The NBA Moratorium ended at Noon Eastern today; all those agreed-upon deals can now be signed with ink.
It’s over. No more hovering around your phone/laptop, waiting for news that Victor Oladipo didn’t pass his physical or the Pacers realized they were getting absolutely fleeced in the Paul George deal. They can’t go back now. PG-13 is ours – the Moratorium is over.
So maybe I’m overreacting a tad. Just because agreements were reached July 1st-July 5th doesn’t mean they all go through right at 12 eastern. But we are one step closer.
UPDATE: IT’S OFFICIAL
What is the Moratorium?
This respite seems pointless, right? It used to be much worse. The infamous Deandre Jordan fiasco two summers ago was a direct result of the Moratorium; Jordan verbally agreed to a deal with Dallas, but was coerced out of officially signing it while the Moratorium was still in affect. Because of that scenario, the NBA cut the span of the period from nine days to six days the next season.
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- Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
- Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder
It does serve a real purpose though.
These six days provide every team an equal chance to contact free agents and schedule meetings. It’s an opportunity for players to get a better understanding of the financials behind the contracts they are signing, as well as stop them from making rash decisions.
The period is beneficial to the League too. The NBA puts out projections for next season’s salary cap throughout the year, but the Moratorium provides them with time to set everything in stone so that nothing illegal happens when people start signing multi-million dollar contracts.
The best part about the moratorium being over though? 2K’s rosters will get updated soon with all the changes.