Several general managers and owners across the association are pushing to change the process of a midseason contract buyout, a process that’s starting to become increasingly prevalent in today’s league, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports.
Among executives and owners, there’s concern that the buyout process, which allows players to negotiate releases from contracts and often sign with playoff contenders, has become unfair to many smaller and mid-size market teams.
A majority of the league’s executives and several owners attached support to a letter sent to the NBA’s New York offices recently that requests an agenda item on the buyout process be included as part of the general managers’ meetings in May with the NBA, league sources said.
The NBA has a rule that dictates a player must be bought out or released and have his waiver process started prior to March 1 to become eligible to be added onto playoff rosters. That buyout deadline is one week past the NBA’s late February trade deadline, which league executives increasingly believe has played a part in stifling trade activity.
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Among the issues that general managers believe are negative byproducts of the buyout process system now, league sources told The Vertical: the suppression of trade activity, creating an environment of tampering, lessening the purpose of cap room and exceptions, possible salary-cap circumvention and poor optics for fans and sponsors.
General managers want to find a way to stop pre-arranged deals post-buyout with teams, which might give more clubs the chance to sign a buyout player who has cleared waivers.
Various executives across the NBA have taken advantage of the buyout system in recent years. In some cases, they’ve come to understand that there is hardly a need to trade assets for a player who is expected to be bought out soon, when they could just claim the player after they’ve waived without losing such assets.
This same scenario occurred last month with Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Deron Williams. Cavaliers general manager David Griffin held high interest in Williams, but was unwilling to part with highly valuable assets to obtain him largely because he understood Williams would become available on the open market following the trade deadline. Sure enough, Williams joined the Cavs after leaving Dallas. David Griffin winded up parting with nothing.
Joe Johnson, Andrew Bogut, David Lee and Brandon Jennings are among the players who have signed on with contenders in recent years after reaching a buyout agreement with their club, as Wojnarowski noted.
