With the lockout at an end, here are the stories to watch during the frantic free-agency period
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The NBA lockout ended in glory and relief last week, and with that comes the end of a long period of no player movement or stories coming from the NBA. Owners and players are in the process of ratifying the new deal, and as long as it goes through (and it will, can you imagine the backlash if one of the parties decided the deal wasn't good enough for them and the league re-locked out?), training camps will open on Dec. 9, with the season starting 16 days later on Christmas Day.
That means there will be just over two weeks for teams to sign rookies, extend offers to restricted free agents, and sign other free agents, which will make for a wild two weeks. Teams will have to game plan on the fly, as they're just learning the new details of the CBA, which has a different mid-level exception for tax-paying teams and a small wrinkle that teams using the full MLE can't go more than $4 million over the tax threshold during the same season. This will cause teams to strategize who they sign, who they re-sign and who they use their amnesty clause on, perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of the new CBA.
So here's a quick guide of what to watch for.
This post also appears on Bleacher Report, an Atlantic partner site.
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