Rookie Scale Option Decisions Due On Monday

The NBA’s transaction wire has been relatively quiet since the regular season got underway last Tuesday, but we can still expect one last flurry of moves in October. The deadline for teams to exercise their 2023/24 team options on rookie scale contracts arrives next Monday (October 31), and several of those decisions have yet to be reported or announced.

Unlike player or team options on veteran contracts, third- and fourth-year options on rookie scale contracts for former first-round picks must be exercised a year in advance. For instance, when the Bulls picked up Patrick Williams‘ fourth-year option earlier this month, they were locking in his salary for the 2023/24 season — his ’22/23 salary became guaranteed last October when the team exercised his third-year option.

As our tracker shows, a number of teams still have to pick up or turn down options for players who were first-round picks in 2020 and 2021. Some of those option decisions are no-brainers — the Hornets haven’t yet exercised LaMelo Ball‘s $10.9MM option for 2023/24, but there’s no doubt they’ll do so.

Other decisions are less cut-and-dried. For example, the Hornets also must decide whether they want to pick up James Bouknight‘s $4.57MM third-year option for ’23/24. Given Bouknight’s underwhelming rookie season and his recent legal troubles, it’s far from a given that Charlotte will want to lock in that cap hit.

Here’s the list of option decisions that have yet to be announced or reported:

Boston Celtics

• Payton Pritchard (fourth year, $4,037,278)

Charlotte Hornets

• LaMelo Ball (fourth year, $10,900,635)
• James Bouknight (third year, $4,570,080)
• Kai Jones (third year, $3,047,880)

Golden State Warriors

• James Wiseman (fourth year, $12,119,440)
• Jonathan Kuminga (third year, $6,012,840)
• Moses Moody (third year, $3,918,480)

New Orleans Pelicans

• Kira Lewis (fourth year, $5,722,116)
• Trey Murphy (third year, $3,359,280)

New York Knicks

• Immanuel Quickley (fourth year, $4,171,548)
• Quentin Grimes (third year, $2,385,720)

[UPDATE: The Knicks’ options have been picked up.]

Orlando Magic

• Jalen Suggs (third year, $7,252,080)
• Cole Anthony (fourth year, $5,539,771)
• Franz Wagner (third year, $5,508,720)
• Chuma Okeke (fourth year, $5,266,713)
• R.J. Hampton (fourth year, $4,220,057)

Philadelphia 76ers

• Tyrese Maxey (fourth year, $4,343,920)
• Jaden Springer (third year, $2,226,240)

Utah Jazz

• Udoka Azubuike (fourth year, $3,923,484)
• Leandro Bolmaro (third year, $2,588,400)

Note: The Rockets haven’t technically exercised their 2023/24 options on Jalen Green ($9,891,480), Alperen Sengun ($3,536,280), Usman Garuba ($2,588,400), and Josh Christopher ($2,485,200) yet, but will reportedly do so.