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:
- Isaac Okoro, Cavaliers ($11,828,974 qualifying offer)
- Emoni Bates, Cavaliers (two-way qualifying offer)
- Jacob Toppin, Knicks (two-way qualifying offer)
- Oscar Tshiebwe, Pacers (two-way qualifying offer)
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 $12M-15M 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 $11.8M 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 Two others had their QOs withdrawn, while nine have returned to their respective teams on new two-way deals.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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