The Hawks have exercised their 2025/26 rookie scale team options on guards Dyson Daniels and Kobe Bufkin, the team announced today in a press release.
Daniels, 21, spent his first two NBA seasons in New Orleans before being sent to Atlanta over the summer in the Dejounte Murray deal. Known as a talented perimeter defender, the 21-year-old has shown signs of taking a step forward offensively during his first few games as a Hawk, averaging 12.8 points per game on 50.0% shooting (35.3% on three-pointers). He’s also averaging 2.8 steals per contest.
The eighth overall pick in the 2022 draft, Daniels is now under contract through 2025/26 and will be a restricted free agent after that season if he doesn’t sign a rookie scale extension during the 2025 offseason. He’s earning about $6.06MM in 2024/25, while his ’25/26 option is worth $7,707,709.
Bufkin’s NBA career has been plagued by injuries since he was selected with the 15th overall pick in the 2023 draft. The 6’5″ guard appeared in just 17 games for the Hawks as a rookie and is on the shelf again this fall due to a right shoulder ailment.
However, Atlanta remains bullish enough on his potential to lock in the 21-year-old’s $4,503,720 salary for the 2025/26 season. The team will have to decide by October 31, 2025 whether or not to exercise Bufkin’s fourth-year option for ’26/27.
Daniels and Bufkin are two of the three Hawks with rookie scale team options for 2025/26. According to Brad Rowland of Locked on Hawks (Twitter link), the club won’t pick up its option on forward David Roddy, which would have been worth $4,831,766.
Passing on that option will put Roddy on track to become an unrestricted free agent during the 2025 offseason. At that time, the Hawks (or whichever team has Roddy on its roster to end the season) won’t be permitted to offer him a starting salary above his declined option salary, though rival suitors would be able to exceed that figure.
A bulky 6’4″ forward, Roddy is playing for his third NBA team. He began his career with the Grizzlies, then was sent to Phoenix at the 2024 trade deadline in the three-time Royce O’Neale trade. The former 23rd overall pick was subsequently flipped to Atlanta this past offseason in a cost-cutting move by the Suns.
Roddy has appeared in 137 total regular season games at the NBA level, averaging 6.6 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 18.1 minutes per contest, with a shooting line of .420/.303/.659.