NBA, NBPA Held No Discussions On Reducing Supermax Contract If Player Requests Trade

The NBA and NBPA did not hold any serious discussions about creating a provision where players on a supermax contract who request a trade lose the extra five percent of the cap. Zach Lowe called the concept the Ben Simmons rule, referring to his trade request from the Philadelphia 76ers while on the Rose rule rookie max.

“I didn’t even really hear a peep about it,” said Lowe.

“No and I dug in on that,” said Bobby Marks. Because I had been asked by a couple teams about that. If there were 200 items talked about, that wasn’t [one of them].”

Players who sign a supermax contract are already ineligible to be traded for the first year after signing it.

For a rule such as the one discussed by Lowe and Marks to be enforced, it would have to be proven that a player even requested a trade and that would likely mean these situations would go to arbitration.