The NBA and NBPA reached an agreement late Monday night to overhaul the current CBA, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Adrian Wojnarowski, reported. With the new CBA, NBA Free Agency will begin on Friday, November 20 with contracts allowed at 12:01 p.m. on November 22, according to the report. The salary cap and the luxury tax numbers will remain the same as last season. Here’s a press release from the NBA that will have all the details:
The NBA and NBPA announced an agreement to start the season, free agency and release financial statements. The Bulls Project to be a team is too much with the exceptions to work for a freelance agency if they choose to. pic.twitter.com/LUOXcVULPh
– KC Johnson (@KCJHoop) 10 November 2020
So with the start of free agency on November 20, this means that unrestricted free agents and registered free agents will be allowed to meet with teams and discuss contracts. They will be given the window from 6 PM ET on the 20th until the afternoon of the 22nd before contracts are allowed to be signed. Since there isn’t much time before boot camp starts, we can see a different kind of free agency period with fast hires, similar to the way the NHL runs every summer.
Woj also has details on when the Transactions window will open again. He says there will likely be two to three days before the NBA 2020 draft, which will take place on Wednesday, November 18 at ESPN headquarters.
Conversations about opening the NBA transaction window – trades, contract entry and exit, etc. – are progressing toward confirming a date two or three days before the November 18 draft, sources reported ESPN.
– Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) 10 November 2020
Now that we know free agency dates, recruiting, training camp, and the potential start of the season, the NBA is way too good to go for the 2020-21 season. It’s a quick turnaround from last season’s ending date, which was the second week of October. There has been talk from some players about the possibility of seeing veteran players sitting outside matches early in the season to get extra comfort. One of those players could be LeBron James, per teammate Danny Green, who spoke about the start date of the season on the Ringer podcast last month.
