NBA Moving From Tentpole Free Agent Era Into Their Version Of Transfer Portal

The NBA has entered a period where big stars are less likely to become free agents and will instead change teams via trades, which Adrian Wojnarowski compared to the transfer portal.

“There’s fewer and fewer high level players who have gone into free agency the last few years and who are going to be going into free agency,” said Adrian Wojnarowski on SportsCenter on the eve of the 2023 free agency period. “I think the belief around the league is you sign the extension where you are and fix the destination later. You give up money by going into free agency. You take less money by not re-upping where you are.

“It’s essentially an NBA version of the transfer portal. ‘When I decide I’m done, you are going to trade me.’

“For teams who are going to lose a star, it beats what happened to Oklahoma City with Kevin Durant where they didn’t get anything for him. You do get a chance to get young players and draft picks.

“I think you’ll continue to see free agency periods that lack star power, but the deals are going to be in the trades because more and more star players, when it’s not going well, they’re going to look to move on and we’re in more of a trade mode.”

RealGM wrote an article in 2021 about how the era of a “tentpole free agent” dominating an offseason period such as LeBron James in 2014, Kevin Durant in 2016 or Kawhi Leonard in 2019 was likely over due to the way superstar players have been incentivized by the changes to the extension process.