It's naive to think that these discussions haven't already started, and that both sides don't already know where the other stands.
I know you are a stickler with the idea that everyone always follows all the rules all of the time, but you are going to have to accept the fact that these things often get done behind closed doors, amd have been for literally decades.
It's the worst kept secret in the league. As long as no one tampers with a player under contract to another team, everyone just looks the other way on these sorts of things.
Quite frankly, if they haven't already had significant discussions at this point about contract expectations (through back channels, indirectly and off the record with agent's assiatants, etc...), then our front office is truly incompetent, because every team does it, including us (at least, under Murray we for sure did).