Rockets proposed at a league meeting that NBA should start free agency at least a week before draft
The Free agency to start before the NBA draft?
The Free agency to start before the NBA draft? This is the proposal the Rockets made to the NBA last April.
Per ESPN, This is one kind of scenario the Houston Rockets envisioned in April, when they proposed at a league meeting that the NBA should start free agency at least a week -- and likely more -- before the draft. The Rockets are not the first team to contemplate that notion.
In general, supporters of the flip-flop argue that conducting free agency first would allow teams to use cap space more efficiently -- and increase trade activity at the draft. This year's draft featured only a handful of trades, and for the first time since 2003, none involving current NBA players.
Right now, the draft happens at the end of the NBA's fiscal year, before expiring contracts actually expire. Cap space that will open up two weeks later remains occupied. On the biggest or second-biggest trading day of the year, there is very little cap space available to facilitate trades -- no place for taxed-out teams to dump players. Players on expiring contracts cannot be legally traded, removing a huge pool of targets. Teams who would love to rent out their space and extract draft picks as the price often can't do so until July -- well after the draft.
It is unclear exactly how Houston's proposal would unfold. Rosas hopes to build a calendar not so different from today's version: free agency commencing in late June, the draft around July 10, and the start of summer league perhaps a week after that. But that would push the NBA's calendar back by at least a week to 10 days, and some opponents of Houston's proposal fear an NBA in which urgent business persists well into August, sources say. Everyone needs vacation.
The Rockets have addressed that by building in a two-week window stretching from August into September in which all transactions would be banned -- a new moratorium.
The Free agency to start before the NBA draft?
The Free agency to start before the NBA draft? This is the proposal the Rockets made to the NBA last April.
Per ESPN, This is one kind of scenario the Houston Rockets envisioned in April, when they proposed at a league meeting that the NBA should start free agency at least a week -- and likely more -- before the draft. The Rockets are not the first team to contemplate that notion.
In general, supporters of the flip-flop argue that conducting free agency first would allow teams to use cap space more efficiently -- and increase trade activity at the draft. This year's draft featured only a handful of trades, and for the first time since 2003, none involving current NBA players.
Right now, the draft happens at the end of the NBA's fiscal year, before expiring contracts actually expire. Cap space that will open up two weeks later remains occupied. On the biggest or second-biggest trading day of the year, there is very little cap space available to facilitate trades -- no place for taxed-out teams to dump players. Players on expiring contracts cannot be legally traded, removing a huge pool of targets. Teams who would love to rent out their space and extract draft picks as the price often can't do so until July -- well after the draft.
It is unclear exactly how Houston's proposal would unfold. Rosas hopes to build a calendar not so different from today's version: free agency commencing in late June, the draft around July 10, and the start of summer league perhaps a week after that. But that would push the NBA's calendar back by at least a week to 10 days, and some opponents of Houston's proposal fear an NBA in which urgent business persists well into August, sources say. Everyone needs vacation.
The Rockets have addressed that by building in a two-week window stretching from August into September in which all transactions would be banned -- a new moratorium.
