The Hawks and Dejounte Murray are finalizing an agreement on a four-year contract extension, league sources tell Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report and TNT.
Murray, who is on an expiring contract, will earn a base salary of approximately $17.7M in 2023-24, with $500K in likely incentives and another $1M in unlikely incentives. The NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement allows a first-year raise of up to 140% of the player’s previous salary in the first year of an extension, and it sounds like Murray will receive that maximum raise.
Based on a 40% first-year increase, Murray’s new deal would have a base value of approximately $111M, with nearly $10M in additional incentives. If he achieves all his bonuses, the four-year contract would max out at around $120.5M.
There was a sense that Murray might wait until he reached unrestricted free agency in 2024 to sign a new deal, since he’ll be eligible for a far bigger payday at that time. The fact that he’s willing to lock in an extra four years now is a big win for the Hawks, who gave up three first-round picks (two unprotected) and a pick swap to acquire the guard from the Spurs last offseason.
Reports at the time of the trade suggested that San Antonio was concerned about its ability to extend Murray prior to free agency.
In his first year in Atlanta, Murray averaged 20.5 points, 6.1 assists, and 5.3 rebounds in 36.4 minutes per game across 74 contests. He shot a career-best 46.4% from the field, including 34.4% on three-pointers, and provided his usual solid perimeter defense alongside Trae Young in the Hawks’ backcourt.
There were rumors earlier in the offseason that the Hawks were willing to discuss trading anyone except Young, but a new extension for Murray will officially take him off the trade market for the rest of 2023. Never considered a legitimate candidate to be moved this summer, the 26-year-old will become ineligible to be dealt for six months once he signs his new extension.
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