NBA:Free Agency

NBA RealGM — League Rules

Free agents are won by open bidding. Bids are scored in points, and the highest points total that survives 24 hours wins the player.

When

Free agency never closes — it runs through the season and the playoffs alike, with no blackout window.

It is also the last phase of the off-season, after the draft, and that is when most of the pool becomes available at once. The phase opens on a date announced by the commissioner — for 2026 it was August 27. See Off-Season.

The free agent pool holds players whose contracts expired that summer and were not re-signed, players whose options were declined, undrafted rookies, and players released through waivers.

Ahead of re-signing and free agency, the available players are listed on the UFA tab of the league spreadsheet.

Before you bid

Three things must be true or your bid is invalid:

Requirement	Detail
A current posted roster	If your roster post is not up to date, every bid you make is invalid
Enough cap space	You may not bid more than your cap space. No exceptions
A roster spot	In-season only. At 15 active players you must state how you will create the spot for the bid to count

On the third: you declare the move in your bid — you do not waive first. Win the bid, then post the waiver. A losing bid costs you nothing; waiving speculatively costs you a real cap hit.

Roster limits do not apply in the off-season, so the roster-spot requirement only bites once the season starts.

How bidding works

Points = (years × 1.5) + (millions per year × 1)

Offer	Years	Salary	Total
1 year @ $500,000	1.5	0.5	2.0
2 years @ $4,000,000	3.0	4.0	7.0
3 years @ $4,000,000	4.5	4.0	8.5
4 years @ $10,000,000	6.0	10.0	16.0

Raise a bid by adding salary or years. The smallest raise is $200,000, worth 0.2 points. A year is worth 1.5 points — the equivalent of $1,500,000 per year — so adding a year is a large jump where salary moves in small steps.

There is a calculator that scores a bid and shows what beats a standing one.

Winning

Hold the highest points total for 24 hours and the player is yours. Any higher bid resets the clock. TAB confirms the signing.

You have 15 minutes to withdraw a bid. After that it stands.

Contract limits

	Limit
Maximum length	4 years
Maximum length, 35+	2 years
Minimum offer	$500,000
Minimum raise	$200,000
Maximum salary	None — but you cannot exceed the cap

What invalidates a bid

Any of the three requirements above going unmet, plus two things about the post itself:

Cause
Points added up wrong	The bid is invalid as posted
Bid edited without ticking Add the 'Edit by' line in this post	The bid is invalid

If an over-cap bid wins anyway

If it is not caught until after you have won:

• You take a cap hit of 40% of the contract you offered, held for one year
• The player returns to free agency, with bidding restarting at the previous highest bid on a fresh 24-hour clock

So an $8,000,000 bid you could not afford costs $3,200,000 of cap space for a year, and you do not get the player. Check your space before you post.

How to post

Create a topic in the NBA: Free Agency forum named for the player, stating the offer and the points total:

Suns offer Caldwell Jones 3 years @ $4,000,000 = 8.5 points

Subsequent bids go in the same thread. When editing a bid, tick Add the 'Edit by' line in this post — an edit without it invalidates the bid.

Once you win, add the player to your roster post with his new contract:

Caldwell Jones (HOU - C) $4,000,000 (2029)

See also

• Salary Cap — checking your space before you bid
• Rosters — roster limits and keeping your post current
• Contracts — writing the contract you just won
• Waivers — creating a roster spot after winning
• Off-Season — when free agency opens