I think the Jordan situation makes it clear, that this nonsense needs to go away. Either let the negotiations start on the day when the moratorium ends or let teams sign players immidiately. What a horrible situation for the Mavs, commiting to Jordan and losing out on other guys...
Yeah, I've never really understood it other than to help prevent guys going against the rules and talking to players and agents in secret before they're supposed to. I would say it is maybe supposed to help other teams get a shot at these free agents besides the teams they're with, because can't their current teams talk contract with them all season and offseason long? Like Anthony Davis, he agreed to stay with NO minute one of free agency, which means they'd been talking, right? Still, I don't see the point of this period that's for players to verbally commit to teams, if that verbal commitment really means absolutely nothing in the end. I agree, if a guy commits, he should be able to sign then and there.
The problem is mostly that players can really screw a team. Dallas is now hot garbage. They had prepared everything for this one signing and now the franchise is pretty much done. They might have had signed other FAs if they knew this. People need certainty. I understand that you want players to give other teams a fair chance but honestly, if a player wants to stay with their respective team, they can do it anyway. As you said, Davis agreed to a contract the first minute. Of course GMs and players talk during the season and you know what....they should be allowed to. Its no crime to talk to YOUR players.
They should just let players sign to teams if they want to. If they KNOW where they want to go, let them sign. If players are still iffy/undecided, teams should use caution and if they want to get in a verbal agreement they can do that, but have the risk. The audit should be done before the moratorium period IMO. That messes with a lot of things, just look at our Hibbert trade. No trade kicker now, that would have been nice to now a couple days ago, now both teams are back at the table going over options again on a done deal. I don't think they should change the system for one player, but they should let teams lock in players immediately. 99% of deals would be sealed.
Doc its not just one player... Jason Kidd had once agreed to sign with Dallas...then agreed to sign with NY a few hours later... Remember when Cleveland got boozered? He promised to resign with them. They used the team option to release him. He signed with the Jazz. We have seen a few occasions of this happening. Nontheless this period feels stupid to me.
So we have 3 players in how many years this has been going on? I don't see that as a call to change this period, I see it as there are outliers in a system that has otherwise run smoothly. The Boozer situation violates the CBA. If they had a deal for him to comeback before the FA period started, that's not legal. Reports on that is a deal was agreed to before they declined his team option and he would ink when FA started. Kidd and Turkeyglue are two situations where players just changed their mind. That is legal, is it right? No. But, that's where my idea of letting players sign in this period instead of verbals would force players to make concrete 100% committed decisions that they can't back out of. If they don't want to do that, teams have to look at it as still in the recruiting phase and it's their decision if they want to move on or not.
They need to push it off at least a week until the salary cap is finalized. I think this period can be used well, but if you are doing multiple deals to build a team, and the players are under pressure to make poor decisions quickly. They need to tweek it for sure.
yeah it needs to be done with there's absolutely no good reason to keep it the way it is. DJ and the clippers pulling this shady crap could only lead to more players having "second thoughts" and the next thing you know, their teammates have locked themselves in a house not letting you leave until you sign a contract
Stu Jackson did tweet that change is imminent. Because of DeAndre Jordan, we may potentially have two changes to the NBA.
1)There's a moratorium that prevents you from making deals official. If the deals are not official, Front Offices and agents need to STOP making damn information public. Making it public makes it seem official. Teams and players operate with the idea that these agreements are official. So it's a formality that the league doesn't allow you to ink the deal until a certain date but we are seeing real problems with teams planning their FA strategy because of the way this moratorium allows you to agree and then "un-agree". 2) Sure it's just a few players that have flip flopped - that the public is aware of. I bet there's times where a player agrees to terms privately and then have reneged on their words then too. Bottom line is you should only be discussing contracts when a player can sign. Offer the contract, tell the player he has 48 hours to sign and the FO should simultaneously be talking to their Plan B. You don't just talk to one FA and base your whole strategy around that guy. So it's a problem on both ends. Teams (like DAL) should have more than one egg in a basket, and if the moratorium didn't exist they could put the pressure on DJ to sign within 48 hours or move on to their Plan B.
There is another reason why this is stupid... Teams start doing business, not exactly knowing what the cap will be. For example we were operating under the impression that its 67 mio. and it turns out its 70...or teams might get rid of players to create cap space and it turns out, it wasn't necessary etc. I just think its not easy to operate under the assumption without certainty. You end up agreeing to deals and once one of those things don't come to fruition, your plan flushes down the toilet.
