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The NBA offseason is already off to a hot start and free agency has not even begun. There have been multiple blockbuster trades and the draft brought a few surprises.
Free agency and the offseason transactions will soon dominate the basketball timeline. This year’s class is not the most exciting in recent years. However, the NBA constantly offers plenty of surprises and shocking trades as rosters are continuously shaken up.
The free agency period begins at 6pm ET (Eastern Time) on June 30. That is 5pm Central, 4pm Mountain and 3pm Pacific. For international audiences that is 3:30am India time and 12am Central European summer time.
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Teams can legally negotiate with players at 6pm ET. Players must wait until July 6 at 12:01am ET to officially sign the agreed upon deals. This gives players and teams the option to back out of the contract before the officially signing period.
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What happens if teams talk to players early?
If teams talk to players too early, they are in violation of tampering rules. If a team is found in violation of tampering, they are fined and may lose draft picks. The Philadelphia 76ers and Chicago Bulls lost second round picks in this year’s draft due to tampering violations.
Twitter will be lit aflame once the period begins. NBA insiders will be fast reporting the details of the agreed upon contracts and which players are moving teams.
Another element of free agency are sign and trades. This is when a free agent (unrestricted or restricted) signs a contract with their current team in agreement to be traded to their preferred destination. This allows the current team to gain some compensation instead of losing the player for free. The receiving team then agrees to pick up the newly signed contract.
Some big name free agents to watch are James Harden and Kyrie Irving. The newest reports say both players will return to their previous teams but you never know with those two mercurial All Stars.
Khris Middleton and Draymond Green opted out of their contracts and will be free agents to watch. It will also be interesting to see what kind of offers the restricted free agents from the LA Lakers receive. Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura might be looking for big new deals after their playoff run.
