As the NBA moves forward with the 2020-21 season, dates and deadlines are slowly being set for various yearly occurrences in a regular season. Relative to the New Orleans Pelicans and Lonzo Ball, one of the more important dates is the deadline for rookie contract extensions.
Bleacher Report’s Eric Pincus wrote a piece on Monday with some edits on Tuesday in the wake of the Jrue Holiday trade that discussed Ball’s upcoming extension. In the piece, Pincus noted that the deadline for an extension between the Pelicans and Ball is Dec. 21.
That date is not a change from previous off-seasons. With opening night set for Dec. 22, teams will have their normal window of the start of free agency until 11:59 PM of the day before the first game to negotiate an extension.
The difference for this off-season is, while teams typically have the better part of four months to negotiate an extension, that window is compressed to just one month this off-season.
As noted in our recent piece discussing Ball’s upcoming extension as well as in Pincus’ piece, little changes if the Pelicans and Ball can not agree to an extension as Ball will simply enter restricted free agency next summer with New Orleans able to match any contract offer.
Following the trade of Holiday, the Pelicans are likely set for a busy off-season that could see them deal Eric Bledsoe and George Hill. Ball’s contract extension, as well as Josh Hart’s will likely be on the table but could take a backseat depending on how things unfold.
