It’s not unprecedented to get an elite player signed before free agency. It was done with guys like JJ Watt and Von Miller. Now we need to get Donald’s deal done before it becomes a bigger issue. Signing our top players has been a problem for this front office.
As for the NBA, I’m not a fan of how they do it. Sure, every max deal is capped but elite players have all the power in the NBA. They sign deals that they can opt out of at the end of the season and run off somewhere else. The teams accept these deals because one player elite player in the NBA usually makes more of a difference than 5 decent ones.