The basketball world is abuzz with all the news happening this free agency. And while it's not new to hear teams gunning after a free agent during the off season, not many people know exactly what it means to become a free agent. It doesn't help that the PBA has yet to implement real free agency within their ranks so we're not exposed to the concept as local basketball fans. So for the benefit of those whose heads are about to explode with all the free agency jargon they've been hearing, here's the lowdown.


In sports, a free agent is someone who is not under any contract with a team and is eligible to sign with any franchise. In the NBA, there are two main kinds of free agents: unrestricted and restricted.




Unrestricted free agents are able to sign with any team they choose. Kyrie Irving became an unrestricted free agent after he declined his player option (a contract feature that allows a player to choose if he will or will not take on the final year of his contract). Irving has signed with the Brooklyn Nets directly with Boston not having the ability to counter the offer. Other notable unrestricted free agents are Klay Thompson and Kemba Walker.




A restricted free agent, on the other hand, can accept offers from different teams but his original team is given the right of first refusal, meaning they can match whatever offer is given to keep the player.


After an offer is given by a new team, the original team has two days to match or to pass on the player. Becoming a restricted free agent is most common for first round draft picks at the end of their 4-year rookie-scale contracts and have received qualifying offers (or a guaranteed one year extension) from their respective teams.


In this year's case, the first rounders from the 2015 draft class who have completed the 4-year rookie-scale contracts such as Kristaps Porzingis and D'Angelo Russell became unrestricted free agents this off-season (but has since signed new contracts). If they had signed extensions with their original teams like Karl-Anthony Towns or had the 3rd or 4th year team option (which is like the player option mentioned above but this time, the choice is made by the team) of their rookie-scale contracts waived like Jahlil Okafor, they wouldn't have been restricted free agents.




Another term you heard a lot these past few days is sign-and-trade and it is exactly what it sounds like: teams opt to sign their free agent only to immediately trade him to another team. This can benefit both parties because the team can get replacement assets in the trade (instead of just having the free agent walk away for nothing) and the player can get a more lucrative contract than if he signed with a new team directly. Fearing that they'll lose Durant for nothing, the Warriors opted to push for a sign-and-trade with him so they could at least get D'Angelo Russell in exchange.




All of the deals mentioned previously, and most of the others you've heard, are probably final but definitely not official yet because we're in the middle of the moratorium period. From June 30 to July 6, teams and players are allowed to negotiate deals but can't sign on the dotted line until noon of July 6—a fact Dallas fans had to learn the hard way when DeAndre Jordan backed out of a verbal agreement made during the moratorium.


And that's free agency in a nutshell. We hope this helps you makes sense of the crazy off-season the NBA has been having so far.