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NBA locks in key dates for transaction window, draft, free agency

With players from 22 teams and what is expected to be the GMs from most of those teams all intermingling at three hotels in Orlando, it's going to be the unofficial start of free agency - a tamperingfest with some players making up their minds while on the Disney property.

Now we know the official dates teams can sign players, both for the restart and free agency.

The league locked in the dates with teams, according to reports from Shams Charania of The Athletic and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN . Here are the dates:

• June 23, 12 ET: Transaction window opens. Teams can sign players for restart in Orlando and remainder of this season (the eight teams not in the bubble also can make roster moves). Teams have 17 roster spots available to use in Orlando, their regular 15 plus both two-way player spots. Teams can waive players to create a roster spot and sign another player for the restart. The window runs one week, through June 30.

• June 24: Date for players to tell teams they are opting out of playing in Orlando. There will be no discipline of players who chose this option, but they will not be played for those games. Teams can sign a replacement player to their rosters for the remainder of this season to fill in for any players who chose to sit out.

• June 30: The "seeding games" begin in Orlando.

• Aug. 17: Early entry date for NBA draft, the date by which players must decide if they want to be considered for the 2020 NBA Draft. This gives players who have said they were out of the draft time to reconsider.

• Aug. 25: 2020 NBA Draft Lottery.

• Oct. 6: 2020 NBA Draft early entry withdrawal date. The day by which players need to decide if they are in or out of the 2020 NBA Draft.

• Oct. 13: NBA Finals Game 7 (if necessary). This was pushed back from Monday to Tuesday (to avoid conflicts with NFL Monday Night Football, ESPN/ABC owns the broadcast rights to both football game and the NBA Finals).

• Oct. 16: The 2020 NBA Draft. Pushed back to a Friday to avoid conflicts with both Thursday night NFL football and the possible date of the second presidential debate.

• Oct. 18: NBA free agency opens at 6 p.m. Eastern. While deals can be announced, the moratorium on the actual signings extends until Oct. 23.

NBA locks in key dates for transaction window, draft, free agency originally appeared on NBCSports.com