The Warriors have issued a qualifying offer to two-way player Nico Mannion, making him a restricted free agent, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. Because Mannion, the 48th overall pick in the 2020 draft, was on a two-way contract during his rookie season, his qualifying offer will be the equivalent of another two-way deal, with a partial guarantee worth $50K. The QO will give Golden State matching rights in the event that another team signs Mannion to an offer sheet next week.
Here are more updates on players on two-way contracts receiving qualifying offers:
- Saben Lee, a 2020 second-round pick who spent his rookie season on a two-way deal, has received a qualifying offer from the Pistons, making him a restricted free agent, tweets Smith. As expected, Detroit also officially renounced the draft rights to Jaylen Hands, Smith notes.
- The Bulls issued a qualifying offer to two-way player Devon Dotson, making him a restricted free agent, tweets Smith. Chicago also gave a QO to Lauri Markkanen on Friday.
- Nuggets guard Markus Howard, another two-way player, received a qualifying offer that makes him a restricted free agent, tweets Smith. Howard appeared in 37 games for Denver last season as an undrafted rookie out of Marquette.
- The Spurs extended a qualifying offer to forward Keita Bates-Diop to make him an RFA, tweets Smith. Like the other players listed above, Bates-Diop has fewer than four years of NBA experience and is therefore eligible to sign another two-way contract after spending the 2020/21 season on a two-way deal.
- The Cavaliers gave a qualifying offer to two-way shooting guard Brodric Thomas, tweets Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (Twitter link). Thomas appeared in a total of 32 games for Houston and Cleveland as a rookie in 2020/21.
- The Grizzlies announced they’ve issued a qualifying offer to big man Killian Tillie, making him a restricted free agent. Tillie appeared in 18 games for Memphis as a rookie on his two-way deal.
Since all of these players are coming off two-way contracts and have only spent one season with their respective teams, their QOs are one-year, two-way offers with $50K guarantees.
If I was a team rebuilding I would make Nico Mannion a good offer. He is a play creator and a shooter off the bench. I could see him starting or a 6th man off the bench for a rebuild team.
Mannion may eventually be a useful rotation player but he did nothing with the Warriors to indicate he is a good enough play maker or shooter to be worth an NBA team giving him starter or 6th man minutes.
that is why I said a rebuilding team. it was his first year and he played in the G league but showed a lot of promise. He made the Italy team and playing big minutes for them. He needs to learn to play better D which he did improve last year on.
No NBA team is going to give Mannion regular starter minutes no matter what phase of rebuilding they are in. Please name a single NBA team that you think should do that.
Sonics
Or Mystics
He wouldn’t start on the Storm
Nico is one of those ‘I did great in HS and AAU, but can’t compete with men at a starter level.’ Not sure how long he’ll stick around in the NBA, but garbage minutes and the occasional fill in seems to suit him well for now.