As a former first-round pick entering the fourth and final year of his rookie contract, Timberwolves wing Jaden McDaniels is eligible for a rookie scale extension until the day before the 2023-24 regular season starts.
Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said after last season ended that both Anthony Edwards and McDaniels would receive lucrative extension offers this offseason once they became eligible. Edwards signed a maximum-salary deal in July, but McDaniels has yet to ink his own new contract.
Speaking to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic on his podcast, Connelly was hopeful about coming to terms on an extension with the young forward, who turns 23 next week.
“We’d love to get something done,” Connelly told Krawcyznski. “We want Jaden to be here as long as possible. Oftentimes those back-and-forths pick up more as the season gets closer, but fingers crossed. In my experience in Denver and here, we like to reward people who earned it. Jaden is a huge part of what we’re doing now. He’s going to get better and better and better. Great kid. And we think his best basketball is in front of him.
“As I told Jaden and his representation, the cool thing about extension talks is they should be overwhelmingly positive. The fact that you want an extension speaks to the team’s excitement about his upside. Very few guys are fortunate to get extensions, so again we’re hopeful we can meet that point where we’re both happy with something moving forward. I think he’s going to have a good year and we hope he’s here for a long, long time.”
Players eligible for rookie scale extensions can sign new deals that run for up to five years, with those contracts taking effect beginning in 2024-25. If they don’t sign extensions during the coming offseason, those players will be eligible for restricted free agency in the summer of 2024.
When we covered him as an extension candidate, we projected McDaniels could receive a deal in the range of $25M annually — it will be interesting to see how much he actually makes if a deal comes to fruition.
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