The Hornets have signed free agent forward Keyontae Johnson, according to RealGM’s log of official NBA transactions.
The news of Johnson landing with Charlotte was announced last month by his agency. At the time, it was unclear what type of contract he would be signing. By process of elimination, it appears the 24-year-old signed an Exhibit 9 contract, likely with Exhibit 10 language.
Players who sign Exhibit 9 or Exhibit 10 contracts don’t appear on NBA.com’s official transactions log, but RealGM does track those deals. Exhibit 9/10 players only show up on NBA.com’s log when they’ve been waived (Jared Brownridge is a recent example).
The No. 50 overall pick of the 2023 draft, Johnson spent his entire rookie campaign on a two-way contract with Oklahoma City. He only appeared in nine games with the Thunder last season for a total of 66 minutes, but had a significant role with their NBA G League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue.
The Thunder declined to give Johnson a two-way qualifying offer after the 2023/24 season, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Although they’re not technically required to, virtually every Exhibit 10 contract also contains an Exhibit 9 clause, which provides a team protections when a player on a non-guaranteed training camp contract suffers an injury. If a team wants to sign a player to a deal that includes both an Exhibit 9 and Exhibit 10 clause, it must already be carrying at least 14 players on standard contracts. The Hornets currently have 14 players on standard deals.
If Johnson signed an Exhibit 10 deal, he could receive a $77.5K bonus if he’s waived before the season starts and spends at least 60 days with the Greensboro Swarm, Charlotte’s NBA G League affiliate. Exhibit 10 contracts can also be converted to two-way deals, and the Hornets currently have one two-way opening.
How do I know for sure which day a signing actually takes place?
I mean, it is a bit confusing that the NBA.com’s official log does not list Exhibit 9 or 10 signings, but RealGM does. From what source does RealGM know that an Exhibit 10 signing actually took place, when neither the official NBA site lists it – and as it often happens regarding these summertime, training camp, non-guarenteed signings – nor does the team provide an official press release announcing the signing?
Also, in a lot of cases where there is an official team press release, it is often dated a day or two – or even weeks – later than the date listed in the NBA.com’s log or RealGM’s log. This often happens in the case of a “standard” signing (a guaranteed contract, not just an Exhibit 10/camp invite). A team’s official communication of a signing and the official NBA log providing two different dates seems totally incoherent to me.
RealGM is essentially a second official transaction log — I don’t know for sure that the info comes directly from the league or the NBPA, but it certainly seems that way.
The dates listed at RealGM and in the NBA.com log represent when moves officially happen. Teams sometimes issue press releases on their own schedule — for instance, if they sign one player on Monday and another on Wednesday, they may just announce both on the Wednesday.
The one difference between the dates in RealGM and NBA.com is that NBA.com lists waivers a day later if they occur after 5 pm ET (e.g. if a player is waived on Monday at 9 pm ET, RealGM may list it as happening on Monday, whereas NBA.com would have it on the Tuesday, and the player would clear waivers on Thursday).
Thank you for your thorough answer, it is appreciated.