Rookie Scale Option Decisions Due On Tuesday

The NBA’s transaction wire has been relatively quiet since the regular season got underway on Tuesday, but we can still expect one last flurry of moves in October. The deadline for teams to exercise their 2024/25 team options on rookie scale contracts arrives on Tuesday (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 Hawks picked up Jalen Johnson‘s fourth-year option last Sunday, they were locking in his salary for the 2024/25 season — his ’23/24 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 2021 and 2022. Some of those option decisions are no-brainers — the Pistons haven’t yet exercised Cade Cunningham‘s $13.94MM option for 2024/25, but there’s no doubt they’ll do so.

Other decisions are less cut-and-dried. For example, the Hornets must decide whether they want to pick up James Bouknight‘s $6.06MM third-year option for ’24/25. Given that Bouknight has yet to secure a regular rotation spot and has had some legal troubles in the past, 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 officially made:

Charlotte Hornets

• James Bouknight (fourth year, $6,064,496)
• Mark Williams (third year, $4,094,280)

Chicago Bulls

• Dalen Terry (third year, $3,510,480)

Detroit Pistons

• Cade Cunningham (fourth year, $13,940,809)
• Jaden Ivey (third year, $7,977,240)
• Jalen Duren (third year, $4,536,840)

Golden State Warriors

• Jonathan Kuminga (fourth year, $7,636,307)
• Moses Moody (fourth year, $5,803,269)

Houston Rockets

Note: These four options will reportedly be exercised, but haven’t been officially picked up yet.

• Jalen Green (fourth year, $12,483,048)
• Jabari Smith (third year, $9,770,880)
• Alperen Sengun (fourth year, $5,424,654)
• Tari Eason (third year, $3,695,160)

Los Angeles Clippers

• Bones Hyland (fourth year, $4,158,439)

Milwaukee Bucks

• MarJon Beauchamp (third year, $2,733,720)

New York Knicks

Note: This option will reportedly be exercised, but hasn’t been officially picked up yet.

• Quentin Grimes (fourth year, $4,296,682)

Philadelphia 76ers

• Jaden Springer (fourth year, $4,018,363)

Washington Wizards

• Corey Kispert (fourth year, $5,705,887)
• Johnny Davis (third year, $5,291,160)
• Patrick Baldwin (third year, $2,448,840)