The Chicago Bulls have already pulled off their major offseason moves.
They signed both Norman Powell and Zach Collins to contracts that, ideally, can become trade chips as soon as this year's deadline, allowing them to net future draft capital while carefully managing opportunities for their young core. They also, more notably, added Nic Claxton in a steal of a deal for lead executive Bryson Graham, jumping in as a third party on the Minnesota Timberwolves' and Brooklyn Nets' Julius Randle trade.
All they gave up in that deal was second-year guard Mouhamadou Gueye, who played two games for Chicago this past season after he was picked up on April 9. They'll absorb Claxton's deal into their remaining cap space.
Now, as the NBA world awaits the completion of numerous trades after the league moratorium ended on July 6, the Randle-Claxton-Gueye deal is still being held up as the teams likely attempt to wrap everything up in a series of major trades, including LaMelo Ball's move to Minnesota.
But per Marc Stein and Jake Fischer, Gueye is not eligible to be traded until July 9, and we won't know until then how exactly the trade will unfold.
Mouhamadou Gueye's contract is delaying the LaMelo Ball deal— as ironic as that sounds
As mentioned above, the true beauty of the Claxton trade is that the Bulls paid virtually nothing to acquire the veteran center. There was virtually no path for Gueye to earn playing time in Chicago this season, and he'll now go to a Timberwolves roster where that path is equally dubious.
The original trade involved a pick swap between the Nets and the Timberwolves, Randle's move to Brooklyn, and Gueye's move to Minnesota.
But there's been buzz around that trade being widened, as often happens for major deals, to include the Ball trade to the Timberwolves, Isaiah Stewart's trade to the Memphis Grizzlies, Santi Aldama's move to the Dallas Mavericks, and John Collins' sign-and-trade to the Detroit Pistons. When you include the movement of Naz Reid to the Charlotte Hornets, this is a monumental deal for the overall landscape of the NBA.
But, as Keith Smith explained on X, Gueye cannot be traded until July 9 because he signed his original contract on April 9. The NBA stipulates that players generally cannot be moved until three months after their signing date.
A handful of people asked why the big Nets-Hornets-Bulls-Wolves trade hasn't gone official yet...
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) July 7, 2026
That deal will have to wait until July 9. Mouhamadou Gueye, who the Bulls are trading as part of the deal, isn't eligible to be traded until July 9 because he was signed on April 9.
The deal will go through. It simply remains to be seen whether the teams will want to wrap all of this into a major trade, which naturally complicates things.
But it's ironic to think that a player like Gueye can hold up so much of the league's offseason business, isn't it?
Welcome to the quirks of the NBA trade market.
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