Allonzo Trier isn’t the first two-way player to receive a new standard NBA contract this season — Gary Clark earned that honor when he signed a new deal with the Rockets last week. However, Trier’s new contract with the Knicks will establish some new benchmarks for undrafted free agents and two-way players.
As we outlined earlier today, the Knicks will use their entire bi-annual exception to lock up Trier for the next two years. The bi-annual exception for the 2018/19 season is worth $3,382,000, with a 5% raise resulting in a $3,551,100 salary for 2019/20. Even though that second-year salary isn’t yet guaranteed, it’s an impressive payday for Trier, who only has 27 NBA games under his belt.
Here are a few noteworthy details about Trier’s new deal:
Trier will earn a higher salary this season than 20 of 2018’s first-round picks.
As our breakdown of this season’s rookie scale salaries shows, the 11th overall pick, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, is earning $3,375,360 in his rookie season, which is less than Trier’s new salary (hat tip to Dan Feldman of NBC Sports). Trier’s $3,382,000 salary is worth more than double what the bottom four picks in the first round are making this season.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who has looked very impressive so far, may still do better in the long run than Trier, since his four-year rookie contract is worth nearly $17MM in total, but that’s not a lock — Trier will have the opportunity to reach restricted free agency two or three years earlier than SGA and other 2018 first-rounders. If he continues to impress, Trier’s next deal could very well be bigger than the one he agreed to today.
Trier will earn the largest first-year salary for a non-international undrafted free agent.
According to Ian Begley of ESPN.com (via Twitter), the highest first-year salary for a non-international undrafted rookie up until today was Malcolm Delaney‘s $2.5MM salary with the Hawks in 2016/17. Trier’s $3.382MM salary easily surpasses that figure. Most UDFAs, of course, are limited to the minimum salary, which is about $838K this season.
Trier will earn the largest salary for any player coming off a two-way contract.
Two-way contracts are fairly new to the NBA, having been introduced for the 2017/18 season, so we don’t have a ton of historical data to compare to Trier’s new contract. However, previously, the biggest two-way success story was probably Torrey Craig, who parlayed a two-way deal last season into a guaranteed two-year, $4MM contract with the Nuggets this year.
Craig technically secured a larger overall guarantee than Trier, but the $2MM first-year salary on his deal is well below Trier’s.
Trier’s new deal would be equivalent to a $5MM full-season salary for 2018/19:
Assuming his new contract is finalized today, Trier will earn $3.382MM for about two-thirds of the NBA season — 119 of 177 days. A $3.382MM salary over 119 days equates to $28,420 per day.
If a player on a full-season contract was earning that same per-day rate, his deal would be worth $5.03MM over 177 days. The Knicks will essentially be paying Trier like a player earning that salary the rest of the way.
Yes, a benchmark for sure. One that future 2wp’s can aspire to, and FO’s around the league can use as a cautionary tale.
Awesome for Zo, been a bright spot for the Knicks this year and I think what you see is what you will consistently get from him as his career progresses.
I started out thinking the 2way rules screwed players, because RFA not UFA when the contract ends, but wow did Trier turn the tables.
Obviously NYK should have locked him down better from the getgo. For a quality player, the shiniest silver lining in a cheap contract is when it’s short.