For the first time in several years, a first-round pick has accepted below the standard maximum of 120% of his rookie scale amount, tweets Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights. According to Siegel, No. 30 overall pick Kevin Porter Jr. will only earn 80% of his rookie scale amount during his first season before getting 120% of that amount in years two through four.
The rookie scale amount this year for the No. 30 pick is $1,613,700, so Porter’s expected salary for his rookie season would have been $1,936,440. Instead, he’ll get just $1,290,960, according to Siegel.
While this is just speculation, it seems likely that the Cavaliers would have checked in with Porter and his agent before drafting him to see if he’d be okay with that reduced first-year salary, given how rare it is. Porter, the final pick in the first round, will still earn significantly more than the rookie minimum of $898K that many early second-rounder selections will receive, while the Cavs, who are up against the luxury-tax line, will put themselves in better position to avoid potential repeater penalties.
Here are more contract details from around the NBA, all courtesy of Siegel unless otherwise indicated:
- Terry Rozier‘s three-year, $56.7M contract with the Hornets has a declining structure (Twitter link). It starts at $19.9M in 2019-20 before eventually dipping to $17.9M by 2021-22.
- The base value of Rudy Gay‘s two-year deal with the Spurs is $28M, with $2M in annual bonuses to bring the potential total value up to $32M (Twitter link). DeMarre Carroll‘s deal, meanwhile, only has a partial guarantee of $1.35M in the third year (Twitter link). The Spurs tacked on that third season when they pivoted to acquiring Carroll via sign-and-trade rather than signing him outright.
- Trevor Ariza‘s two-year, $25M contract with the Kings only has a $1.8M partial guarantee in year two (Twitter link). Meanwhile, Sacramento’s deal with Dewayne Dedmon has a base value of $40M over three years, with $300K in annual incentives (Twitter link).
- Blake Murphy of The Athletic provides details on a pair of Raptors contracts, tweeting that Patrick McCaw‘s new two-year deal is worth $8M, while Matt Thomas‘ three-year, minimum-salary contract is non-guaranteed in year three. Both of those deals will come out of Toronto’s mid-level exception — Stanley Johnson‘s might too, though if the team has plans in mind for the rest of the $4.36M on its MLE, Johnson could be signed using the bi-annual exception instead, notes Murphy.
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