How to Trade Players in "NBA 2K21" (and Get Whoever You Want, Whenever You Want)

Turn off 'Trade Logic' and you’re basically like if Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet decided to be a GM instead.

Frustrated that the Portland Trail Blazers don’t have the suitable wings (or healthy players) to make a deep playoff run? Convinced the Bucks need more reinforcements to support Giannis? Want to liberate Trae Young from Atlanta?

Unfortunately, unless you are one of the NBA’s few team owners, you really can’t make these moves happen. So, they must reside solely in your dreams…

Or not. In NBA 2K21, you can actually trade for your faves in the MyLeague feature, which allows you to construct and play or simulate a fictional NBA season as one or several teams.

Find out how it works below, and bear witness to the chaos we set upon the league.

(This game was previewed on the PS4, as provided for free by 2K Games. All screenshots correspond to the PlayStation experience. Nonetheless, we'll outline the correct buttons for Xbox One as well.)

How to Trade Players in NBA 2K21

The important thing to note is you can really only do this properly in MyLeague mode, so select that from the home page first.

After setting up your league, you’ll see Calendar, Social Media, Trading Block and Team Status in the navigation. Calendar is where you can view the fixtures and start playing/simulating for your team. However, if you want to make a roster change from the start, slide on over to Trading Block, where you can establish a target list, put some players or picks up for offer, and set some untouchables. What are the odds that the Bucks, Clippers and Raptors will hand over these assets? Probably not great, right?

Well, yes, you are in fact right. After you’ve set up your trading block, you can return to the Calendar and play/simulate the season, waiting for the requests to roll in, but if you’re dreaming as wildly as I was above, they’re unlikely to ever come.

In that case, you may want to hit Circle on PS4 or B on Xbox One from Calendar to "View Nav", and then scroll to Front Office. Here, you can Propose Trade, which allows you to directly approach a rival GM with an offer.

But those GMs aren’t dumb. They’re not going to give up their prized possessions without a generous package. And you’ll also need to be mindful of your salary caps.

If you just want to get rid of a player, select Trade Finder from Front Office, pick the player you want to bounce, and see what each team will offer you in exchange.

If you’re unsatisfied with the options presented, there is another way.

How to Force a Trade in NBA 2K21 (by Turning Off Logic)

Scroll past Front Office in the navigation and head to Options. There, select MyLeague Settings.

You can then toggle to Trades and adjust a variety of rules that'll make GMs more flexible. Or, if you really want to watch the world burn, simply turn off Trade Logic, which allows you to "freely swap players between teams without any restrictions."

This will remove the Trading Block function, as well as Propose Trade and Trade Finder from Front Office.

Instead, you can just go to your Roster, select a player and hit Trade With Another Team.

And now, because the GMs are operating without logic, they will agree to anything you put on the table, which is how I convinced the Bucks to give Robin Lopez to the Blazers (admittedly not hard), who I then traded back for Giannis (insanity).

Don’t believe us? Take a look who’s inbounding to Dame Lillard below.

NBA 2K21 is now available. (Affiliate disclosure: Student Edge may earn a commission if you click that link and buy a product from our partner's page.)

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Header Image: 2K Games