Deal or no deal: Bogut calls for trade window

Australian Boomers champion Andrew Bogut has called for the NBL to introduce a trade window.

Bogut said a mid-season exchange period, where players could move clubs, would provide the league a huge point of difference from its competitors.

It comes off the back of huge interest and engagement around the signings of Bryce Cotton and Montrezl Harrell across the past week, putting the NBL back in the spotlight in a usually quieter period of the year.

“I'm all for a trade window in the NBL,” Bogut said in his regular feature on basketball.com.au.

“If it was to proceed, the best way would be with trade windows. Perhaps you cap each team a maximum of two players per season, or two trades per season. I think there's something there that you could do.

“No one in Australian sport is doing it ... the AFL trade period, it's not a trade period because players can say, I want to go here. That's not a trade period.

“A perfect second period I'd look to would be the FIBA Break where you have almost two weeks. It also works as it then gives players enough games to qualify for the Finals.”

While Bogut admits there would be challenges to work through with the Australian Basketball Players’ Association, as well as salary and cost-of-living considerations for players changing teams mid-season, he says there would be huge benefits for clubs, athletes and fans alike.

“The more the NBL is trying to grow, in my opinion, it needs to do things that other sports aren't doing. We can't just follow every other sport,” he added.

“I think if we do some things and grab attention like, ‘oh, this rogue league does trades mid-season, wow’.

“You're looking at what the NBA does, and you look at what was the most news-trending item from the last 12 months in the NBA? It was not a game, a playoff, a final. It was Luka Dončić getting traded.

“That was the number one spoken-about basketball (topic) the past few years. That happened naturally and it did not involve a thing that was on the court. It just naturally kept going.

“I'm not saying you get those levels in the NBL, but I imagine if there was a blockbuster trade between (two teams) last season. Perth figure out Bryce doesn't want to stay there, they make a play for KD. Insanity ensues.”

But he says there would need to be safeguards in order to make it work.

“You've got people that are out there saying, 'oh, what's to stop a Sydney or a Melbourne just stacking up before the Finals and making trades and topping up their roster?’” Bogut continued. 

“We can already do that without trades. If you do that and you acquire guys on a big salary, guess what? Your club has a massive salary cap implication.

“They have that go over, you're going to pay it back to the league. It's going to cost you double, triple of what that athlete's actually worth. There are rules in place for that already.”

Read the full story here >> Could a trade window completely transform the NBL?