Anthony Carter

Two of those players were traded - Anthony Carter as a part of the Melo drama, and Marquis Daniels was salary dumped onto Sacramento (due in no small part to the fact that Daniels is possibly out for the rest of the season with a spine injury). Neither played utilised their right to veto - obviously - but perhaps there was a case for Daniels to use his. Daniels stood to gain nothing from the trade - he's probably not going to play this season, and with their depth of younger and/or better wing players (combined with a predetermined need to do it all as cheaply as possible), there is little chance of Sacramento re-signing him this offseason. Given the choice between an expensive seat on the bench of a title contender, with the vague security blanket of Early Bird rights at the end of the season, or a seat on the bench of one of the league's worst teams with an uncertain future, and non-Bird rights in a summer of anticipated league-wide turmoil, Daniels accepted the latter. I'm not sure I understand why.

In Carter's case, even if he had chosen to pull a Devean, it was no great obstacle to the trade. Fellow minimum salaried expendable veteran Melvin Ely has no such Bird rights, and thus had no such veto power; substituting him into the deal in Carter's place made absolutely no difference to the salary implications, which is all that Carter was included for in the first place. In that respect, this wasn't news.

But it would have been an amusing way for the immortal Melo deal to die.

The other type of no-trade clause - the one made famous by Devean George - involves players on one year contracts who will have early or full Bird rights at the season's end are given the right to veto any trades that they may be in, so that they aren't powerless to prevent having their Bird rights taken away from them (which is what happens when such players are traded, for reasons I am not aware of.) The players who qualify for that criteria and thus yield that power are as follows;

1) Jason Collins (Atlanta)
2) Marquis Daniels (Boston)
3) Anthony Carter (Denver)
4) Rasual Butler and Craig Smith (L.A. Clippers)
5) Shannon Brown (L.A. Lakers; this can be avoided if he invokes his player option for next season concurrent to the trade.)
6) Jamaal Magloire and Carlos Arroyo (Miami)
7) Aaron Gray (New Orleans; same as Brown.)
8) Josh Howard (Washington)

Just because they have this power, it doesn't mean they will use it. Devean George did, but that was the exception; players last year who could have done but didn't include Nate Robinson and Royal Ivey. Nor did Aaron Gray, who has achieved the unusual feat of having the right to veto a trade in back to back seasons. It is, however, something to note.