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Players Who Can’t Be Traded Until December 15

August 2nd, 2024 at 5:28pm CST by Luke Adams

As teams explore the trade market for potential deals to complete their rosters for training camp, there are a number of trade restrictions those clubs must take into account. Most notably, newly signed free agents can’t be dealt until at least December 15.

The NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement states that a free agent who signs with an NBA team can’t be traded for three months or until December 15, whichever is later. There are also some recently signed players who meet a few specific criteria and can’t be traded until January 15. That list of players can be found right here.

The players who aren’t eligible to be traded until December 15 are listed below.

Players whose contracts haven’t been officially finalized aren’t yet listed below. Players who have the ability to veto trades in 2024/25 are marked with a caret (^). Players on non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed contracts are marked with an asterisk (*). Players on Exhibit 10 contracts won’t be listed here unless they make the regular season roster.

We’ll continue to update this page over the next few months as players are signed or waived.

Updated 10-19-24 (3:49pm CT)

Atlanta Hawks

Boston Celtics

Brooklyn Nets

Charlotte Hornets

Chicago Bulls

Cleveland Cavaliers

Dallas Mavericks

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Hoops Rumors Glossary: Renegotiations

July 31st, 2024 at 9:07am CST by Luke Adams

It’s common practice in the National Football League for a team to renegotiate its contract with a player, but we hear far less about the concept in the NBA. So can an NBA team actually renegotiate a contract with one of its players?

The answer is almost always no, and it’s a firm no if the follow-up question is whether the sides can renegotiate the value of the contract downward. Unlike NFL teams, an NBA club can’t create extra cap flexibility by renegotiating a contract to push present-day cap hits into future years.

However, renegotiations are allowed to make an NBA contract more lucrative, and they can happen as long as a specific set of circumstances are in place:

  • Only contracts that cover four or more seasons can be renegotiated, though that rule doesn’t apply to rookie scale deals — even though they run for four years, they can’t be renegotiated.
  • Renegotiations can only occur after the third anniversary of a contract signing, an extension, or a previous renegotiation (assuming the previous renegotiation increased the salary in any season by 5% or more).
  • Perhaps most importantly, teams can’t renegotiate any contracts if they’re over the cap, and they can only increase the player’s salary in the current season by the amount of cap room they have (or to the player’s maximum salary).

If a renegotiation happens at the same time as an extension, the player’s salary can increase or decrease by as much as 40% from the last season of the existing contract to the first season of the extension. Following the first year of the extension, raises (or pay cuts) are limited to 8% annually.

Here are a few other rules related to contract renegotiations:

  • Teams can’t renegotiate contracts between March 1 and June 30, so the last day of February is always the deadline to complete renegotiations in a given league year.
  • Renegotiations can’t occur as part of a trade. If a player is traded, he’s ineligible to renegotiate his contract for the next six months. Similarly, if a player renegotiates his contract, he’s ineligible to be traded for six months.
  • In order for a signing bonus to be included in a renegotiation, the contract must be extended as well.
  • Two-way contracts can’t be renegotiated.

Renegotiating a contract to include a significant raise for the current season can be a clever way of incentivizing a long-term extension for a player who would otherwise reach free agency. Contract renegotiations are rare, due to the specific series of requirements necessary to pull them off, but we’ve seen a few completed within the past 13 months.

Domantas Sabonis renegotiated and extended his contract with the Kings last July, while Jordan Clarkson did the same with the Jazz. Jonathan Isaac also completed a renegotiation and extension with the Magic earlier this month.

The Clarkson and Isaac deals were prime examples of how teams can use their cap room in a current season to “overpay” a player in the short term in order to get him on more favorable terms in future seasons.

Clarkson, for instance, entered the 2023/24 league year on an expiring $14,260,000 base salary. The Jazz used their cap space to renegotiate that figure up to $23,487,629, then negotiated a 40% pay cut for the first season of a two-year extension, so Clarkson will earn $14,092,577 in ’24/25 and $14,285,714 in ’25/26. Simply offering that two-year, $28.38MM extension may not have been enough to get Clarkson to sign, but increasing his current-year salary by more than $9MM helped incentivize him to put pen to paper.

The Magic made a similar move with Isaac this summer, bumping his current salary all the way up to $25MM, then having it decline by 40% to $15MM for the first season of a four-year extension.

Sabonis, meanwhile, had a $19.4MM base salary in 2023/24 as he entered the final year of his current contract. The Kings didn’t have the cap room necessary to bump him up to his maximum salary of $40,806,300, but they were able to renegotiate his ’23/24 salary up to $28MM. From there, they gave Sabonis a 40% raise in year one of his extension, starting his new four-year deal at $39.2MM (plus incentives) in ’24/25.

This year’s top remaining renegotiation candidate is Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen, who is on an expiring $18,044,544 contract and will become eligible for a renegotiation as of August 6. Markkanen’s maximum salary for 2024/25 would be $42,176,400 and Utah is the only NBA team that has the cap room necessary to give him that $24MM+ raise.

If the Jazz and Markkanen do renegotiate his contract on or after August 6, it will be interesting to see what the terms of his extension look like. He has a case for a maximum-salary contract, but if Utah is essentially giving him $24MM+ in free, up-front money before the extension begins, the team may have some leverage to ask him to take less than his max.

I certainly wouldn’t expect the Jazz to try to negotiate a 40% pay cut for year one of a Markkanen extension like they did with Clarkson, but even a modest dip would make the forward’s contract more team-friendly down the road.

Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.

Earlier version of this post were published in 2015, 2017, and 2022.

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2024/25 Non-Guaranteed Contracts By Team

July 30th, 2024 at 3:55pm CST by Luke Adams

As the NBA regular season approaches and teams reduce their rosters from the 21-player offseason limit to the 15-man regular season max, the best way to determine which players will survive preseason cuts is to consider their contracts. Players with guaranteed salaries for 2024/25 are far more likely to earn spots on 15-man rosters than players whose contracts aren’t fully guaranteed.

Keeping that in mind, we’re using the space below to keep tabs on the players on each NBA team who don’t have fully guaranteed contracts. The players listed here have non-guaranteed salaries, partially guaranteed salaries, or Exhibit 9 or Exhibit 10 contracts, which essentially function like non-guaranteed deals.

Unless otherwise noted, these players are on minimum-salary contracts. Some players on this list have partial guarantees, which we’ve also mentioned below.

Not all of these players will be waived before the regular season begins, so we’ll maintain this list for the next several months, up until January 10, 2025. That’s the day that all players still under contract will have their salaries fully guaranteed for the rest of the 2024/25 season.

[RELATED: Early NBA Salary Guarantee Dates For 2024/25]

Only players who have formally signed contracts are listed below, so if a player has reportedly reached an agreement with a team on a non-guaranteed deal, we’ll add him to our list when that deal becomes official and we confirm the details.

Without further ado, here’s the full list of players without fully guaranteed salaries for 2024/25, broken down by team:

Updated 10-22-24 (9:33am CT)

Atlanta Hawks

  • None

Boston Celtics

  • None

Brooklyn Nets

Charlotte Hornets

Chicago Bulls

Cleveland Cavaliers

Dallas Mavericks

Denver Nuggets

  • None

Detroit Pistons

Golden State Warriors

Houston Rockets

  • None

Indiana Pacers

Los Angeles Clippers

  • None

Los Angeles Lakers

  • None

Memphis Grizzlies

  • None

Miami Heat

  • None

Milwaukee Bucks

Minnesota Timberwolves

  • PJ Dozier
    • Partially guaranteed for $1,000,000.

New Orleans Pelicans

  • None

New York Knicks

  • None

Oklahoma City Thunder

Orlando Magic

  • None

Philadelphia 76ers

Phoenix Suns

  • None

Portland Trail Blazers

Sacramento Kings

San Antonio Spurs

  • None

Toronto Raptors

Utah Jazz

  • None

Washington Wizards

  • None
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Signed Second-Rounders To Count Against Cap As Of Wednesday

July 30th, 2024 at 10:55am CST by Luke Adams

Between July 1 and July 30 of each NBA league year, a player signed using the second-round pick exception doesn’t count toward his team’s cap, but that changes as of July 31. Beginning on Wednesday, each of the second-rounders signed using that exception will begin carrying 2024/25 cap hits.

[RELATED: 2024 NBA Draft Pick Signings]

Twenty-eight of the NBA’s 30 teams are operating over the cap, so this change will really only affect two teams: Detroit and Utah.

The Pistons signed No. 37 overall pick Bobi Klintman on July 13 to a contract that will be worth $1,257,153 in 2024/25. His $1,257,153 salary hasn’t counted against Detroit’s cap up until today, but it will count starting on Wednesday. That means Detroit’s cap room will be reduced from $11,496,652 to $10,239,499.

The impact that change will have on the Pistons’ rest-of-summer plans is minimal, bordering on nonexistent. But it’s still worth noting since it slightly affects the kind of moves the team can make. For example, as of today, Detroit could accommodate a P.J. Tucker salary dump from the Clippers without sending back any salary. As of Wednesday, that wouldn’t be possible.

Interestingly, the Jazz have yet to sign No. 32 overall pick Kyle Filipowski, so their cap situation will remain unchanged on Wednesday. With reported deals for Drew Eubanks and Johnny Juzang still not official yet either, Utah could create up to about $35MM in space by renouncing various cap holds.

I expect the Jazz are waiting to resolve their Lauri Markkanen situation – either via trade or renegotiation-and-extension – before signing Filipowski and formally finalizing their other agreements. Trading Markkanen could mean taking on additional salary in a deal, while renegotiating his contract could require up to $24MM+ in cap room to bump his 2024/25 salary to the max.

Having resolution on Markkanen – which could happen in about a week when he becomes renegotiation-eligible – will give Utah’s front office a better sense of its cap situation going forward, allowing the team to move forward with its other business.

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Four Under-The-Radar Players To Watch For 2024/25

July 29th, 2024 at 8:18pm CST by Tristan Tucker

Rosters for the 2024/25 season are far from being set, but it’s never too early to try to predict some of next season’s happenings. When considering players who are primed for breakouts, draft picks who immediately became stars like Paolo Banchero and Victor Wembanyama come to mind, but several more players in a tier below that will emerge as rotation mainstays for the first time.

Think players like Sam Hauser of the Celtics. Hauser gradually crept up Boston’s rotation over the past three years, eventually becoming a part of the title core and earning himself an extension. Likewise, Miles McBride was a second-round pick who showed promise, but eventually broke out after the ’23/24 deadline for New York. Isaiah Joe of the Thunder is another example, while Vince Williams of the Grizzlies and Simone Fontecchio of the Pistons also broke onto the scene earlier this year.

With that said, here are four players I think could “break out” next season in the sense that they go from a fringe rotation piece to a reliable regular for a team.

Day’Ron Sharpe

This might be cheating a bit, since Sharpe appeared in 61 games last season and averaged 6.8 points and 6.4 rebounds. However, he managed to record those numbers in just 15.1 minutes per night, improving across the board for the Nets. I expect Sharpe to play more this season even though he’s still behind Nic Claxton in the rotation.

For starters, the Nets pivoted toward a rebuild this offseason after trading away Mikal Bridges. With Bridges gone and players like Cameron Johnson, Dorian Finney-Smith, Bojan Bogdanovic and Dennis Schröder set up to be potential trade pieces, there should be more minutes to go around at some point in the season, at least in theory. That would put Sharpe, the No. 29 overall pick in 2021, in prime position to play more and continue to show off his improvement.

Sharpe is set to be a restricted free agent next offseason and, if he manages to continue to show linear growth, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him draw a bevy of suitors. If the Nets didn’t want to pay Sharpe after handing a contract to Claxton this offseason, Sharpe could draw interest at the deadline for a playoff team needing size or another young team looking for a mainstay.

Given his contract status, youth (heturns 23 this season), and team positioning, Sharpe seems like a solid candidate to “break out” for next season.

Max Christie

The Lakers have had a quiet offseason, with their only external additions being 2024 draftees Dalton Knecht and Bronny James. One move that flew under the radar was the long-term extension of Christie, a player who only played 14.1 minutes last season. While the 2022 No. 35 pick saw his responsibilities increase last season from his rookie year, he holds a career average of 3.8 points per game.

Clearly, the Lakers liked what they saw from the 21-year-old Christie, as they rewarded him with a $32MM deal. While he hasn’t played a ton at the NBA level, he holds solid upside as a three-and-D prospect. It was somewhat surprising, for my money, that a team with cap space didn’t try to price Christie out of the Lakers’ range.

The Lakers getting Christie back could be a huge win for a team that needs three-and-D players in their rotation. Given that the Lakers might still make a trade before the year and players ahead of him last year either fell out of favor or simply left in free agency, Christie seems like a lock for more minutes and production next season. He could have a key role for the Lakers in the final couple years of his contract if things play right.

Craig Porter Jr./Ricky Council IV

While Porter and Council are distinctly different players, both could improve and continue to work their way into the rotations of playoff contenders in the Eastern Conference, which is why they’re grouped together here.

Porter played more on a two-way contract last season before being promoted to a standard deal. He’s a small guard but has played well above his size both in college and in the pros. He works well as a secondary ball-handler and a solid defensive guard. While the Cavaliers still have three open roster spots and could add a player or two who may overtake Porter in the guard room, I could see him winning the ninth or 10th spot in the rotation and potentially being the club’s top backup lead guard.

Council didn’t play as much for the Sixers until the end of the season, but his high efficiency impressed the organization and they rewarded him with a standard contract.

While Philadelphia eventually re-signed Tyrese Maxey, Kelly Oubre, Kyle Lowry and KJ Martin, I find it telling that the Council was just one of two players from last year’s roster who stayed on the roster throughout the entire offseason. His contract for next season is non-guaranteed, so they easily could have waived him if they felt someone else better fit his role. Martin and draft picks Jared McCain and Adem Bona might not play much next season, which has Council and Eric Gordon looking like the team’s only true bench wings off the bench.

While it’s not a lock Porter or Council make an impact on the rotation this year — let alone make it through their contracts being guaranteed at the league-wide date in 2025 — their organizations have shown they value each respective player. To me, Porter and Council are some of the more likely candidates to follow Hauser’s footsteps of developing for a couple seasons before breaking into a rotation.

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NBA Players Who Can Veto Trades In 2024/25

July 29th, 2024 at 12:02pm CST by Luke Adams

No-trade clauses are rare in the NBA, since a player must meet a specific set of criteria in order to qualify for one. And even those players who become eligible may not have the leverage to demand a no-trade clause, which significantly limits a team’s flexibility in future trade negotiations.

To be eligible to negotiate a no-trade clause, a player must have at least eight years of NBA experience and has to have spent at least four years (not necessarily the most recent four years) with his current team. He also must be signing a free agent contract, rather than an extension.

[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: No-Trade Clause]

For the first time in seven seasons, multiple players will have no-trade clauses in their contracts during the 2024/25 league year. In addition to Bradley Beal, who got his no-trade clause when he signed his current contract in 2022, LeBron James negotiated a no-trade clause into his new deal with the Lakers.

The last time more than one player had an actual no-trade clause in his contract was in ’17/18, when three players – James (as a Cavalier), Dirk Nowitzki, and Carmelo Anthony – had them.

Although Beal and James are the only players who have explicit no-trade clauses in their current deals, there are several others who will have implicit no-trade clauses in 2024/25, giving them the ability to veto trades during the current league year.

A player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year contract – or a two-year deal with an option year – is given no-trade protection, unless he agrees to give up that protection when he inks his deal. That group doesn’t include players on two-way contracts, but it does include players who accept standard (non two-way) one-year qualifying offers.

A player who signs an offer sheet and has that offer matched by his previous team also has the ability to veto a trade for a full calendar year.

With those criteria in mind, here are the players who must give their consent if their teams want to trade them during the ’24/25 league year:

Players with a no-trade clause:

Players whose offer sheets were matched:

  • None

Players re-signing for one year (or two years, with a second-year player/team option):

Note: Players marked with an asterisk (*) are on non-guaranteed contracts.

If any player who re-signed for one year approves a trade during the 2024/25 league year, he’ll have Non-Bird rights at season’s end instead of Early Bird or full Bird rights.

Any player who approves a trade will retain his veto ability on his new team, and would have to consent to any subsequent deal during the 2024/25 season.

The following players were re-signed to one-year contracts (or two-year deals with an option year), but have agreed to forfeit their right to veto a trade in 2024/25:

Giving up the right to veto a trade was introduced as an option in the 2023 Collective Bargaining Agreement.

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Community Shootaround: Underrated Remaining Free Agents

July 28th, 2024 at 8:48pm CST by Tristan Tucker

For the most part, standard roster spots across the league have dried up with the bulk of the top free agents having decided their destinations earlier in July. And some of the teams that do have open roster spots seem to be maneuvering to bring back some of the bigger names remaining in free agency.

Take the Grizzlies for example, who salary dumped Ziaire Williams in a move that seems to be setting up a return for Luke Kennard, one of the top players still available. The Cavaliers have three open standard roster spots, but figure to fill one or more of them once Isaac Okoro‘s restricted free agency is resolved (whether they’re keeping flexibility for a sign-and-trade or simply plan to bring him back remains to be seen). The Knicks, likewise, are the most likely destination for Precious Achiuwa but could still execute a sign-and-trade.

[RELATED: Latest On Cavaliers RFA Isaac Okoro]

The remaining players on our top-50 list are Okoro (No. 20), Kennard (No. 29), Achiuwa (No. 37), Markelle Fultz (No. 43), Cedi Osman (No. 46) and Gordon Hayward (No. 49). While teams seem to have at least some level of plans in place for the top few remaining free agents, there are several others who have found recent success in the NBA and could help teams, but who appear to have been overlooked to this point.

A pair of Nets guards in Lonnie Walker IV and Dennis Smith Jr. are among the free agents who haven’t found new homes. Both are still relatively young and have shown promise in their careers. Smith, in particular, established himself as one of the better backcourt defenders in the league in his season with Charlotte in 2022/23, but he didn’t catch on for the long term. Walker has shown an ability to score in bunches and averaged 9.7 points in just 17.4 minutes last season (20.1 points per 36).

Likewise, Jordan Nwora is a young wing who can score in a pinch, but he hasn’t been brought back by the Raptors to this point. Though he’s shown flashes in Milwaukee, Indiana and Toronto, Nwora’s NBA future is unknown at this point. In 206 career appearances, the former No. 45 overall pick has averaged 7.6 points per game.

Talen Horton-Tucker made 11 starts for the Jazz last season and averaged 10.1 points and 3.5 assists per contest. While it’s possible the Jazz continue to develop the 23-year-old, there has been no indication so far that he remains in their plans.

Other young players like Omer Yurtseven, Dominick Barlow and Brandon Boston Jr. have had moments in the league, but none have found homes this offseason.

Davis Bertans feels likely to end up signing a deal with a contender, but his name hasn’t come up much in free agent conversations. Though he isn’t young, Bertans seemed to rehabilitate his value with Charlotte after averages 20.8 minutes last year after being acquired at the deadline, and he shot 37.5% from three on 6.3 attempts per game.

To be clear, the perceived lack of a market for the aforementioned players isn’t necessarily surprising. Tyus Jones and Gary Trent, though they reportedly passed on more lucrative offers, ended up only signing for the minimum. Teams are impacted by the CBA’s recent tax apron changes and a smaller-than-usual cap increase, resulting in a slower free agency this season.

Still, there’s always value to be found across professional basketball, and plenty of talented players are available to be signed by teams.

We want your input. Who do you think are the most underrated remaining free agents? Are there any players you feel are unfairly overlooked? Is there anyone we forgot?

Head to the comment section to let us know! We look forward to hearing your input.

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Four NBA Restricted Free Agents Still Available

July 27th, 2024 at 4:04pm CST by Luke Adams

Nearly four weeks into the NBA’s 2024/25 league year, there are only four restricted free agents who have yet to reach agreements on new deals, including just one who is coming off a standard contract.

Here are the unsigned RFAs:

There are still a couple teams with cap room available, so one of those teams – the Pistons and Jazz – could make life difficult for the Cavaliers by giving Okoro an offer sheet in that $12-15MM range, but there has been no indication either club plans to do so. A sign-and-trade to an over-the-cap team is another possibility, and Fedor confirmed in a subscriber-only story for Cleveland.com that the Cavs have had talks with some possible trade partners about a deal, but it doesn’t sound like any real progress has been made on that front.

Barring a late-summer push from a new suitor, Okoro may ultimately have to decide whether he wants to earn a higher salary in 2024/25 and bet on himself again as an unrestricted free agent in 2025 or if he prefers the security of a multiyear deal that would pay him less in year one.

Okoro’s leverage is limited, but even his “worst-case” scenario would be a guaranteed $11.8MM salary for next season. Bates, Toppin, and Tshiebwe have far less leverage and a far less appealing set of choices.

Of the 15 players who received two-way qualifying offers this offseason, only one (Vit Krejci of the Hawks) has agreed to a standard contract. Two others had their QOs withdrawn, while nine have returned to their respective teams on new two-way deals. The odds are good that the final three – Bates, Toppin, and Tshiebwe – will eventually have to accept two-way contracts too.

The deadline for teams to unilaterally withdraw a qualifying offer to a restricted free agent passed on July 13, so Bates, Toppin, and Tshiebwe aren’t facing any sort of short-term deadline on whether or not to accept their two-way offers. They can afford to wait a little longer to make their decisions.

Still, even if they accept their respective qualifying offers, those one-year deals come with few assurances. A two-way player can earn a $578,577 salary over the course of the 2024/25 season, but a qualifying offer is only partially guaranteed for $77,500.

The Cavaliers currently have three open two-way slots, while the Knicks have two, so I think Bates and Toppin would be well-positioned to stick around into the regular season if they accept their QOs.

Tshiebwe’s outlook is less clear. Within the last 24 hours, the Pacers filled two of their three two-way openings by signing Quenton Jackson and Tristen Newton. Tshiebwe could take the third slot, but Indiana still has an unsigned second-round pick (Enrique Freeman) who may be the frontrunner for that final two-way, as Dustin Dopirak writes for The Indianapolis Star.

Tshiebwe was an All-NBA G League first-teamer and the G League Rookie of the Year this past season, so I expect he’d draw two-way interest from other teams if the Pacers determine they don’t have room for him.

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Community Shootaround: Bucks’ Offseason Moves

July 25th, 2024 at 4:00pm CST by Rory Maher

Entering the 2024 offseason, the Bucks were limited to signing veterans on minimum-salary contracts because they project to be over the second tax apron. Despite that very obvious constraint, they had still had an attractive situation for role players, with clear rotation minutes available at starting shooting guard, backup guard and backup forward for a team that won the title three years ago and has won the most regular season games in the NBA since 2019.

Milwaukee managed to sign Gary Trent Jr. (25 years old), Delon Wright (32) and Taurean Prince (30) on minimum deals, essentially replacing Malik Beasley (27), Patrick Beverley (36) and Jae Crowder (34) — clear upgrades at every position, both in terms of age and production.

While Trent will get most of the attention, and it is genuinely surprising he couldn’t find a better contract, I really like the addition of Wright. Anyone who watched him shut down Darius Garland — a very difficult player to stay in front of — a couple years ago in Atlanta’s play-in victory over Cleveland can attest to Wright’s ability to defend. He is consistently among the very best guards in the league defensively.

Wright earned between $7.8MM-$9.5MM annually from 2019-2024, so he also took a major pay cut by joining the Bucks — that was less surprising than Trent’s pay cut, however, given that Wright agreed to a buyout with Washington last season in order to sign with Miami for a prorated version of the minimum.

Wright has never been a particularly eager scorer, but the Bucks don’t need him to be — he just needs to hit enough shots to keep defenses honest. He is a solid rebounder, passer and play-maker who takes exceptionally good care of the ball — he had 119 assists and 14 turnovers in 2023/24, an assist-to-turnover ratio of 8.4-to-1. That was an outlier in part due to his low usage, but he was at 4.4-to-1 and 4.2-to-1 the previous two seasons, among the best marks in the league. Wright’s teams have consistently been better when he’s on the court, largely due to his defense.

Milwaukee desperately needed backcourt defense this summer to complement Damian Lillard, a poor defender who excels on the other end. They also needed younger legs and players who can shoot, which they acquired in Trent and Prince.

Trent is a little erratic on both ends of the court. His offensive value is tied to his ability to make shots, and he’s streaky; defensively, he’s not the best at moving his feet, but he’s not a turnstile like Beasley and he can create turnovers with steals, even if he can be prone to gambling. He isn’t a perfect player, but getting Trent on a minimum after he played pretty well earning $52MM over the past three seasons is incredible value.

One of the interesting things about the Bucks’ offseason was that they kept both of their 2024 draft picks — Nos. 23 and 33 — and used them to select players who were viewed to be more long-term prospects in AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith. An athletic but thin guard, the 19-year-old Johnson spent last season playing a limited role in Australia with the Illawarra Hawks, while Smith, a 6’11” forward who can space the floor, spent the ’23/24 campaign with the now-defunct G League Ignite.

The Bucks have been aggressive in trading draft picks for immediate upgrades for years. And given they’re trying to win right now, taking prospects who might need more time to develop is a little counterintuitive. However, Milwaukee also knows it needs to develop players internally to have a shot at remaining competitive with an aging core roster. A.J. Green, MarJon Beauchamp, Andre Jackson and Chris Livingston are among the other young players who will be looking to turn the corner in ’24/25.

Obviously, the Bucks’ postseason ceiling will depend on the health of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and Khris Middleton. After they won that title in 2021, one of Antetokounmpo or Middleton has been injured in each of the past three playoffs; Lillard was also battling ailments in his first postseason with Milwaukee. Still, it’s hard to imagine Jon Horst and the rest of the front office having a more productive offseason than it did, given what its financial constraints.

It’s worth noting that veteran forwards Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Danilo Gallinari and Crowder remain unrestricted free agents. However, the Bucks have a full 18-man roster, making a return for any of them seemingly unlikely; Giannis’ older brother Thanasis has spent the past five seasons with Milwaukee but could miss the entire ’24/25 season due to a torn Achilles tendon.

We want to know what you think. What did you think of Milwaukee’s offseason moves? Will Trent, Wright and Prince prove to be difference-makers? Will the rookies or other young players emerge as regular contributors in 2024/25? Head to the comments to share your thoughts on the Bucks’ outlook for ’24/25.

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Ten 2024 Draft Picks Have Yet To Sign NBA Contracts

July 24th, 2024 at 7:44am CST by Luke Adams

Of the 58 players who were selected in last month’s draft, 48 have signed their first NBA contracts since the start of July. As our tracker shows, the breakdown is as follows:

That leaves 10 players from the 2024 draft class who have yet to sign with their respective NBA teams. Here are those players:

  1. Utah Jazz: Kyle Filipowski, F/C, Duke
  2. San Antonio Spurs: Juan Nunez, G, Ratiopharm Ulm
  3. Atlanta Hawks: Nikola Djurisic, G, Mega Basket
  4. San Antonio Spurs: Harrison Ingram, F, UNC
  5. Indiana Pacers: Tristen Newton, G, UConn
  6. Indiana Pacers: Enrique Freeman, F, Akron
  7. Dallas Mavericks: Melvin Ajinca, G, Saint-Quentin
  8. Golden State Warriors: Quinten Post, C, Boston College
  9. Boston Celtics: Anton Watson, F, Gonzaga
  10. New York Knicks: Kevin McCullar, G/F, Kansas

Of these 10 players, one has already signed a non-NBA contract — French team ASVEL Basket announced earlier this week that it has added Ajinca to its roster, so it appears he’ll become a draft-and-stash prospect, spending at least one season overseas before joining the Mavericks.

That’s likely the path Nunez will follow as well. While nothing is official yet, a report earlier this month stated that the Spanish point guard is expected to sign with Barcelona on a deal that will give him an NBA out during the 2025 offseason. The Spurs haven’t been operating as if they expect Nunez to be on their roster next season, having filled their 15-man roster with players on standard contracts.

Djurisic is the other international prospect in this group and his plans for 2024/25 remain unclear. He fractured his left foot during Summer League play and the injury is expected to sideline him until at least late September, putting him behind schedule in his offseason workouts.

The Hawks don’t appear to have room on their 15-man roster for Djurisic at this point (they have 15 players on guaranteed deals, plus Bruno Fernando on a non-guaranteed contract), though they do have a two-way slot open. We’ll see if the plan is to have Djurisic take that spot or if he’ll continue playing overseas for another season.

The Jazz have space on their 15-man roster for Filipowski and I expect him to sign a three- or four-year contract sooner or later. Completing that move would cut into Utah’s cap room a little, so the club will likely handle its other offseason business to make sure it doesn’t need that room for other purposes — Filipowski can be signed using the second-round exception whether team salary is over or under the cap. The Jazz also have yet to formally finalize reported deals with Drew Eubanks and Johnny Juzang, which is another sign they’re keeping all options open with their cap room.

The other six unsigned second-rounders – Ingram, Newton, Freeman, Post, Watson, and McCullar – all look to me like obvious candidates for two-way contracts. As we detailed on Tuesday, the Spurs, Pacers, and Knicks each have multiple open two-way slots, while the Celtics have one open spot, so there’s nothing standing in the way of their draftees filling those openings.

It’s worth noting that Indiana has two-way qualifying offers on the table for two players (Quenton Jackson and Oscar Tshiebwe), so there won’t be room for those two guys and Newton and Freeman on two-way deals. With 14 players on standard contracts, the Pacers could give one of those four players a 15-man spot if they want to retain all of them.

The Warriors, meanwhile, don’t currently have an open two-way slot for Post. One of their two-way players – Pat Spencer – is a carry-over from last season, so his grip on a two-way spot might be weaker than more recent signees like Reece Beekman and Daeqwon Plowden, but Spencer had a strong Summer League showing, so I’m not necessarily assuming Post will take his spot.

For what it’s worth, Post was born and raised in the Netherlands before playing college basketball in the U.S., so spending a season in Europe wouldn’t be a total curveball for him. Still, at age 24, he’s probably NBA-ready. A standard contract isn’t an option for Post for now, since the Warriors are right up against their first-apron hard cap and can’t afford to sign a 15th man. That could change if they make a trade, but for now, his best hope of opening the season with Golden State would be for the team to waive one of its two-way players.

While it’s rare for U.S.-born players to be stashed overseas, it’s not unheard of, so that’s also a possibility for some of the other unsigned players from the back half of the second round.

Another potential option would be signing a G League contract that allows the player’s NBA team to retain his rights while not dedicating an 18-man regular season roster spot to him. There’s often at least one player per draft class who takes that route. Mojave King did it in 2023, Gui Santos did it in 2022, and two Nets draftees (RaiQuan Gray and Marcus Zegarowski) did it in 2021. McCullar, a late pick who is still recovering from a knee injury he sustained at Kansas, might be a candidate for this path.

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