Important new rule regarding free agency that could have immediate impact

NBA fans have been glued to the playoffs and the Finals and beyond that they are likely looking forward to the draft, the start of free agency, and the impending transaction cycle as a whole. But one interesting new wrinkle in the CBA may allow us to see some deals going down much sooner than in previous years.

Thanks to a rule change, teams are now allowed to start negotiating with their own free agents as soon as the NBA Finals end - which could be as early as Monday night. That means that if the Celtics are able to close things out in game 5 at home, fans will likely be waking up to reported new deals on Tuesday morning.

Marquee free agents may not even hit the open market

This should be advantageous for teams looking to keep their own players in-house and prevent them from truly hitting the open market. In years past, teams had to wait for the start of free agency to engage, even with players from their own roster, but not anymore. 

Now teams get a head start and deals can be done almost immediately, which could drastically alter the landscape of the free agent market in a few weeks. Some of the marquee names that would be sought after this offseason may never even hit the market, as guys like Paul George, Pascal Siakam, Tyrese Maxey, Klay Thompson, OG Anunoby, and others could be signed to deals with their current teams in the next few hours.

How does this impact the Nuggets?

This won’t be massively impactful for the Nuggets, but it will give them an idea of how their offseason may play out. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is the big domino, but if the team knows he will opt out of his player-option, maybe they can get the ball rolling on a new deal before another team with cap space makes him a Godfather offer.

The team will also be able to discuss the next moves with veterans like Justin Holiday, Reggie Jackson (player-option), and DeAndre Jordan. The team would likely take Holiday back on a minimum, as he was a productive playoff contributor. Jackson will likely opt-in and could become trade bait or a backup point guard. Jordan is likely gone.

It’s an interesting new dynamic and one that could shift things in favor of teams trying to retain their own free agents. On the other hand, this could backfire for the Nuggets. If some of the marquee names listed above re-sign and don’t hit free agency, that will limit the field and make it even more likely that a team will offer KCP a massive deal. Either way, things will get very interesting very soon.