The NBA’s 2021 free agency moratorium has officially ended, as of 11:00am central time, meaning teams are now allowed to conduct official business. The moratorium is the period at the start of the NBA league year when teams are permitted to agree to trades and free agent contracts, but can’t yet formally finalize them.
[RELATED: 2021 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. Still, most of the deals agreed upon since August 2 are not yet official.
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. Salary-cap machinations and intertwined trades mean that patience will be required on certain moves.
The Jazz, for instance, agreed to trade for the rights to No. 40 pick Jared Butler in a draft-night deal with the Grizzlies. However, before Utah can acquire Butler from Memphis, the Grizzlies will have to acquire him from the Pelicans, who were technically the team that selected Butler on draft night. Those trades are two of at least a dozen from July or early August that still need to be finalized.
[RELATED: 2021 NBA Offseason Trades]
Now that the moratorium has lifted, 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 the deals involving John Collins, Chris Paul, Kyle Lowry, and other big-name free agents, we’ll bump those stories to the top of the site or publish new stories 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.