Last summer featured one of the strangest free agency debacles ever when DeAndre Jordan verbally agreed to sign with the Dallas Mavericks before changing his mind and staying with the Los Angeles Clippers. That situation led to much controversy with parties involved with each team feuding and publicly supporting or denouncing Jordan.
One of the main causes of the incident was the long moratorium period in the NBA, allowing teams and players to negotiate deals before putting pen to paper. According to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, there will be changes made to that controversial period:
The NBA and NBPA have agreed to shorten July free agent moratorium to five days — July 1 to July 6, league sources tell The Vertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) March 17, 2016
Free agent deals can now be signed much sooner after becoming agreed upon — something that became a bigger issue after DeAndre Jordan saga.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) March 17, 2016
Clearly, the DeAndre saga was a strange situation for the league and together with the NBPA, they have been able to find a solution to try and ensure it does not happen again. Five days is probably not enough time for such an issue to occur again. Additionally, it may increase the pace of signings making for a more interesting free agency period.
