Every year at midnight on July 1st, the NBA Free Agent period opens which comes with a flurry of speculation and some of the biggest signings of the year. Last season, LeBron James was the biggest free agent signing of the entire summer and was made official when the Free Agent session finally opened up. One of the problems with free agency starting at midnight is that teams and their executives have to stay up late to get deals done. The same thing applies to many of the reporters who are up late hours just to report signings and trades as quickly as possible.
To combat many of the issues that have arisen from the late start time, the NBA announced today that it has moved the start time of free agency up by 6 hours. Now, teams will be able to sign players as of June 30th at 6 P.M. EST and can start scheduling meetings with players on June 29th at 6 P.M. EST.
There are a plethora of big-time players that are free agents this Summer, including Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, Kyrie Irving, and Kemba Walker, just to name a few.
So far, this offseason is gearing up to be one of the best in years.
[Via]