Trade Secrets: Some great links to NBA trade sites and tools

The NBA is on hiatus, The Last Dance is over, and we’re all wishing the NBA would come back. Allow me to help find a way to get your NBA fix and pass time.

So, a little background on me first. What made me really dive into basketball was the Carmelo Anthony trade saga way back when he was playing for the Denver Nuggets. I was going crazy waiting for the situation to work itself out and find a resolution. This led me to the first NBA site that enabled me to become a better fan, Hoopshype.

Hoopshype is a site that is basically a one-stop-shop for all of the NBA rumors you could possibly hope for. Wanting to know about Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell’s feud? You could find them there for example. It even keeps all the accrediting for all the original sources, just cites their tweets.

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One thing I found after searching through the Melo rumors enough times was their online NBA forum (which has sadly closed since). Young me eventually hopped onto it and I was enamored by the trade forum.

I would admittedly create a ton of absolutely dreadful, painfully biased trades that only benefited my team to start. You know, the Chris Paul for a first and a random contract type trades. As expected I eventually improved my objectivity, however as Hoopshype closed its forum it led me to the next spot, RealGM.

Their forum is currently still up and booming. It is a great way to get your basketball fix, talk hoops, and get educated by a bunch of really great and smart people. It honestly is what made me the fan I am today, kindled my love for Wilt Chamberlain, and so much more.

Speaking of RealGM, they have a great future picks tracker too. Do you ever wonder which picks the Oklahoma City Thunder have after seemingly trading for 100 picks this past offseason? The site does a great job of not only tracking them but all of their protections too. Both, incoming and outgoing first and second-round picks.

Now, comes the bookkeeping part. Let’s say we’re looking back and wondering just how much Stephen Curry is getting paid in the 2021-22 season, how many years are remaining on his deal, and if he has a player option at the end. Here are few good sites to have for that: Spotrac, Hoopshype, and RealGM and NBA Twitter legend Keith Smith’s salary sheets. One other cool salary page is RealGM’s projected cap history page that shows the projected maximum and minimum deals as well as exceptions, and the future salary cap projections.

Here comes the fun part, trades! As much fun as suggesting a Jaylen Nowell for Giannis Antetokounmpo trade would be, unfortunately, it’s not a legal trade (If you’re ever wondering about that, here’s Larry Coon’s FAQs that is basically a genius breaking down all things NBA cap/collective bargaining agreement). If you wanted a way to test trades and see team rosters, who is tradeable, and so on, here’s ESPN’s trade machine and RealGM’s trade checker.

To put everything together, there’s Sham Sports’s Capulator. Similar to simulating seasons on NBA 2K20 in the MyGM mode, the Capulator lets you do hypothetical trades, signings, and draft pick spots through the 2022-23 season. It also tells you where your teams end up in relation to the salary cap and luxury tax for each year.