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Special Trade Eligibility Dates For 2024/25

November 9th, 2024 at 2:47pm CST by Luke Adams

In a pair of previous articles, we took a closer look at the trade restrictions placed on two groups of players who signed free agent contracts this past offseason. The smaller of the two groups featured players who can’t be traded by their current teams until January 15, having re-signed on contracts that met a set of specific criteria. The other offseason signees we examined aren’t eligible to be traded until December 15.

In addition to those two groups, there are a few other subsets of players who face certain trade restrictions this season. They either can’t be traded until a certain date, can’t be traded in certain packages, or can’t be traded at all prior to February’s deadline.

Listed below are the players affected by these trade restrictions. This list, which we’ll continue to update throughout the season as needed, can be found on our desktop sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features,” or in our mobile menu under “Features.”

Players who recently signed as free agents or had their two-way contracts converted:

A player who signs a free agent contract typically becomes trade-eligible either three months after he signs or on December 15, whichever comes later. That means a player who signs on September 1 would become trade-eligible on Dec. 15, but one who signs on Sept. 22 wouldn’t be eligible to be dealt until Dec. 22.

Similarly, players who have two-way pacts converted to standard contracts can’t be dealt for three months after that happens.

Here are the affected players, who signed free agent contracts or were converted from two-way deals after Sept. 15, along with the dates their trade restrictions lift:

December 17:

January 2:

January 15:

January 16:

January 28:

February 5:

Players who sign free agent contracts or have their two-way deals converted to standard contracts after November 6 this season won’t become trade-eligible prior to the 2025 trade deadline, which falls on February 6. That restriction applies to the following players, listed in alphabetical order:

Players who recently signed veteran contract extensions:

A player who signs a veteran contract extension can’t be dealt for six months if his new deal exceeds the NBA’s extend-and-trade limits by meeting any of the following criteria:

  • Includes a first-year raise greater than 20% (or greater than 20% of the estimated average salary, for players earning below the average).
  • Includes a subsequent annual raise greater than 5%.
  • Includes a renegotiation of the player’s current salary.
  • Secures the player for more than four total seasons (including both his current deal and the extension).

A player can sign a veteran extension and remain trade-eligible as long as his new deal doesn’t meet any of those criteria. Timberwolves big man Rudy Gobert, for instance, remained eligible to be traded after signing a three-year extension that featured a pay cut in the first year and raises below 5% in the second and third years.

Here are the players whose recent veteran extensions exceed the extend-and-trade limits, along with the dates their trade restrictions lift:

January 6:

January 7:

January 12:

January 23:

January 26:

February 2:

Ineligible to be traded before this season’s February 6 deadline:

Additionally, when a player signs a super-max contract extension, he becomes ineligible to be traded for one full year.

That means Celtics forward Jayson Tatum won’t become trade-eligible prior to the 2025 deadline despite signing his extension in July. Tatum is the only player who signed a super-max (designated veteran) contract this summer.

Players who were recently claimed off waivers:

A player who is claimed off waivers is ineligible to be traded for 30 days. When a waiver claim occurs during the offseason, the 30-day clock begins on the first day of the subsequent season.

As our tracker shows, four waiver claims occurred during the 2024 offseason, but only one of those players is on a standard contract: Pistons big man Paul Reed.

Reed will remain ineligible to be dealt for the first 30 days of the season, then become trade-eligible on November 21.

Players who were recently traded:

Players who were recently traded can be flipped again immediately. However, unless they were acquired via cap room, they can’t be traded again immediately in a deal that aggregates their salary with another player’s for matching purposes.

For instance, after acquiring Jalen McDaniels from the Kings on October 15, the Spurs could have turned around and traded McDaniels and his $4.74MM salary right away for another player earning about the same amount. But if San Antonio had wanted to package McDaniels and, say, Zach Collins ($16.7MM) for salary-matching purposes in a deal for a bigger-money player, the team would have had to wait two months to do so.

There are two trades that currently fall within the aggregation restriction window: San Antonio’s acquisition of McDaniels and the three-team Karl-Anthony Towns blockbuster that was completed on October 2. However, the aggregation restriction doesn’t apply to most of the players involved in those deals for the following reasons:

  • McDaniels (Spurs), Keita Bates-Diop (Timberwolves), Duane Washington (Hornets), and Charlie Brown Jr. (Hornets) have all been waived since being traded.
  • The Timberwolves aren’t permitted to aggregate salaries since they’re operating over the second tax apron, meaning Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo are ineligible to be aggregated whether or not that two-month window has expired.
  • DaQuan Jeffries was signed-and-traded to the Hornets as part of the Towns deal. Since he signed a new contract, the trade restrictions for recently signed free agents apply to Jeffries and he’s ineligible to be moved at all for three months.

That leaves just one player to whom the aggregation restriction applies: Towns can be aggregated with another player’s salary by the Knicks as of December 2.

Any player who is traded after December 16 (without being acquired via cap room) won’t be eligible to be flipped before the trade deadline in a second deal that aggregates his salary with another player’s. A special exception allows a player acquired between Dec. 6 and Dec. 16 to be “re-aggregated” on Feb. 5, a little ahead of the typical two-month waiting period.

Note: Only players on standard, full-season contracts are listed on this page. Players who sign 10-day contracts can’t be traded. Players who sign two-way deals can’t be traded for up to 30 days after signing.

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Hoops Rumors Glossary: Poison Pill Provision

November 8th, 2024 at 8:48pm CST by Luke Adams

The poison pill provision isn’t technically a term defined in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. However, the concept of a “poison pill” has colloquially come to refer to a pair of NBA concepts.

The first of those concepts relates to the Gilbert Arenas Provision, which we’ve explained in a separate glossary entry. When a team uses the Arenas provision to sign a restricted free agent with one or two years of NBA experience to an offer sheet, that team can include a massive third-year raise that’s often referred to as a “poison pill,” since it makes it more difficult for the original team to match the offer.

The second meaning of the “poison poll” is the one that has become more common – and more frequently relevant – in recent years. It relates to players who have recently signed rookie scale extensions.

The “poison pill provision” applies when a team extends a player’s rookie scale contract, then trades him before the extension officially takes effect. It’s a rare situation, but it features its own set of rules, since extensions following rookie contracts often create a large gap between a player’s current and future salaries.

For salary-matching purposes, if a player is traded between the time his rookie contract is extended and the following July 1 (when that extension takes effect), the player’s incoming value for the receiving team is the average of his current-year salary and the annual salary in each year of his extension (including option years, but not including unlikely incentives).

His current team, on the other hand, simply treats his current-year salary as the outgoing figure for matching purposes.

Let’s use Rockets guard Jalen Green as an example. Green was extended by Houston last month, but could theoretically still be a trade candidate this season if the right opportunity arises. He’ll earn $12,483,048 in 2024/25, the final year of his rookie scale contract, then $105,333,333 across the next three years as a result of his extension.

If the Rockets decide they want to trade Green this season, the poison pill provision would complicate their efforts.

From Houston’s perspective, Green’s current-year cap hit ($12,483,048) would represent his outgoing salary for matching purposes. However, any team acquiring Green would have to view his incoming value as $29,454,095 — that’s the annual average of the four years and $117,816,381 he has left when accounting for both his current contract and his new extension.

Even after accounting for the more lenient salary-matching rules for teams operating below the first tax apron, the incoming and outgoing salaries in a trade usually have to be roughly in the same ballpark, as we outline in our traded player exception glossary entry. If one side must view Green as a $29.5MM player while the other side considers him a $12.5MM player, filling out a deal with players and salaries that work for both sides would be a challenge.

[RELATED: 11 Players Affected By Poison Pill Provision In 2024/25]

When a player signs a maximum-salary rookie scale extension whose value will be determined by a percentage of the salary cap, a 4.5% cap increase is presumed for the purposes of calculating his average aggregate salary.

Here’s an example. Since this season’s salary cap is $140,588,000, a 4.5% increase would work out to $146,914,460. Pistons guard Cade Cunningham signed a maximum-salary extension that will begin at 25% of that amount with 8% annual raises, which works out to $213,025,967 over five years. Add that figure to Cunningham’s $13,940,809 salary for 2024/25, divide by six years, and you get $37,827,796, which would be considered his incoming salary in the extremely unlikely event that he’s traded this season.

Cunningham’s rookie scale extension could technically be worth up to 30% of next year’s cap if he meets certain performance criteria (e.g. making an All-NBA team), but that isn’t considered in the calculation for the poison pill provision if the performance criteria has not yet been met.

The poison pill provision is one key reason why a team is unlikely to sign a player to a rookie scale extension unless that team is fairly certain it won’t use him in a blockbuster deal before the upcoming trade deadline.

Of course, there are two sides to that coin. The Warriors, for instance, would have an easier time trading Jonathan Kuminga in the coming months than they would if they had extended him prior to opening night, since his incoming and outgoing cap hits are now both $7,636,307 for the rest of 2024/25. But extending Green in October will make it easier for the Rockets to trade him during the 2025 offseason, whereas Kuminga – a restricted free agent – would be trickier to move at that point due to various sign-and-trade restrictions.

Trades involving a player who recently signed a rookie scale extension are already pretty infrequent. Those players are often young building blocks whose career trajectories are promising enough to have warranted a long-term investment. Those aren’t the kind of players teams often trade. The poison poll provision further disincentivizes a deal involving one of those recently extended players by complicating salary-matching rules, making those trades that much rarer.

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 versions of this post were published in previous years.

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Largest Trade Exceptions Available This Season

November 6th, 2024 at 2:40pm CST by Luke Adams

Ahead of the NBA’s 2025 trade deadline, it’s worth keeping in mind which teams hold traded player exceptions that could come in handy to grease the wheels on an in-season deal.

As we explain in our glossary, a traded player exception allows a team to take on salary in a trade without sending out any salary in return. The amount of the exception (plus $250K for non-apron teams) is the amount of salary the team is permitted to take back without salary-matching – either in a single deal or in multiple trades – for one year.

For instance, a team with a $10MM trade exception could acquire a player earning $4MM and a second player earning $6MM without having to worry about sending out any outgoing salary.

In recent years, sizable traded player exceptions have served as wild cards that helped accommodate both pre-deadline and offseason deals. For example, after creating a $9.5MM trade exception when they sent Royce O’Neale to the Suns ahead of the 2024 trade deadline, the Nets used that TPE to acquire Ziaire Williams and a future draft pick in an offseason trade that allowed Memphis to shed some salary.

Many trade exceptions expire without being used, but as our tracker shows, there are several sizable ones available this season that could be useful when trade season begins in earnest.

Here are the 15 biggest trade exceptions around the NBA for now, along with their expiry dates in parentheses:

  1. Atlanta Hawks: $25,266,266 (7/7/25)
  2. Brooklyn Nets: $23,300,000 (7/7/25)
  3. Chicago Bulls: $17,506,232 (7/8/25)
  4. Dallas Mavericks: $16,193,183 (7/7/25)
  5. Memphis Grizzlies: $12,600,000 (2/3/25)
  6. Washington Wizards: $12,402,000 (2/10/25)
  7. New Orleans Pelicans: $9,900,000 (7/7/25)
  8. Minnesota Timberwolves: $8,780,488 (7/7/25)
  9. Portland Trail Blazers: $6,875,000 (7/7/25)
  10. Miami Heat: $6,477,319 (1/23/25)
  11. Sacramento Kings: $6,341,464 (6/30/25)
  12. Memphis Grizzlies: $6,133,005 (7/21/25)
  13. Sacramento Kings: $5,893,768 (7/8/25)
  14. New Orleans Pelicans: $5,722,116 (1/17/25)
  15. Denver Nuggets: $5,250,000 (7/7/25)

A number of these trade exceptions are more likely to be used next offseason, when teams could have more cap flexibility, than during the current season, when so many clubs are within spitting distance of the luxury tax line or a hard cap.

For example, using even a small portion of that $25MM+ exception during the season would push the Hawks‘ team salary into tax territory, but with several contracts coming off their books next summer, they’d be in a better position to take on a big salary at that time.

The exceptions that expire before next offseason are the ones to watch more closely during the season. That $12MM+ Wizards TPE is especially intriguing, since Washington is one of the few teams with plenty of breathing room below the tax threshold. They could use nearly all of that exception at the deadline and still avoid becoming a taxpayer.

The two TPEs listed in italics can’t be used at all, since the Heat are currently operating over the first tax apron, while the Timberwolves are over the second apron. Apron teams are prohibited from using trade exceptions that were generated during the prior season (like Miami’s) or that were created by sending out a player via sign-and-trade (like Minnesota’s).

It’s worth noting that some of these exceptions may be used in a deal that could otherwise be completed using salary matching. For example, a team with a $12MM trade exception that swaps one $10MM player for another could use the exception to take on the incoming player and create a new $10MM exception using the outgoing player.

Given tax and apron considerations, we may see some deals along those lines during the season, since using a TPE in that manner would allow a team to essentially roll it over for another year.

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Players Signed After Wednesday Won’t Be Trade-Eligible This Season

November 6th, 2024 at 11:57am CST by Luke Adams

When a free agent signs a standard contract with an NBA team, he becomes ineligible to be traded for at least three months. Since this season’s trade deadline will land on February 6, that means a player who signs a new deal with a team anytime after Wednesday, November 6 won’t be eligible to be dealt this season.

That three-month trade restriction also applies to a player who is converted from a two-way contract to a standard deal. So if a player signs as a free agent or is promoted from a two-way deal to a standard roster spot on Thursday, his trade restriction wouldn’t lift until February 7, a day after this season’s deadline has passed.

If no team completes a signing at some point before midnight Eastern tonight, the most recent signees who will have trade eligibility later this season are a pair of Knicks: Matt Ryan and Ariel Hukporti.

Ryan signed with New York as a free agent on Tuesday, while Hukporti was promoted from his two-way deal to the standard roster. Assuming they’re still on those non-guaranteed deals three months from now, Ryan and Hukporti would become trade-eligible on February 5, a day before the deadline.

Pelicans guard Jaylen Nowell (February 3), Thunder forward Malevy Leons (January 31), and Grizzlies center Jay Huff (January 28) are a few of the other players who would become eligible to be moved shortly before the Feb. 6 deadline if they remain under contract until then.

The three-month trade restriction doesn’t apply to players who sign two-way contracts — those players are ineligible to be dealt for just 30 days. Trades involving players on two-way deals are pretty rare, but it’s worth noting that anyone who inks a two-way contract on or before January 7 would become trade-eligible ahead of this season’s deadline.

We previously posted lists of players who won’t become trade-eligible until December 15 or January 15 after signing new contracts in the offseason. Later this week, we’ll publish one more list detailing which players have special, specific trade eligibility dates — that group will include Ryan, Hukporti, and the rest of the players mentioned above, plus many more, including several who signed offseason contract extensions.

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Community Shootaround: NBA’s Last Two Undefeated Teams

November 5th, 2024 at 1:50pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA season tipped off two weeks ago today and 28 of the league’s 30 teams have lost at least once since then. In fact, 25 of 30 have already dropped at least three games.

One team in each conference still has an unblemished record though, with the Cavaliers leading the Eastern Conference at 8-0 while the Thunder sit atop the Western Conference at 7-0.

Oklahoma City’s performance so far is probably less of a surprise, given that the team’s projected over/under of 56.5 wins during the preseason was four games ahead of any other Western team — we knew the Thunder were going to be really good.

Still, OKC deserves kudos for living up to the hype in the early going despite missing top offseason free agent addition Isaiah Hartenstein, who has yet to make his regular season Thunder debut due to a fractured hand.

Even without Hartenstein, the club has the NBA’s best net rating (+17.1), buoyed by a defensive rating (93.8) that is over eight points per 100 possessions better than that of the second-place Warriors (102.1). The Thunder have won every single one of their games so far by at least 12 points, going 4-0 on the road and 3-0 at home.

Their schedule has certainly helped. Four of the Thunder’s seven wins have come against lottery teams from last season (the Bulls, Hawks, Spurs, and Trail Blazers), while two others have come against teams who have key players injured (the Clippers and Magic). OKC’s most impressive win was its season-opening victory in Denver against a Nuggets team that hasn’t quite looked like itself in the early going.

Still, the Thunder have easily handled the opponents across the floor from them, which is all you can ask for. As they look to extend their win streak, they’ll visit Denver again on Wednesday before beginning a six-game homestand that includes matchups against the Rockets (this Friday), Warriors (Nov. 10), Clippers (Nov. 11), Pelicans (Nov. 13), Suns (Nov. 15), and Mavericks (Nov. 17).

Over in the East, the Cavaliers were considered a potential top-four seed, but few were counting on them to come out of the gates quite like this.

The Cavs have had the NBA’s second-best offense (121.0 rating) and its fifth-best defense (108.3) so far, for an overall net rating of +12.7. They rank atop the league in true shooting percentage (63.0%) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.28-to-1).

Like the Thunder, Cleveland has been missing a key rotation player – starting small forward Max Strus – but has done a good job of getting by in his absence, with Dean Wade, Caris LeVert, Sam Merrill, and Isaac Okoro all providing solid minutes on the wing, while Ty Jerome has thrived as the team’s backup point guard after missing nearly all of last season due to an ankle injury.

The Cavs’ schedule to open the season was somewhat soft, with their first three victories coming against Toronto, Detroit, and Washington. They’ve also benefited from getting to play the Magic (without Banchero) and the struggling Bucks (twice) at the right time. But they had good wins over the Knicks (in New York) and the Lakers (by 24 points).

The Cavs will be in New Orleans on Wednesday before hosting the Warriors and Nets for a back-to-back set on Friday and Saturday. Next week, they play in Chicago (Nov. 11) and Philadelphia (Nov. 13), then return home to face the Bulls (Nov. 15) and Hornets (Nov. 17).

We want to hear your early impressions of the league’s two remaining undefeated teams.

When do you expect the Thunder and Cavaliers to take their first loss? Could they stay perfect for another week or two? Are their hot starts the beginning of big seasons in Oklahoma City and Cleveland, or do you expect the two clubs to start sliding in the standings a little after their win streaks come to an end? Has their play this fall made you any more bullish about their chances to get past the second round of the playoffs in the spring?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!

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Community Shootaround: Early-Season Trends

November 2nd, 2024 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA season tipped off just 11 days ago, which means it’s still far too early to draw any sweeping conclusions about anything that’s happened so far.

Still, a quick glance at the standings reveals some expected outcomes. The defending-champion Celtics are off to another strong start, at 5-1. The Thunder, widely projected to be the top team in the West, are the only undefeated club left in the conference at 5-0.

On the other end of the spectrum, projected lottery teams like the Trail Blazers (2-4) and Jazz (0-5) sit at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, while the Raptors and Pistons (both 1-5) bring up the rear in the East.

There are a few records that are a little more surprising, however. We figured the Cavaliers would be among the East’s contenders, but they’ve been even better than expected in the early going — their 6-0 mark is the NBA’s best record.

Other would-be contenders in the East, like the Pacers (2-4) and Bucks (1-4) are off to far slower starts. Milwaukee’s performance, in particular, has been troubling, given the underwhelming way their season ended in 2023/24. Damian Lillard‘s fit doesn’t look any smoother in his second year with the Bucks than it did in the first, and the team badly needs a healthy Khris Middleton, who has yet to make his season debut after missing 74 games across the past two seasons.

In the West, several of the clubs led by former MVPs (Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and LeBron James) are off to strong starts, with the Suns (4-1), Warriors (4-1), and Lakers (4-2) holding top-four spots in the standings entering Saturday’s action. New head coaches Mike Budenholzer and J.J. Redick seem to be making a positive impact in Phoenix and Los Angeles, respectively, while Golden State’s depth has been a major asset so far.

On the other hand, after an underwhelming offseason in which they lost starting shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in free agency and faced questions about the fit of newcomer Russell Westbrook and the health of Jamal Murray, the Nuggets are just 2-3 and required an overtime period to beat Toronto and Brooklyn. Nikola Jokic has been playing at his usual MVP level, but he’s not getting enough help, and Westbrook (.244 FG%, .200 3PT%) and Murray (.370 FG%, .304 3PT%) have done little so far to answer those offseason questions.

Again, with the caveat that the sample size is small, we want to hear your takeaways from the first week-and-a-half of the season.

Which fall trends are you taking seriously and which ones do you expect to be short-lived? Which struggling teams and players should be worried and which ones just need more time to hit their stride? Which clubs off to strong starts are legitimate and which ones do you expect to come back down to earth?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!

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11 Players Affected By Poison Pill Provision In 2024/25

November 2nd, 2024 at 1:32pm CST by Luke Adams

The term “poison pill” doesn’t actually show up in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, but it’s used colloquially to refer to a provision in the CBA that affects players who recently signed rookie scale contract extensions.

As we explain in our glossary entry, the so-called poison pill provision applies when a player who signed a rookie scale extension is traded before the extension takes effect.

In that scenario, the player’s incoming value for the receiving team for matching purposes is determined by averaging his current-year salary and the salaries in each year of his new extension. His current team, on the other hand, simply treats his current-year salary as the outgoing figure for matching purposes.

For instance, Rockets big man Alperen Sengun is earning a $5,424,654 salary in 2024/25, but signed a five-year, $185MM extension that will begin in ’25/26.

Therefore, if Houston wanted to trade Sengun this season, his outgoing value for salary-matching purposes would be $5,424,654 (this year’s salary), while his incoming value for the team acquiring him would be $31,737,442 (this year’s salary, plus the $185MM extension, divided by six years).

[RELATED: 2024 NBA Rookie Scale Extension Recap]

Most of the players who signed rookie scale extensions aren’t realistic candidates to be traded anytime soon. But even in the event that a team does want to look into trading one of these recently extended players, the gap between the player’s incoming trade value and outgoing trade value could make it a real challenge to find a deal that works for both sides — especially if a team is operating in or near tax apron territory.

The “poison pill” provision applies to 11 players who signed rookie scale extensions in 2024. Here are those players, along with their outgoing salaries and incoming salaries for trade purposes:

Player Team Outgoing trade value Incoming trade value
Cade Cunningham DET $13,940,809 $37,827,796
Jalen Green HOU $12,483,048 $29,454,095
Evan Mobley CLE $11,227,657 $37,375,604
Scottie Barnes TOR $10,130,980 $37,192,825
Jalen Suggs ORL $9,188,385 $26,614,731
Franz Wagner ORL $7,007,092 $36,672,177
Moses Moody GSW $5,803,269 $10,825,817
Corey Kispert WAS $5,705,887 $11,951,177
Alperen Sengun HOU $5,424,654 $31,737,442
Trey Murphy NOP $5,159,854 $23,431,971
Jalen Johnson ATL $4,510,905 $25,751,818

Once the 2025/26 league year begins next July, the poison pill provision will no longer apply to these players. At that time, the player’s ’25/26 salary would represent both his outgoing and incoming value.

Until then, the gap between those outgoing and incoming figures will make it tricky for several of these players to be moved, though it affects some more significantly than others.

The difference of nearly $30MM between Wagner’s incoming and outgoing trade figures, for instance, means there’s essentially no chance he could be dealt to an over-the-cap team in 2024/25 — given that the Magic have no desire to move Wagner, that’ll be a moot point, but it’s still worth noting.

On the other hand, the much smaller divide between Moody’s incoming and outgoing salaries makes a trade involving him a more viable option, though the Warriors will have a hard cap to deal with that could complicate matters in they event they look to include Moody in a deal.

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Recap Of 2025/26 Rookie Scale Option Decisions

November 1st, 2024 at 7:24am CST by Luke Adams

Decisions on rookie scale options for the 2025/26 season were due on Thursday — any team that wanted to exercise a third- or fourth-year option on a player for next season was required to do so by October 31.

As is typically the case, a huge majority of those options were picked up. Even for top picks, who are paid higher salaries due to the NBA’s rookie scale, those third- and fourth-year options are relatively team-friendly. So unless a player has fallen well short of his team’s expectations, it generally makes sense to lock in his salary for the following season at this point.

However, not every player with a 2025/26 team option had it exercised by Thursday’s deadline. A player who had his option declined will now be on track to reach unrestricted free agency during the summer of 2025, assuming he’s not waived before then. At the end of the season, his team won’t be able to offer him a starting salary that exceeds the value of his declined option.

Listed below are the players who had their options turned down, followed by the players whose options were exercised. If a player had his option picked up, his ’25/26 salary is now guaranteed and he won’t be eligible for free agency until at least 2026.

Declined options:

We saw more rookie scale options turned down this season than usual, which is perhaps a side effect of the NBA’s new tax apron system that has teams more wary than ever of carrying extraneous salary.

It’s also a little unusual to see so many players remain on their teams’ respective rosters after having their options declined. A year ago, for instance, five of the six of the players who didn’t have their rookie scale options exercised ahead of October’s deadline were waived outright, resulting in their options being declined as part of the transaction. That only happened with Griffin this year, and only because he chose to step away from basketball.

Among the players whose fourth-year options were declined, Davis, Moore, and Baldwin were the least surprising decisions. I was half-expecting one or more of them to be cut during the offseason or preseason. I also wasn’t shocked to see the Hawks and Bucks pass on Roddy’s and Beauchamp’s options, respectively. Neither player has established himself as a reliable rotation piece, and Milwaukee especially has luxury tax penalties to consider — the Bucks are better off replacing Beauchamp’s $4.8MM salary with a minimum-salary contract in 2025/26.

I didn’t view LaRavia as a lock to have his option picked up, but I thought the Grizzlies might pull the trigger on it, since he’s playing rotation minutes in the early going this season. That decision looks like it’s as much about roster flexibility as it is financial flexibility — Memphis has about $157MM in guaranteed money on its books for next season, which is well below the luxury tax line, but that’s for 12 players. Not locking in LaRavia’s contract gives the club some more room to maneuver with those last few roster spots.

Of all these option decisions, the Lakers declining Hood-Schifino’s was the biggest eyebrow-raiser. It’s rare for a player to have his third-year option turned down just a year after being made a first-round pick. It’s even rarer when it’s a player who was drafted as high as Hood-Schifino (No. 17). The Lakers have their cap situation to consider, and clearing Hood-Schifino from the books for 2025/26 could created some additional spending flexibility, but it’s a tacit acknowledgment from the front office that its top 2023 pick was a miss.

Exercised options:

Fourth year:

Note: These players will become eligible for rookie scale extensions in July of 2025. If they’re not extended, they’ll be on track for restricted free agency in 2026.

These 22 players who had their fourth-year options exercised, along with the seven listed in the section above who had their fourth-year options declined, were drafted in the first round in 2022.

The 30th first-round pick in that class was TyTy Washington, who was waived by the Thunder in August 2023. Washington had both his third- and fourth-year options declined as part of that transaction last summer.

Third year:

Note: Teams will have to make fourth-year option decisions for 2026/27 on these players by October 31, 2025.

As usual, nearly every player from the 2023 draft class had his third-year option picked up, with 29 of 30 exercised. As noted above, Hood-Schifino was the only player from 2023’s first round who is on track to become an unrestricted free agent in 2025.

For a team-by-team breakdown of this year’s rookie scale option decisions for the 2025/26 season, along with full stories on each decision, you can check out our tracker.

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Rookie Scale Option Decisions Due On Thursday

October 27th, 2024 at 5:29pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s transaction wire has been pretty 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 2025/26 team options on rookie scale contracts arrives on Thursday (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 Thunder picked up Chet Holmgren‘s fourth-year option on Wednesday, they were locking in his salary for the 2025/26 season — his ’24/25 salary became guaranteed last October when the team exercised his third-year option.

As our tracker shows, 35 options have been picked up so far, but a number of teams still have decisions to make on players who were first-round picks in 2022 and 2023. Some of those remaining option decisions are no-brainers — the Hornets haven’t yet exercised Brandon Miller‘s $11.97MM option for 2025/26, but there’s no doubt they’ll do so.

Other decisions are less cut-and-dried. For example, the Bucks must decide whether they want to pick up MarJon Beauchamp‘s $4.78MM fourth-year option for ’25/26. Given Milwaukee’s position relative to the luxury tax line and the fact that Beauchamp has yet to secure a regular rotation spot, the Bucks may not want to lock in that cap hit.

Here’s the list of the 23 option decisions that have yet to be officially finalized:

Atlanta Hawks

Brooklyn Nets

Charlotte Hornets

Detroit Pistons

Golden State Warriors

Houston Rockets

Los Angeles Clippers

Los Angeles Lakers

Memphis Grizzlies

Milwaukee Bucks

Toronto Raptors

Washington Wizards

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NBA Teams With Open Roster Spots

October 26th, 2024 at 4:01pm CST by Luke Adams

Each of the NBA’s 30 teams is permitted to carry 15 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals, which works out to a maximum of 540 players across 30 rosters.

Of those 540 potential roster spots, 524 are currently occupied, leaving 16 open roster spots around the NBA. Three of those open roster spots belong to a single team, while 13 other clubs have one opening apiece.

[RELATED: 2024/25 NBA Roster Counts]

Here’s the full breakdown:

Three open standard roster spots

  • New York Knicks

As we’ve previously discussed in stories about the Knicks, teams can only keep two or more spots on their standard rosters open for up to 14 days at a time, so New York will have to add two players to reach the 14-man minimum by November 5 at the latest.

The Knicks’ roster situation is further complicated by the fact that they don’t have enough room below their hard cap to fit two veteran minimum-salary contracts, meaning at least one of the two players they add to the standard roster will have to be a rookie whom they drafted.

Rookie big man Ariel Hukporti is the frontrunner to receive a promotion from his two-way contract, but it remains unclear who will join him by Nov. 5. Landry Shamet was the favorite to fill the other spot, but won’t be considered until he recovers from his dislocated shoulder. Matt Ryan has been rumored as a potential target, but it might make more sense to have him fill the two-way slot that Hukporti vacates.

One open standard roster spot

  • Boston Celtics
  • Cleveland Cavaliers
  • Detroit Pistons
  • Golden State Warriors
  • Houston Rockets
  • Indiana Pacers
  • Memphis Grizzlies
  • Miami Heat
  • New Orleans Pelicans
  • Philadelphia 76ers
  • Phoenix Suns
  • Sacramento Kings

Many of these teams are carrying an open roster spot for luxury tax reasons. The Celtics, Cavaliers, Warriors, Heat, Pelicans, Sixers, and Suns are all over the tax line, while the Pacers, Grizzlies, and Kings don’t have much breathing room below it. Most of those teams will add 15th men eventually, but they’ll be in no rush to do so yet.

The Pistons, meanwhile, still have about $10.2MM in cap room, which could come in handy in an in-season trade. They could add a 15th man if they want to, but they probably won’t do so unless there’s a specific target they really like, since bringing someone else on board would cut into their remaining cap space.

Of all the teams in this group, the Rockets may be the best bet to add a 15th man sooner rather than later, since they’re well above the cap and well below the tax, so there are no concerns related to finances or spending flexibility. Still, they have a deep roster, so there’s no point in filling that roster spot with someone who will just sit on the bench. The Rockets might keep it open unless they get bitten by the injury bug or have their eye on a specific prospect they want to develop.

One open two-way roster spot

  • Orlando Magic

In past seasons, a team without a G League affiliate of its own might be slow to fill its two-way contract slots, but all 30 NBA clubs now have affiliates in the NBAGL, so there’s no real excuse not to carry a full complement of two-way players.

With training camps set to get underway on Monday for G League teams and the season tipping off on November 8, it wouldn’t surprise me if Orlando fills its lone two-way opening within the next week or two.

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