Last week when NBA free agency began, Los Angeles Clippers star guard DeAndre Jordan announced he would sign a new contract with the Dallas Mavericks. However, news broke today that Clippers representatives, including owner Steve Ballmer, head coach Doc Rivers, and players Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, are traveling to Jordan’s off season home in Houston to try and convince him to reconsider and sign back with the Clippers. In the NBA, free agents aren’t allowed to officially sign their new contracts until eight days after free agency begins. This period of time is known as the moratorium period, and its purpose is to allow the league to precisely calculate its new salary cap and luxury-tax figures for the upcoming season. Teams and players can come to verbal agreements at the beginning of the period on July 1st, but aren’t allowed to officially sign their new contracts until the period ends a week later.

If Jordan decides to resign with the Clippers, it could start a new trend in NBA free agency. We could start seeing more teams try a last ditch effort to sign one of their players leaving in free agency, and an increase in players verbally committing to join a team only to change their minds and sign somewhere else.

If this does start happening, the NBA should consider getting rid of the moratorium period. They should focus on figuring out the new numbers for the salary cap, but they should do it immediately after the previous season ends and before the free agency period so owners and general managers know how much money they can spend. If you are a player, what is the point of announcing you’re going to sign with one team if you’re just going to ultimately sign with a different team – unless you’re using it as a negotiation tactic? You’re just making yourself look bad, not staying true to your word, and will make a lot more enemies among your peers and the fans.

It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out and what it means for the rest of the league.