Thats probably true, but I also think it would depend on the merits of the trade. For instance if we were to trade Tyreke, Salmons and T. Robb for Rudy Gay, that might look like a reasonable trade by the league. Maybe not by us, and I'm certainly not advocating such a trade, but using it as an example. I don't think making a trade is impossible, but any reasonable person would assume that if you actually had a committed buyer, you'd have to run any such trade past that buyer and get his or her approval.
In Tyreke's case, the leverage is with the team right now and will be up to the trade deadline. By that I mean, no dollar value has been set on Tyreke yet other than his current salary, which makes him very tradable. If you wait till freeagency, then you have to make a qualifying offer of around 6.9 mil if my memory serves, and it usually doesn't, after which you become a victim to what the market will bear. Which means, that if another team offers a max salary to Tyreke, we have to match or lose him. If you've already deemed that you don't think he's worth a max salary, which frankly, at the moment, I don't, then what do you do? You either sign him to a salary you don't want to pay, or he walks and you get nothing for him. The other option of course is a sign and trade, which is very possible, but with the max salary, you've now limited your trading partners.
So its kind of a sticky situation depending on how the orginization looks at Tyreke. My point is, that if they don't feel he's worth a max salary, and they fear another team might offer that, then I could see them trying to avoid that situation by making a trade before the deadline. Personally, I hope that doesn't happen, but with the Maloofs, who the hell knows.