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On Friday, the NBA and the Board of Governors — the league's assembled team owners — ratified stronger enforcement mechanisms to limit tampering.
According to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, the league office and owners have been concerned for some time about the extent of which players, agents and teams have been colluding prior to the legal boundaries of negotiating contracts.
With new rules in place, not everybody is happy. Per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, various executives and agents have expressed apprehension about it, emphasizing that other teams could find a way around the new rule.
Wojnarowski gives insight into the minds of the affected parties, with one anonymous GM pointing out what could happen with the rule in place:
GM's and agents do believe free agency will be impacted. How much? We'll see. But both sides more apprehensive on negotiating/agreeing to deals ahead of June 30 start. One GM said, “I'll follow the rules — until I find out others aren't and I'm at a competitive disadvantage.”
NBA's been wild, wild west in recent years. Few feared repercussions in chasing free agents, or chasing deals for clients. Some abide by rules more closely than others; most live in grey. Something had to change. Small markets still most bothered by player-to-player tampering.
For quite some time, players have spoken with one another about possible landing spots. This offseason alone, Kawhi Leonard encouraged Paul George to request for a trade so they could play together with the Los Angeles Clippers, while Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan communicated with each other and planned to join the Brooklyn Nets.
Although the NBA sets a date for the beginning of its yearly moratorium and start of free agency — this summer it was June 30th at 6:00 p.m. EST — teams have expressed doubt into the legality of players almost immediately signing with teams at the official start of free agency.
This issue will likely continue for some time as the NBA attempts to wrangle control and actually begin enforcing barriers by way of draft compensation, fines and so on.
