Griffin Signs Five-Year Extension With Clippers

WEDNESDAY, 1:08am: The Clippers announced in a press release that Griffin has officially signed his contract extension. The deal will pay the forward the maximum salary allowed by the CBA.

TUESDAY, 11:34pm: Griffin's five-year deal will have an opt-out after year four, tweets ESPN.com's Marc Stein.

12:29pm: The Clippers and Blake Griffin have "formally agreed" to a five-year, maximum-salary contract extension for the All-Star forward, reports Ken Berger of CBSSports.com (via Twitter). Griffin has one more year remaining on his rookie contract, so the extension will go into effect in 2013/14 and will keep him under contract until the summer of 2018. The deal can be officially signed when the moratorium ends.

We heard before free agency began that Griffin intended to sign a max extension with the Clippers. Because the deal is for five years, Griffin becomes the team's "designated player." For the duration of the contract, the Clippers cannot sign another player coming off a rookie contract to a five-year extension, though they could acquire a player that signed a similar five-year deal with another team.

According to Berger, the deal is worth $95MM over five years, but we'll have to wait to see exactly what the maximum-salary amount is in 2013/14 before determining the precise financial details. Additionally, as I explained earlier this year, if Griffin earns another All-Star start or makes another All-NBA team next season, he becomes eligible for a max deal worth 30% of the salary cap, rather than 25%. The $95MM figure is only attainable if Griffin is making 30% of the cap, so presumably the two sides agreed to that condition. But if the 23-year-old doesn't achieve at least one of those benchmarks in 2012/13, his maximum salary in 2013/14 would be 25% of the cap.

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