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The NBA and NBPA reached an agreement late Monday night to amend the current CBA, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Adrian Wojnarowski reported. With the new CBA, NBA free agency will begin on Friday, November 20th with signings allowed at 12:01 p.m. on Nov. 22, per the report. The salary cap and luxury tax numbers will remain the same as last season. Here’s a press release from the NBA will all the details:
NBA and NBPA announce agreement for start to season, free agency and release financials. Bulls project to be an over-the-cap team with exceptions to work free agency should they choose. pic.twitter.com/LUOXcVULPh
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) November 10, 2020
So with free agency beginning on Nov. 20, that means that unrestricted free agents and restricted free agents will be allowed to meet with teams and discuss contracts. They’ll be given the window from 6 p.m. ET on the 20th until after noon on the 22nd before contracts are allowed to be signed. Because there won’t be much time before the start of training camp, we could see a different type of free agency period with rapid signings, similar to how the NHL operates each summer.
Woj also has details on when the window for transactions will be open again. He’s saying that it’ll likely be two to three days before the 2020 NBA Draft, which will take place virtually on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at ESPN headquarters.
Talks on opening the NBA’s transaction window — trades, contract opt-ins and outs, etc. — are progressing toward firming a date two or three days prior to the November 18 draft, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 10, 2020
So now that we know the dates for free agency, the draft, training camp and the likely start to the season, the NBA is pretty much good to go for the 2020-21 season. It’s a quick turnaround from the end date of last season, which was the second week of October. There has been chatter from some players that we could see veteran players sit out games early on in the season to get extra rest. One of those players could be LeBron James, per teammate Danny Green, who talked about the season start date on a Ringer podcast last month.