often people will initiate serious buyouts when the trade deadline has passed. At that point, teams can re-evaluate their rosters and make corrections. The news will begin arriving at 3 p.m. ET. That news will include the players who can join the free agency market and the teams they’re going to.

However, not all buyouts happen overnight. Although the trade deadline is usually March 25, teams will still have time to think. That period will last several weeks for them to determine if the player is right for them.

During a regular season, the unofficial deadline for them to do so is March 1. When buyouts players will have to sign a contract with a new team to be eligible to compete in tournaments. remaining matches.

This season, they have moved that date to April 9. However, this restriction only applies to the already purchased players. Players who do not have a contract with another team at the start of the season will be eligible for postseason. The time will be as long as they sign at the end of the regular season.

Final Words

Hopefully our article has helped you understand more about buyout terminology in the NBA. There are always factors that can influence the whole tournament, so the NBA Buyout is always full of surprises. We think that is the reason why we love this tournament so much.