So far this summer, we’ve been keeping close tabs on the way teams are acquiring new players, tracking free agent signings, draft pick signings, draft-and-stash signings, and trades. However, there’s another form of transaction worth monitoring: contract extensions.
Extensions, of course, don’t involve adding a new player to the roster. By extending a contract, a team ensures that a current player will remain locked up for multiple years to come. While it may not change the club’s outlook on the court, it can have a major impact on that team’s salary cap situation — in terms of total value, the extensions signed this summer by James Harden and C.J. McCollum ranked among the top eight contract signed, including free agent deals.
Rookie-scale extensions like McCollum’s are the most common form of contract extension, occurring in the offseason before a former first-round pick enters the final year of his rookie contract. Teams have until October 31 to work out new deals with those players, though if a club intends to ultimately sign its player to a maximum-salary contract, it could make sense to wait until next summer — that way, a club can keep a more modest cap hold on its 2017 books, and maximize its cap room next offseason. Still, we can probably expect to see a few rookie-scale extensions finalized before November.
[RELATED: Players eligible for rookie-scale extensions]
While they’re less common than rookie-scale extensions, veteran extensions – like Harden’s – are happening a little more frequently these days, now that more teams than ever are going under the cap, rather than staying over it. Utilizing cap room to renegotiate a player’s current-year salary while extending him incentivizes extensions for players, making those players more likely to re-up right away, rather than waiting for free agency.
[RELATED: Players eligible for veteran extensions]
Listed below are the players who have agreed to contract extensions so far in the 2016/17 league year. This list, which can be found on the right-hand sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features,” will be kept up to date throughout the offseason, and even into the ’16/17 season, if any veteran players ink an extension at that point.
Rookie-scale extensions:
- C.J. McCollum (Trail Blazers): Four years, $106,633,450 (story)
- Steven Adams (Thunder): Four years, $100,000,000 (story)
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks): Four years, $100,000,000 (story)
- Rudy Gobert (Jazz): Four years, $94,000,000 (story)
- Victor Oladipo (Thunder): Four years, $84,000,000 (story)
- Gorgui Dieng (Timberwolves): Four years, $62,800,000 (story)
- Dennis Schroder (Hawks): Four years, $62,000,000 (story)
- Cody Zeller (Hornets): Four years, $55,625,000 (story)
Veteran extensions:
- James Harden (Rockets): Four years, $117,964,846 (story)
- Russell Westbrook (Thunder): Three years, $85,741,112 (story)