1.   Another section of the memo covers contract negotiations with players during this signing season.

2.   A general manager with a generous checkbook and several holes on his roster could rapidly improve his team when the free-agent signing season begins Wednesday.

3.   After that, team executives will return to their offices next week for the beginning of the free-agent signing season.

4.   No deals can actually be consummated until Wednesday, when the NBA signing season officially opens.

5.   That changed just after midnight Saturday, when signing season officially began.

6.   The owners desperately wanted to change the economic system before another signing season went by, but the shellshocked public would never have tolerated a baseball labor war.

7.   With no work stoppage or signing freeze hampering operations this signing season, signings should proceed at a quicker pace.

8.   Yet, stranger things have happened in this signing season.