It was so irregular that Spotrac, widely regarded as perhaps the most reliable publicly available NBA contract data website, had to add a new gold MUTUAL tag to their STATUS column, according to our pal Keith Smith, which hadn’t been previously coded into their system. That column lets the reader know whether a particular season in a player’s contract contains a player or team option. The following season then includes a UFA or RFA tag to spell out whether the player in question, at the conclusion of the deal, becomes an unrestricted or restricted free agent. The real kicker: More than a few team executives out there have confessed to The Stein Line that they also did not know such an option was even possible under the NBA’s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement that went into effect after the 2022-23 season.
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