Decisions On 2018/19 Rookie Scale Team Options

Under the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the deadline for teams to sign fourth-year players to rookie scale extensions has been moved up from October 31 to the last day before the regular season begins, but Halloween remains an important date on the NBA’s calendar. It’s the last day that clubs can exercise team options on the rookie scale contracts of former first-round picks.

All the players whose options will be exercised or declined by October 31 are already under contract for the 2017/18 season. Their teams will have to make a decision on whether they want to lock in those players’ contracts beyond the coming season, picking up or turning down team options for the 2018/19 campaign.

For players who signed their rookie scale contracts in 2015 and have been in the NBA for two years, teams must decide on fourth-year options for 2018/19. For players who just signed their rookie deals last year and only have one season of NBA experience under their belts, teams will already be faced with a decision on third-year options for ’18/19.

In many cases, these decisions aren’t hard ones. Rookie scale salaries are so affordable – particularly with the salary cap poised to surpass $100MM next summer – that it usually makes sense to exercise most of these team options, even if a player isn’t a key cog on the roster. And for those players who do have a significant role on a team’s roster, the decision is even easier — it’s not as if the Knicks would even consider declining their option on Kristaps Porzingis. In fact, they’ve already picked it up.

Still, we’ll wait for a trusted reporter, the NBA, a player (or his agent), or a team itself to confirm that an option is indeed being exercised or declined, and we’ll track that news in this space.

Listed below are all the rookie scale decisions for 2018/19 team options that clubs must make by October 31. This list will be updated throughout the rest of the offseason, as teams’ decisions are reported and announced. The salary figures listed here reflect the cap hits for each team — players’ actual salaries will be a little higher, since recent first-round picks received pay bumps as a result of the new CBA.

Here are the NBA’s rookie scale team option decisions for 2018/19 salaries:

Atlanta Hawks

Boston Celtics

Brooklyn Nets

Charlotte Hornets

Chicago Bulls

Cleveland Cavaliers

  • None

Dallas Mavericks

  • None

Denver Nuggets

Detroit Pistons

Golden State Warriors

Houston Rockets

  • None

Indiana Pacers

Los Angeles Clippers

Los Angeles Lakers

Memphis Grizzlies

Miami Heat

Milwaukee Bucks

Minnesota Timberwolves

New Orleans Pelicans

  • None

New York Knicks

Oklahoma City Thunder

Orlando Magic

Philadelphia 76ers

Phoenix Suns

Portland Trail Blazers

  • None

Sacramento Kings

San Antonio Spurs

Toronto Raptors

Utah Jazz

  • None

Washington Wizards

Information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.

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