Under the NBA's collective bargaining agreement, rookie scale contracts for first round picks include two guaranteed seasons and two option years. Teams are required to make decisions on those contract options a year ahead of time. So players heading into the second year of their rookie contracts this season will have their third-year options either picked up or turned down by October 31st.
Yesterday, we looked at the third-year players whose teams must decide on their fourth-year options by Halloween. Today, we're focusing primarily on members of the 2011 draft class — guys heading into their second year whose teams will decide on their third-year options for 2013/14 in the next few weeks.
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, players on rookie deals are typically cheap enough and have a strong enough pedigree that their teams won't hesitate to exercise those options, but that's not always the case. Last year, James Anderson, Daniel Orton, and Damion James were among the second-year players whose third-year options weren't picked up.
Here's the complete list of players for whom a third-year option decision is due by October 31st, sorted by team. The salary for the 2013/14 option year is in parentheses.
- Bobcats: Bismack Biyombo ($3.05MM), Kemba Walker ($2.57MM)
- Bucks: Tobias Harris ($1.55MM)
- Bulls: Jimmy Butler ($1.11MM)
- Cavaliers: Kyrie Irving ($5.61MM), Tristan Thompson ($4.06MM)
- Heat: Norris Cole ($1.13MM)
- Jazz: Enes Kanter ($4.51MM), Alec Burks ($2.2MM)
- Kings: Jimmer Fredette ($2.44MM)
- Knicks: Iman Shumpert ($1.7MM)
- Magic: Nikola Vucevic ($1.79MM)
- Nets: MarShon Brooks ($1.21MM)
- Nuggets: Kenneth Faried ($1.37MM), Jordan Hamilton ($1.17MM)
- Pistons: Brandon Knight ($2.79MM)
- Rockets: Marcus Morris ($1.99MM), JaJuan Johnson ($1.14MM)
- Spurs: Kawhi Leonard ($1.89MM), Cory Joseph ($1.12MM)
- Suns: Markieff Morris ($2.09MM)
- Thunder: Reggie Jackson ($1.26MM)
- Timberwolves: Derrick Williams ($5.02MM), Ricky Rubio ($4MM)
- Trail Blazers: Nolan Smith ($1.42MM)
- Warriors: Klay Thompson ($2.32MM)
- Wizards: Jan Vesely ($3.34MM), Chris Singleton ($1.62MM)