With the NBA Finals potentially ending as soon as Friday night, it’s time to officially start thinking about the offseason. The next major event will be the draft, which will take place on June 26th and 27th. But right after that, it’s time for teams to really start to hone in on free agency and the next transaction cycle.
As soon as the Finals are over teams can begin negotiating with their own free agents. So it’s possible that on Saturday morning, the Nuggets can begin reaching out to anyone who isn’t under contract for next year.
The big potential free agents for Denver are Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Jackson, who have player-options for next year, and DeAndre Jordan and Justin Holiday. The Nuggets would like to keep KCP and would likely welcome Holiday and Jackson back for cheap deals. Jordan has been a great veteran presence, but his utility on the court is mostly gone.
Teams can officially start reaching out to free agents from other teams on June 30th at 6 PM EST. This is what has become known as the legal tampering period. Nothing can be signed, but news will surely start breaking right around this time. At this point, there have almost definitely been some back-channel conversations and as soon as the clock strikes 6, some deals are likely to go down. Any free agent meetings in person can start happening at this time.
On July 6th at 12:01 EST, teams and players can officially put pen to paper and sign new contracts. At this point, most of the signings will be formalities as the deals will have already been leaked to the media. But there are always a few curveballs as nothing is done completely by this point.
There will also be some players still standing without a team and the few teams left with cap space will be desperately bidding to fill their rosters while veterans start taking minimums as they assess the landscape of the league.