Free Agency, THEN Draft?

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Bill SimmonsVerified account
‏@BillSimmons Bill Simmons Retweeted The Ringer
From @Ringer NBA Show - brought up Mike Zarren's smart idea of flipping the dates for NBA Draft + free agency.Bill Simmons added,
The Ringer @ringer
.@billsimmons and @chrisryan77 have some notes on how to achieve the ultimate dream: year-round basketball

I've always thought that would make more sense.

in fact the NBA could push the draft back one month ( til 7/23 this year) and since it would be AFTER the start of the new Cap year, trades would be easier to make official on draft day as well.

Summer league could easily be pushed back until August 1.

having the draft BEFORE the new NBA season starts makes no sense.

teams can make their FA moves as wanted BEFORE the draft , as it should be.

I have no idea why the draft is so early.

The draft keeps getting pushed back. It used to be the college season ended, the NBA season ended, the playoffs ended late April, then the draft, reasonably close to the end of the college season. Now the playoffs have been moved into May, and now the finals in June. Hardly basketball season from how things used to be. This came about because greedy owners wanted more revenue and expanded the playoff format. Star players used to have to have a summer job to get them through the year. Now they make so much money, 50% of revenues, they don't have to. Now they work out all year long so they can survive the longer season. So while these changes might make sense given the state of roundball in the 21st Century, there is a reason why things are the way they are. This whole summer league thing is still brand new. Well worth some discussion though.

Free agency is an ongoing process, taking up all summer.  The draft is a one day affair.  At what point during the ongoing process do they slip in the one day (actually one hour) affair?

I do think that the draft should take place after the moratorium is over.  I also think that free agents should not be able to meet with teams until after the moratorium is over.  The player meets with a team, agrees to a contract, signs said contract and then they make an announcement.  No conflicts with the NBA CBA.

Therefore, the order of things would be:

Season ends
Moratorium
Draft (possibly on the last evening of the moratorium)
Free agency

One last thing.  There are three summer leagues.  They should spread them out a bit.  Then there would truly be NBA basketball all year long.

gyso