NBA Free Agency Expected to Start No Later Than Dec. 1, Says Michele Roberts

National Basketball executive director Michele Roberts said Tuesday that the NBA's free-agency period this year is expected to start Dec. 1 at the latest.

Roberts spoke with Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium about the NBA offseason:

"We can't go much beyond (Dec. 1) for (free agency). We had a projected BRI, which I think teams appropriately planned for. I don't think we can deviate much from where we projected the cap to be ($115 million, latest projection). It may not reflect what people think is the likely BRI, but since I'm of the view this game is not dead and it will rebound, we can do some things with the cap to allow for a free market and not completely destroy what the teams were expecting the cap to be as they were planning ahead. Frankly, I think that's going to be one of the easier negotiations, figuring out a cap."

She also said she expects the 2020-21 season to begin in either January or February. 

"The latter part of January, February makes sense," she told Charania. "If it's later than that, if we have a terrible winter because the virus decides to reassert herself, that's fine. The absolute earliest would be January, and that's doable."

Roberts said she's taken pride in how both the league office and the NBA players came together for the restart in the bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida, amid the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic:

"I'm enormously proud of both this league and our players in that, in the face of what appeared to be impossible to overcome, we took a breath and we decided to be smart about it. If this s--t is over, then this s--t is over. If the season is done, then the season is done. Is there a way to salvage it? How can that look? Tens of thousands of hours of calls, of meetings, with people being patient and smart, created this bubble."

Roberts announced in March that she would be stepping down, a process likely to occur after this offseason's negotiations for a start date and draft dates, free agency, a salary cap and luxury tax, etc. It will be fascinating to see how the NBA—likely facing substantial revenue losses next year due to the shortened 2019-20 season and the possibility of playing without fans—will settle on a salary cap and pay structure. 

Roberts will stay on to navigate those potentially rough waters. But, per Charania, the NBPA is conducting a search to find her replacement. 

"I'm confident there will be someone in my current position managing the PA going forward," she said. "I'm not leaving Thursday, but I'll leave when it makes sense to leave. I'm going to see the current negotiations through. We're going to resume the process. It's the right thing to do."