The NBA’s July moratorium will end on Friday at 11:00 am central time, allowing teams to conduct official business beginning today. The July moratorium is the period from July 1 to July 6 when teams are permitted to agree to trades and free agent contracts, but can’t yet formally finalize them.
[RELATED: 2018 NBA Free Agent Tracker]
There are a number of types of deals that can be finalized during the moratorium, as we’ve seen this week. Teams can sign first-round picks to their rookie contracts, two-way contracts can be made official, and players signing minimum salary contracts can also finalize those deals. Restricted free agents are also permitted to sign offer sheets during the moratorium, though no players have done so this year.
Although the end of the moratorium signals the beginning of official business for many teams, those teams aren’t obligated to immediately finalize deals reached during the moratorium. In some cases, salary-cap machinations will require patience on some certain moves. The Wizards, for example, will have to wait until Dwight Howard is formally traded from Charlotte to Brooklyn, finalizes his buyout with the Nets, and officially clears waivers before they can actually sign him.
The Howard deal between the Hornets and Nets is just one of a handful of trades completed in June or early July that still need to be finalized. Swaps between the Hornets and Thunder, Lakers and Sixers, and Nuggets and Sixers all remain unofficial too.
[RELATED: 2018 NBA Offseason Trades]
Once the moratorium lifts, we’ll be updating our stories of contract and trade agreements to reflect when they become official.
For top headlines from the last week, like contract agreements for LeBron James, DeMarcus Cousins, Paul George, and other big-name free agents, we’ll bump those stories to the top of the site so you don’t miss news of them becoming official. However, since we don’t want to bury new news amidst confirmation of old signings, our stories on smaller deals won’t be moved to the top of our feed unless there are new developments or details.