The NBA has announced a tentative deal on a new CBA and will likely avoid a lockout in 2017

Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

The NBA and NBA Players Association announced Wednesday night that they have come to a tentative deal on a new collective bargaining agreement,

Team owners and players must still ratify the agreement, which is reportedly seven years long, with an opt-out clause in 2022. The league and players union agreed to extend the opt-out deadline for the current CBA from Thursday, December 15 to January 13, 2017 to give all parties more time to ratify the new agreement.

According to reports, the league and players union had been gathering for months to knock out a new deal before the original December 15 opt-out deadline. Reports indicated that the talks were generally amicable, with both sides opting to keep similar rules on many issues.

While the league said “specific terms” of the new CBA would be made available at a later date, here are some of the highlights, based on reports from Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski and ESPN’s Marc Stein and Ian Begley:

• A shorter preseason with an earlier start to the regular season to create fewer back-to-back games.
• Rules that make it easier for teams to keep their star players, such as five-year contract extensions (they were previously four-year extensions) and more guaranteed money should players entering free agency stay with their original teams.
• “Significant” jumps in rookie scale contracts, minimum salaries, and league-designated contracts, like the mid-level exception.
• An increase in maximum roster sizes from 15 to 17, with two designated spots for “two-way” players who play on minimum contracts when they’re “up” in the NBA and a reported $75,000 when they’re “down” on D-League assignments.

However, many issues will remain the same, such as the 49-51 split in basketball-related income and the one-year requirement for American players between high school and entering the NBA.

According to Wojnarowski, owners and players ratifying the agreement is considered a “relative formality.” It’s looking like a giant win for both sides to have agreed on a new deal and avoided a lockout in the summer of 2017.