NBA free agency is right around the corner and applies to unrestricted and restricted free agents. While many fans are familiar with the terms, not everyone fully understands how the process works.
Restricted free agents can sign with any team, but their current team has the right to match any offer. Still, there’s more to the process than that. With free agency set to begin, here’s a breakdown of everything you need to know.
How Restricted Free Agency Works in the NBA
NBA.com gives an overview of how restricted free agency works: “A restricted free agent (RFA) can sign an offer sheet with any team, but the player’s original team can retain him by matching the terms of that offer. The original team is said to have the ‘right of first refusal,'” the league explained.
While not uncommon, restricted free agency is not the standard for most players and only applies in select situations, such as:
- Fourth-year players who are former first-round picks are approaching the end of their rookie contracts.
- For all veteran free agents who have been in the NBA for three seasons or less. This can also apply to a former first-round draft pick if his team doesn’t exercise its option to extend his rookie-scale contract after his second or third season. These players then become unrestricted free agents.
- A player coming off a two-way contract was on an NBA active or inactive roster for at least 15 days in the season beforehand.
2025 Free Agency Cheat Sheet! pic.twitter.com/cX6V70HWrb
— NBA University (@NBA_University) June 30, 2025
Even though restricted free agency lives up to its name, the league also explained the five options a restricted free agent can choose when they enter it:
- Accept the qualifying offer, play out the season, and enter unrestricted free agency that summer.
- Accept his team’s maximum qualifying offer (where applicable) and play under the deal he agrees to with it.
- Negotiate a new, long-term contract with his team that could be worth more or less than the qualifying offer (usually players don’t take less).
- Sign an offer sheet with another team. His original team has until March 1 to match (see below).
- Work out a sign-and-trade with his original team to send him to a new one.
Another option exists if a team never extends a qualifying offer to a player. If no qualifying offer, contract, or offer sheet is signed for one year, the original team can submit a new qualifying offer, and the player will be a restricted free agent the next summer.
This option rarely gets chosen. Typically, players who enter restricted free agency want long-term security more than anything else because they don’t want to risk their careers ending prematurely. And if they don’t want to stick with their team long-term, they take the qualifying offer.
The Sporting News’ Dan Treacy also explained another option that can happen, but this one is arguably the rarest.
“Teams, meanwhile, can renounce their rights to restricted free agents, making them unrestricted,” Treacy wrote. “For example, the Warriors renounced the rights to Harrison Barnes in 2016 after Kevin Durant announced he was joining the team.”
This could happen this offseason. Jonathan Kuminga, a restricted free agent for the Warriors, could have a fate like this or not too far from it. It’s why teams like the Chicago Bulls and Sacramento Kings are interested in him, per The Athletic’s Anthony Slater.
The Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls remain the two likeliest outside suitors for Jonathan Kuminga, sources tell @anthonyVslater.
Despite a few conversations between the two sides, the Golden State Warriors have generated no real traction toward a deal with the restricted free agent… pic.twitter.com/3Jj3iU2IOY
— The Athletic NBA (@TheAthleticNBA) June 30, 2025
Understanding how free agency works helps fans track player moves and team plans. As free agency begins, watch how teams utilize their matching rights and how players make their decisions, as it can significantly impact the upcoming NBA season.
