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Contract, Roster Deadlines Loom For NBA Teams

October 23rd, 2023 at 6:56am CST by Luke Adams

We’re one day away from the start of the NBA’s 2023/24 regular season, making Monday the last day of the 2023 offseason. Today serves as the deadline for a number of contract- and roster-related decisions around the league. Here are the most important ones:

Rookie Scale Extensions

A total of 27 players entered the offseason eligible for rookie scale extensions.

Eight of those players – LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Haliburton, Desmond Bane, Devin Vassell, Isaiah Stewart, Zeke Nnaji, and Payton Pritchard – have already signed new deals, and a ninth (Deni Avdija) has agreed to an extension that will be officially completed today.

That leaves the following 18 players eligible to sign rookie scale extensions on Monday:

The majority of these guys won’t sign new deals until the 2024 offseason, when they’re eligible for restricted free agency. But it would be a surprise if at least a couple more players from this list don’t finalize rookie scale extensions today.

Bey, Green, McDaniels, Okongwu, and Quickley are some of the best candidates. Maxey would be in that group too, but it sounds like the Sixers will wait until 2024 to lock him up in order to maximize their cap flexibility next offseason.

The deadline for rookie scale extensions is at 5:00 pm Central time.

Certain Veteran Contract Extensions

A veteran player who signed his current contract at least two years ago (or three years ago if it was a five-year deal) is eligible to sign an extension. That means many veterans around the NBA are eligible to sign contract extensions today, but that number will significantly drop as of tomorrow.

Once the regular season begins, only veterans in the final year of their contracts can sign extensions — a player who has multiple years remaining is no longer extension-eligible until the following offseason.

[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Veteran Contract Extension]

Let’s use the Nets as an example. Ben Simmons, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Royce O’Neale are all eligible for extensions right now, but Dinwiddie and O’Neale are on expiring deals while Simmons is not. That means Dinwiddie and O’Neale will be able to sign extensions anytime between now and June 30, 2024, but Simmons’ eligibility window will close after Monday and won’t reopen until next July.

An extension-eligible veteran who has a player option for 2024/25 could still sign a new deal later in the ’23/24 league year, but he’d have to eliminate that option to do so. Picking up the option would make him ineligible to complete an extension between Tuesday and the start of the ’24/25 league year, since it would turn his contract into a multiyear deal, not an expiring one.

With the help of information from Bobby Marks of ESPN (Insider link), here are the 21 players who have a Monday deadline to sign a veteran extension if they want to lock in a new deal before next July:

A few of these players won’t sign extensions this year because they would qualify for more years and more money if they wait until next offseason.

That group includes Adebayo, Fox, Ingram, and Murray, who each could qualify for a super-max extension with an All-NBA berth (or MVP or Defensive Player of the Year award) in 2023/24. It also includes Tatum, who has already met the performance criteria for a 2024 super-max deal, as well as Antetokounmpo and Mitchell.

The deadline for veteran extensions for players on non-expiring contracts is at 10:59 pm CT tonight.

Regular Season Rosters

Most teams around the NBA finalized their roster cuts on Saturday for financial reasons, as we explained over the weekend. However, today is the official deadline to reduce offseason rosters to the regular season limit of 15 players on standard contracts (plus three on two-way contracts).

While it’s certainly possible there will be some additional roster shuffling today as teams tweak their back-end roster spots or fill two-way openings, only five teams – the Rockets, Sixers, Suns, Spurs, and Wizards – absolutely have to make moves, as we detailed on Sunday.

The Suns are expected to waive Keon Johnson to set their regular season roster, while the Spurs seem likely to convert Charles Bediako‘s Exhibit 10 contract to a two-way deal. Philadelphia has 16 players on standard contracts and will need to make just one cut, while multiple moves will be required for Houston and Washington, who still have 17 players on their standard rosters.

These roster moves are due by 4:00 pm CT.

The final day of the offseason is also the last day for teams to convert Exhibit 10 contracts into two-way deals. Daishen Nix, Justin Minaya, Javonte Smart, Cole Swider, Dexter Dennis, Greg Brown, Marques Bolden, Charlie Brown, Jacob Toppin, and Trevelin Queen were all converted in recent days.

It appears that there are just three remaining candidates to have their Exhibit 10 deals converted to two-ways: Stanley Umude (Pistons), Jeenathan Williams (Rockets), and Bediako (Spurs).

Detroit still has an open spot on its 15-man roster, so the club also has the option of leaving Umude in that spot, converting his Exhibit 10 deal to a minimum-salary standard contract rather than a two-way. As for the Rockets, all three of their two-way slots are full, so they’d have to waive either Trevor Hudgins, Darius Days, or Jermaine Samuels to convert Williams.

Finally, Monday is the last day for a free agent to be signed-and-traded. But there’s zero indication that any sign-and-trades are in the works.

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Spurs Sign Zach Collins To Two-Year Extension

October 22nd, 2023 at 10:35pm CST by Luke Adams

10:35pm: The Spurs have confirmed the extension through a press statement.

12:09pm: The Spurs and big man Zach Collins have agreed to a two-year contract extension that will be worth $35MM, agent Mark Bartelstein tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The deal is fully guaranteed, with no second-year player or team option, tweets Kelly Iko of The Athletic.

Collins, who will turn 26 next month, is coming off his healthiest season in four years. Appearing in 63 games (26 starts) for San Antonio in 2022/23, he averaged 11.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.9 assists in 22.9 minutes per game, posting a solid shooting line of .518/.374/.761.

The 10th overall pick in the 2017 draft, Collins flashed some promise early in his career in Portland, but saw his career derailed by ankle injuries, which limited him to 11 games in 2019/20 and sidelined him for the entire ’20/21 season.

When Collins signed with the Spurs as a free agent in 2021, he received a three-year, $22MM contract, but it was only fully guaranteed for one full season, with a partial guarantee in year two and a non-guaranteed third year. The former Gonzaga standout only played in 28 games in his first season in San Antonio, but ’22/23 was the best season of his career, putting him in position to become part of the team’s future beyond his current contract.

Collins projects to be part of the Spurs’ starting lineup alongside Victor Wembanyama this fall, as the club looks to reduce the wear and tear on its prized rookie by having him play at power forward instead of center.

As Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype observes (via Twitter), San Antonio initially projected to have upwards of $60MM in cap room in the summer of 2024, but have now dedicated more than half that space to new contracts for Collins and Devin Vassell, who signed a five-year, $135MM rookie scale extension earlier this month.

The exact terms of Collins’ extension aren’t yet known, but it sounds like the Spurs will give him the maximum possible veteran extension for a player earning less than the NBA’s estimated average salary ($11,958,000). The veteran center is eligible to receive a starting salary worth 40% of that figure in his new deal, with an 8% raise in year two — those terms would put him in line to earn approximately $34.82MM on the extension after making $7.7MM in 2023/24.

Collins’ extension will make him ineligible to be traded for six months, Gozlan notes, so the Spurs won’t be able to move him until the 2024 offseason.

ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Bobby Marks suggested on the latest episode of The Lowe Post podcast that a deal for Collins could be imminent. Lowe advised keeping an eye on the Spurs center as a potential veteran extension candidate, and Marks responded by saying he had heard that rumor “multiple times.”

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Zeke Nnaji Gets Four-Year, $32MM Extension From Nuggets

October 22nd, 2023 at 5:03pm CST by Arthur Hill

OCTOBER 22: The signing is now official, per a Denver press release.

OCTOBER 21: Zeke Nnaji has agreed to a four-year, $32MM extension with the Nuggets, agent Adam Pensack tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

The new contract includes a player option for the final season, Wojnarowski adds. Nnaji will earn $4,306,281 this year before the extension begins in 2024/25.

A 22-year-old power forward, Nnaji was selected with the 22nd pick in the 2020 draft. He has become a valuable reserve for the defending champions, averaging 5.2 points and 2.6 rebounds in 53 games last season while shooting 56.1% from the field.

Nnaji was on the court for 13.7 minutes per game in 2022/23, and he’s expected to see more playing time during the upcoming season after the loss of Jeff Green and Thomas Bryant in free agency.

Monday is the last day that teams can sign eligible players to rookie scale extensions. Those who don’t reach new agreements will become restricted free agents next summer.

[RELATED: Players Eligible For Rookie Scale Extensions In 2023]

Nnaji is the eighth player to agree to a rookie scale extension this year, joining LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Haliburton, Desmond Bane, Devin Vassell, Isaiah Stewart, and Payton Pritchard.

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Thunder Waive Jack White

October 22nd, 2023 at 2:57pm CST by Luke Adams

The Thunder have waived forward Jack White in order to get their roster to the regular season limit, the team announced today. Oklahoma City now has 15 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals.

[RELATED: 2023/24 NBA Roster Counts]

White, 26, went undrafted out of Duke in 2020 and spent the next two years playing in his home country of Australia before coming stateside for the 2022/23 season. He was on a two-way contract with the champion Nuggets for all of last season, though he logged just 66 minutes across 17 regular season games at the NBA level.

White had a far greater role for the Grand Rapids Gold, Denver’s G League affiliate, averaging 19.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in 33.2 minutes per game (26 contests), with a shooting line of .563/.438/.767.

The Nuggets issued White a qualifying offer, making him a restricted free agent, but withdrew it early in free agency, allowing him to sign a two-year, minimum-salary contract with Oklahoma City. Only $600K of that deal was guaranteed, however, making White a logical odd man out when the Thunder faced a roster crunch this month. OKC will remain on the hook for that $600K unless another team claims White off waivers.

Assuming he passes through waivers, White will likely receive interest from teams looking to fill out their two-way contract slots. He won’t be eligible to re-sign on a two-way deal with the Thunder, since his partial guarantee exceeded $75K.

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Nathan Knight Signs Two-Way Deal With Celtics

October 22nd, 2023 at 12:04pm CST by Arthur Hill

12:04pm: The Celtics have officially signed Knight to a two-way contract, the team confirmed in a press release. As expected, Boston waived Scrubb to make room for Knight.

10:45am: The Celtics will sign Nathan Knight to a two-way contract, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The 26-year-old big man was waived by the Knicks on Thursday. He signed a two-way deal with New York in July, but wasn’t able to secure a regular season roster spot.

At 6’10”, Knight will provide another big body for a Celtics team in need of frontcourt depth. He appeared in 38 games with Minnesota last season, averaging 3.7 points and 1.5 rebounds in 7.7 minutes per night. The Timberwolves declined their team option on Knight for the upcoming season and didn’t issue a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent.

The Celtics currently have all three of their two-way slots filled with JD Davison, Neemias Queta and Jay Scrubb, but Scrubb suffered a torn ACL earlier this month, making him the likeliest release candidate.

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Steven Adams To Miss Entire Season After Knee Surgery

October 22nd, 2023 at 11:37am CST by Arthur Hill

Grizzlies center Steven Adams will undergo season-ending knee surgery, the team announced (via Twitter).

The procedure will address his right posterior cruciate ligament, as “non-operative rehabilitation” failed to fix instability issues in the knee. He’s expected to make a full recovery in time for the 2024/25 season, the team added.

An injury to the knee sidelined Adams in January of last season. He was cleared to take part in training camp and was able to play in two of Memphis’ preseason games, averaging 4.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in 13.6 minutes per night.

According to Damichael Cole of The Commercial Appeal (Twitter link), the Grizzlies considered knee surgery for Adams after the end of last season, but opted to try the non-surgical approach instead. Cole also speculates that Memphis will be in the market for another big man in light of today’s news (Twitter link).

Memphis used Jaren Jackson Jr. at center in a smaller lineups after the loss of Adams last season. The Grizzlies missed Adams’ physical presence in the middle en route to a first-round playoff exit.

The team already has 15 guaranteed contracts, but will begin the season without Adams, Ja Morant, who will serve a 25-game suspension, and Brandon Clarke, who is rehabbing an injury, notes Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link). He points out that Memphis can file for a disabled player exception to replace Adams, which would be valued at $6.3MM, half of his $12.6MM salary. However, the Grizzlies would have to open a roster spot to use it.

Morant can be moved to the suspended list after five games, creating a roster opening, so Memphis may look for another big man rather than a guard to replace Morant. The Grizzlies, who are $17.1MM away from the luxury tax, also have a $12.4MM non-taxpayer mid-level exception, a $7.5MM trade exception and a $4.5MM bi-annual exception available, according to Marks.

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Knicks Convert Dylan Windler To Standard Contract

October 21st, 2023 at 11:03pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Knicks have converted Dylan Windler from a two-way deal to a standard contract, according to NBA.com’s transaction log. The contract covers one season and is non-guaranteed, tweets Fred Katz of The Athletic. It’ll be worth the minimum salary.

The Cavaliers selected Windler with the 26th pick in the 2019 draft, but he missed his first season with a leg injury and was never able to carve out a consistent role, averaging 3.3 points, 2.3 rebounds and 0.8 assists in 84 games. He dealt with injuries through much of that time and appeared in just three games last season.

Cleveland opted not to give Windler a qualifying offer this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent. The 27-year-old small forward signed with New York in July after spending his first four NBA seasons with the Cavaliers.

Windler will get a chance to revive his career in New York after earning a roster spot. He appeared in just one preseason game, going scoreless in about six minutes of action.

The Knicks now have 15 players on standard contracts, including DaQuan Jeffries and Ryan Arcidiacono, whose deals are also non-guaranteed. The team also has a two-way opening after converting Charlie Brown and Jacob Toppin to two-way contracts earlier today.

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Blazers Claim Ish Wainright Off Waivers, Cut Two Players

October 21st, 2023 at 4:18pm CST by Luke Adams

The Trail Blazers have claimed forward Ish Wainright off waivers, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that Portland is waiving another forward, Kevin Knox. The Blazers are also releasing big man Duop Reath, per Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report (Twitter link).

The Suns cut Wainright on Thursday due to their roster crunch — they had 17 players on standard contracts and could only carry 15 on their regular season roster. Wainright’s 2023/24 salary was non-guaranteed, making him a logical odd man out.

Phoenix reportedly had interest in bringing back Wainright, perhaps on a two-way deal, but the club won’t get the chance to do so, as the Trail Blazers will take on his non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract. The 29-year-old’s salary won’t become fully guaranteed unless he remains under contract through January 7, so Portland has some time to assess his fit before making a final decision on whether to keep him for the season.

Wainright appeared in 60 games for the Suns last season, averaging 4.2 points and 2.3 rebounds in 15.3 minutes per night. His shooting line was .370/.329/.839.

The ninth overall pick in the 2018 draft, Knox finished the season with Portland in 2022/23, averaging 8.5 PPG and 3.3 RPG in 21 games (17.1 MPG). However, when he re-signed with the club over the summer, he only received a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contract, so he was never assured of a regular season roster spot.

Reath was part of Portland’s Summer League team, averaging 13.0 points and 7.4 rebounds in five games, and represented Australia in the 2023 World Cup. He has played overseas since going undrafted out of LSU in 2018, spending time in Serbia, Australia and China.

According to Highkin, both Knox and Reath are candidates to remain in the organization, perhaps with the Rip City Remix, the Blazers’ G League affiliate. However, Reath’s contract didn’t include an Exhibit 10 clause, so of the two, Knox seems more likely to end up with the Remix.

The Blazers now have 14 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals. They could add one more player before Monday’s regular season roster deadline or enter opening night with an open spot on their standard 15-man roster.

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Thunder Exercise 2024/25 Team Options On Five Players

October 21st, 2023 at 2:46pm CST by Luke Adams

The Thunder have exercised their rookie scale team options for the 2024/25 season on five players, the team announced today in a press release. Those options are as follows:

Most of these decisions were no-brainers. Holmgren, Giddey, and Williams project as long-term building blocks for the franchise. Dieng didn’t have a major role as a rookie but is only a year removed from being selected 11th overall in the 2022 draft.

The most noteworthy option pick-up of the bunch is Mann’s. The 22-year-old guard had a promising rookie season in 2021/22, averaging 10.4 points per game with a .360 3PT%, but saw his scoring average (7.7 PPG) and 3PT% (.315) dip last season as his playing time was cut back, from 22.8 minutes per game to 17.7 MPG.

Given the Thunder’s roster crunch this offseason, Mann looked like a candidate to be one of the odd men out, but today’s decision signals that the club has no plans to waive him. That leaves Jack White, whose 2023/24 salary is only partially guaranteed for $600K, as perhaps the most likely release candidate on the roster, though the club could go in another direction. Oklahoma City previously traded Victor Oladipo and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl to get down from 18 players on standard contracts to 16.

Giddey and Mann will now become eligible for rookie scale extensions next July, while the Thunder will have to decide by next October 31 whether to exercise their fourth-year options on Holmgren, Dieng, and Williams.

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Mavs Convert Dexter Dennis, Greg Brown To Two-Way Deals

October 21st, 2023 at 2:06pm CST by Rory Maher

The Mavericks have converted the Exhibit 10 contracts of Dexter Dennis and Greg Brown into two-way deals, the team announced (via Twitter). ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported that Dennis was being converted (Twitter link).

Dallas had a pair of two-way openings, so no corresponding moves are necessary to promote Dennis and Brown. A.J. Lawson occupies the team’s third two-way spot.

Dennis, 24, went undrafted in June. He spent his first four college seasons at Wichita State before joining Texas A&M for the 2022/23 season. As a “super-senior” taking advantage of the extra year of eligibility afforded to college players due to COVID-19, he averaged 9.5 points and 5.7 rebounds in 28.7 minutes per game across 34 appearances.

Dennis never averaged double-digit points per game in any of his five college seasons and made just 37.5% of his shots from the field over the last two years, including 30.4% of his three-pointers. However, he’s a talented defender who earned AAC Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2022 for the Shockers.

The 43rd overall pick in the 2021 draft, Brown spent his first season-and-a-half as a pro in Portland, appearing in 64 games for the Trail Blazers during that time. He didn’t establish himself as a regular rotation player, averaging just 4.0 points and 2.4 rebounds in 11.5 minutes per night with a shooting line of .422/.294/.636.

Because the Blazers didn’t have a G League affiliate of their own during Brown’s time with the team, they couldn’t send him to their own NBAGL program for developmental purposes. The 21-year-old ended up being waived in February to accommodate Portland’s trade deadline moves, then finished the season with the Ontario Clippers in the G League.

The Mavs still have 18 players on their roster, with 14 players on guaranteed standard deals and Markieff Morris on a partially guaranteed contract.

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