Adam Silver: Changes To Rules on Draft Trades, Free Agency Possible
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says there could be changes in the way free agency is handled and is concerned also with how draft night trades are executed.
Currently, the start of free agency starts at on June 30 at 6 p.m., a change from previous years when the free agency period started at midnight on July 1.
As with most years, news broke of several free agents and where they were headed well before the official start of free agency.
Silver acknowledged that the league has "work to do" in order to enforce those rules and said "trade demands are disheartening" and is something that "needs to be addressed.”
"My sense in the room today was, especially when it comes to free agency and the rules around it, that we've got work to do," Silver said during the board of governors meetings. "And as I said, it's still the same principles of fair balance of power and a sense that it's a level playing field. I think that's what teams want to know."
My job is to enforce a fair set of rules for all our teams and a set of rules that are clear and make sense for everyone. I think right now we're not quite there," Silver added.
Silver is also concerned with players who are drafted and then traded later during the night. In some cases, those players can't officially join those new teams for more than weeks because of league rules.
"We've got to fix that," Silver said. "We talk about being fan-friendly, and that isn't fan-friendly."
Under consideration are changing the rules about how and when draft-night trades are announced.
