More than a few team executives out there have …

The NBA's latest Collective Bargaining Agreement, which took effect after the 2022-23 season, introduced an unusual contract option that caught many team executives off guard, according to interviews with several executives. Spotrac, a reliable NBA contract data website, had to introduce a new gold MUTUAL tag in their STATUS column to account for this unprecedented situation, as reported by Keith Smith.

This column alerts readers to the presence of a player or team option within a given season of a contract, with subsequent seasons marked by UFA or RFA tags to indicate whether the player becomes an unrestricted or restricted free agent. The existence of this option was unknown to many team executives until these recent revelations.