New CBA Notes: Combine, Buyout Market, All-Defense, Tournament

Confirming and fleshing out reporting from Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report, Jonathan Givony of ESPN says that the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement will require every draft-eligible prospect who is invited to the combine to attend and participate. If they don’t, they’ll be ineligible to be drafted that year and would be required to attend and participate in the next year’s combine in order to make themselves draft-eligible.

Exceptions will be made in certain instances, Givony writes. For instance, a player whose FIBA season is ongoing, who is injured, or who is dealing with a family matter (such as a tragedy or the birth of a child) won’t be required to attend the combine. However, they would have to complete certain combine requirements at a later date.

As Givony explains, “participating” in the combine will mean undergoing medical examinations, sharing medical history, participating in strength, agility, and performance testing, taking part in shooting drills, receiving anthropometric measurements, and conducting interviews with teams and the media.

While those aspects of the combine will be mandatory, invitees won’t be forced to compete in 5-on-5 scrimmages at the event, Givony notes. Typically, the top prospects in the draft class forgo those scrimmages — players who are graded as potential second-round picks or undrafted free agents are more inclined to take part to try to improve their stocks.

Here’s more on the new CBA:

• According to Givony, the NBA and NBPA intend to agree on a methodology to rank the top 10 prospects in a draft class — the medical records for those prospects will be distributed to clubs on a more limited basis. Only teams drafting in the top 10 would get access to medical info for the projected No. 1 pick; teams in the top 15 would receive medical info for players in the 2-6 range, while teams in the top 25 would get access to info for the players in the 7-10 range.
• Prospects who forgo college in favor of signing professional contracts with programs like the G League Ignite, Overtime Elite, or the NBL Next Stars will no longer automatically become draft-eligible during the calendar year when they turn 19, Givony reports. Those players now won’t become draft-eligible until they enter of their own accord or until the calendar year when they turn 22.
• As part of the new CBA, teams that are above either tax apron won’t be permitted to sign “buyout” players during the season, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. According to Smith, a “buyout” player will be defined as anyone waived that season whose pre-waiver salary exceeded the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. If that rule had been in effect in 2022/23, the Clippers (Russell Westbrook), Suns (Terrence Ross), and Nuggets (Reggie Jackson) wouldn’t have been able to sign those players.
• Like the All-NBA teams, the All-Defensive teams will become positionless in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, reports Dan Feldman of the Dunc’d On podcast (Twitter link). As Feldman observes, that’s probably better news for forwards and centers than it is for guards.
• Commissioner Adam Silver spoke a little bit on Tuesday at Sports Business Journal’s World Congress of Sports conference about the NBA’s new in-season tournament, explaining the thinking behind it and providing some new minor details. “The players will be wearing different uniforms,” Silver said, according to Mike Vorkunov and Richard Deitsch of The Athletic. “Maybe the court will look different. You’ll know that it’s not just a regular-season game.”