Report: Some NBA GMs hoping to change free-agent moratorium process

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While it may have been entertaining to outsiders and anyone who isn't a fan of the Dallas Mavericks, Wednesday's DeAndre Jordan saga highlighted an issue with the way the NBA handles free agency.

As a necessity in the salary cap era, the league takes more than a week each year, beginning July 1, to audit its books and make necessary adjustments to things like escrow holdings, the salary cap, and the luxury tax. It's an important period and there's little way around it - the league needs this time, and the product of the moratorium period is crucial to the free-agent period.

But the process has quite a hitch. Teams and players can verbally agree to deals beginning July 1, but can't sign them until the period ends (the date changes each year and was July 9 this season). That creates an opportunity for a player like Jordan, or Hedo Turkoglu before him, to change their mind and back out of a verbal agreement, altering the fate of multiple franchises and, potentially, other players.

It also sees teams operate in an uncertain cap environment, unsure of exactly how much cap space they'll ultimately have.

It's an entirely avoidable problem, as the league could opt to hold off the official start of free agency until the league audits have been completed. That's a solution that several general managers have floated, according to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.

Even shrinking the moratorium period seems a reasonable response, though it may risk rushing a difficult and contentious accounting period for the league and union. The league could also change the date that ends the fiscal year, if it's intent on a July 1 opening for free agency, as revenue generation largely ends following the NBA Finals.

Whatever the change, there are ways of mitigating a very clear and potentially damaging issue with the free-agent process.