CAN AN UNSIGNED FREE AGENT HAVE HIS RIGHTS TRADED?
No, the rights to a free agent can not be traded. The rights to a draft pick, however, can be traded. 23. DOES AN ORAL AGREEMENT CONSTITUTE A CONTRACT? This is another fuzzy area. The league says yes, but most players and teams say no. There was an incident in the 1996 off-season regarding the Miami Heat. The Heat had an oral agreement with free agent Alonzo Mourning for a new contract with a starting salary of more than 200% of his previous salary. Since the contract had not been signed, the Heat claimed that Mourning counted against the cap in the amount of 200% of his previous salary; the league disagreed, ruling that the agreement constituted a contract, and therefore counted against the cap. Based on this ruling, the league prevented Miami from using some of their cap room to sign Washington’s free agent, Juwan Howard. (There were also issues in this situation involved incentives in the contracts of other players.) Miami threated to take the league to court, but ultimately dropped
