The draft is coming up in less than two weeks but there are factions within the league that would like to see the June date changed in the future.
Last year, the Rockets made a proposal to move free agency ahead of the draft and some teams, including the Celtics, endorsed it.
Whether the proposal will ever gather enough steam to be enacted is uncertain. But Celtics director of player personnel Austin Ainge recently spelled out the benefits of making the switch.
“I think that most teams build from veteran players first,” Ainge said. “If you have a Top 5 pick, you’re most likely a rebuilding team, so free agency isn’t affecting that. … And then, all of the other teams, you more likely are fitting in draft picks in and around a veteran core group. So I think the calendar should follow our decision-making tree. So I think it should be switched.”
Draft-day decisions would become clearer if most of the free agents had already signed. It would certainly help teams this summer like the Raptors (Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green), Celtics (Kyrie Irving) and Bucks (Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez) if they already knew which key free in-house agents they re-signed or lost. It would also help a rebuilding team with cap space like the Knicks, who could base their draft-day options on how successful they were in free agency.
Salary-cap situations would also be clearer if it were already known whether players with contract options decided to stay or chose free agency.
It could also facilitate trades before and during the draft.
However, there are drawbacks. If the draft were pushed back for a month or so, it would greatly affect the summer leagues and force the acclimation process for rookies to be accelerated.
Would underclassmen get a few extra weeks to decide whether to stay in the draft? If so, it would create even more headaches for college coaches, who are already struggling with the uncertainty regarding the status of key players.
That leads us to our question of the day: Should the NBA swap the dates for free agency and the draft?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.
Ainge junior works for the Celtics? Wonder what those yearly performance reviews are like? Can you spell nepotism?
What do you care? And if you don’t think this is done everywhere then you aren’t paying attention.
Lol he’s worked for the Celtics for years now
I think it would be a great move. Just switch the start of free agency and the draft which are now only a week apart. I think teams would be more successful having their free agent additions before draft picks
I say keep it as is. I don’t care about how it affects team building or decision making or anything like that. I simply don’t want to wait longer for the draft. That is the biggest NBA offseason event to me. Yes, FA signings and trades are fun too, but the draft is king.
Sure it is a selfish way of looking at things, but it’s not like my opinion really means anything to anyone other than myself anyway.
Sounds fair. Of course I agree, so that may be why.
If it’s hard, then it’s hard for everyone. That’s why they get paid the big bucks. No reason to make it simple, or even a possibility. But for us fans, whose teams had a 97% chance of NOT being champs, give us the draft!
@hiflew I just want to say I respect for realizing that your opinion really only means anything to you. Too many people these days don’t realise that
Here’s why the draft goes first: Because it’s over with quickly, under the idea of one thing done then on to the next. Free agency drags out a while… a month was mentioned, but the deadline of draft day would feel arbitrary & imposing.
Also the draft informs free agency as much as free agency would inform the draft. No net gain by full switching.
Now there could be maybe a week of free agency for the big fish to shift, then the draft, then more free agency… that would put the draft after the fiscal year changeover, into the forward year instead of the past year. IDK all that would impact. It does seem more appropriate, that a draft be associated with the draftees’ rookie years, and that the yearly transaction page has the draft before the season rather than after.
Switch the dates. When the upside is greater than the down side….time to move.
This guy better hope his Dad stays healthy so he can keep him employed. FA isn’t important to rebuilding teams-? It’s often more important since they usually have more cap space, and they’re pursuing a wider range of players at different price points. They prefer to work from the draft to FA, so, yeah Austin, they would be affected.
They can’t just “flip” them, because FA never ends. Major FAs usually commit in early July, but that isn’t necessarily going to be the case if the draft still looms. So if FA starts before the draft, then teams (and fan bases) will have a dual focus leading up to the draft and that might diminish the draft as an event. Plus, FA can’t start until the league year ends. Can that practically be moved up from June 30th-? The system really isn’t broke because some contenders who are down to using the draft to fill in pieces would prefer to do FA first.
Should absolutely be switched. With opt in/out 2 days before. Summer League can start on the 15th of July.
Almost all the big dogs will have contracts in the first 10 days no matter what. Everyone else will follow over a 10-30 day period anyway.
No downsides to the switch. Upside is teams will know what thier extra needs may be.
A real interesting bonus is if the NBA allows new signings a 15 day trade window to be available for the draft. Followed by 60 day hold period before being traded.