NBA Trade Deadline 2026: time, rules, and why players dealt after 3 p.m. ET won’t be eligible until season’s end

The NBA trade window shuts today, Feb. 5, at 3 p.m. ET, and that one timestamp drives a lot of confusion: trades can be announced after the buzzer, but they must be agreed to by 3 p.m. ET. Anything truly agreed after that isn’t a legal in-season trade—and the players involved generally won’t move until the offseason, meaning they effectively stay put through the season’s end.

What time is the trade deadline, exactly?

The deadline is 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. Teams can keep talking right up to the minute, but the league requires a deal to be reached by that time.

What viewers often see:

• A deal “breaks” at 3:07 p.m. ET.

• It still counts if the teams reached agreement before 3:00 p.m. ET and the reporting/announcement came later.

What rules actually stop trades after 3 p.m. ET?

After 3 p.m. ET, teams can’t submit new in-season trades for approval. If two teams try to agree at 3:05 p.m. ET, the league treats it as too late for the current season.

That doesn’t mean the clubs can’t keep discussing framework for later—it just means:

• The trade can’t be executed during the regular season.

• The earliest practical time to complete it is typically the offseason (after the season ends and the league calendar allows trades again).

Why you still see “post-deadline” trade announcements

The deadline is about agreement time, not when fans see the news. A trade can require:

• additional players/picks to balance salary rules,

• final roster-spot mechanics,

• formal submission and league review.

So a deal can be “done” before 3 p.m. ET, but not appear publicly until after. That’s why deadline day feels like it keeps going even when the clock has hit 3:00.

Why players “dealt after 3 p.m.” won’t be eligible until season’s end

Here’s the simplest way to think about it:

If an agreement is reached after 3 p.m. ET, it isn’t an in-season trade. The player doesn’t join the new team now because the league won’t process the transaction during the season. In practical terms, the player stays on his current roster, plays (or sits) the rest of the year under his current contract, and any move would have to wait for the offseason transaction window.

That’s why you’ll sometimes hear phrasing like “they’ll revisit it this summer”—because that’s when the rules allow the actual player movement.

A related rule: buyouts and playoff eligibility after March 1

After the trade deadline, teams can still add players through waivers or free agency, and veterans can agree to buyouts. But there’s a separate postseason eligibility restriction that matters for contenders:

If a player is waived after March 1, he generally can’t play in that season’s playoffs for a new team. (There are narrow exceptions, such as extreme roster shortages tied to injuries/illness.)

That’s why contenders often prefer to trade for help by the deadline rather than wait: trades lock in a player’s rights immediately, while late buyout adds can come with postseason limitations.

Key takeaways

• 3 p.m. ET is the hard cutoff for in-season trade agreements.

• Deals announced after 3 p.m. can still be valid if they were agreed to before the buzzer.

• A trade truly agreed after 3 p.m. generally can’t happen until the offseason, so the player won’t switch teams during this season.

• Buyout additions have their own clock: players waived after March 1 typically aren’t playoff-eligible with a new team.

Sources consulted: NBA; NBA Constitution and By-Laws; CBA Guide; Sports Illustrated