9:00pm: Murray’s new contract includes $6MM in incentives and could max out at $70MM, tweets Charania.
4:08pm: The Spurs have officially signed Murray to an extension, the team confirmed in a press release.
3:38pm: Despite not appearing in a regular season game since the 2017/18 season, Dejounte Murray has agreed to a new long-term extension with the Spurs. Agent Rich Paul tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link) that Murray is signing a four-year contract worth a fully guaranteed $64MM. It’ll go into effect for the 2020/21 season.
Murray, the 29th overall pick in the 2016 draft, averaged 8.1 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 2.9 APG in 81 games (21.5 MPG) during the ’17/18 season, his second with the Spurs. He appeared to be primed for a breakout season last fall, but a torn ACL sidelined him for the entire ’18/19 campaign.
Once again healthy, Murray is looking to pick up where he left off before that injury. Although there are some questions about his jump shot – he converted just 18-of-57 three-pointers in his first two seasons – he’s a force on the defensive end, having become the youngest player ever to be named to the NBA’s All-Defense team in 2018. The Spurs view him as one of their cornerstone pieces for the years ahead.
Prior to Murray’s extension, the Spurs had approximately $54MM in salary on their books for the 2020/21 season. While we don’t yet know the structure of Murray’s deal, it’s safe to say it will push the team’s commitments up near $70MM.
It’s possible San Antonio will still have some cap flexibility next summer, but that team salary estimate doesn’t include DeMar DeRozan‘s player option ($27.7MM) or $17MM of LaMarcus Aldridge‘s partially guaranteed salary, so if the Spurs intend to bring one or both of those players back, they likely won’t be a real player in free agency.
Murray is the eighth player to reach a deal on a rookie scale extension this year and the 15th player in total to get an extension since July, as our tracker shows.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
An absolute steal!!!
Yes!!
Excellent price. If Murray doesn’t improve from where he is right now, he should still be worth this contract with his defense and athleticism alone. And if he ever reaches his ceiling—he’s already made progress on his jumpshot—this is going to look fantastic. The Spurs never cease to amaze.
Great price. Murray is a solid youngster, plays great defence and is a good leader. Really hope they don’t extend DeRozen and trade him for some more young talent
Fun fact: Murray rates about one point higher in RAPTOR plus minus than Ntilikina on 538, and the Knicks almost didn’t pick up his option, nor were they going to trade him to a team that will develop him.
Tell me Ntilikina wouldn’t thrive in San Antonio. Guy was drafted in the lottery… Knicks gotta Knick I guess.
Don’t think Ntilikina would THRIVE.. but he would do better than we’re he is now. The Spurs already have Murray White and Mills at PG and are even more loaded at SG, Ntilikina wouldn’t get much minutes but he does have a place in this league.
IDK why people say his jumpshot is improving.
Dejonte, White & Mills are all close in ability. Dejonte is not the best Murray in the league so what to call him? Bas.Ref. listed nickname is “Baby Boy”. Pass.
D-Mur (ha) is a fine player who has only been available about half his games while Mills has missed 3 games in 4 years. White is better offensively, though he only played 67 last year his second.
The China commotion is triggering the suits.
By suits I mean agents, GMs, etc, getting contracts done.
Mills is all offense and doesn’t have the the defensive ceiling that Murray comes with. Murray and White are closer comps while Mills is more of a score-first guard.
Also the China commotion has nothing to do with these deals. The deadline to get the rookie scale extensions done was 6pm yesterday. That’s why you’re seeing all of these deals.
But what x%sure meant is that the uncertainty of how much the bottom line has been hitted by the Morey fracas is making everyone to get it done now and not risking next summer having the cap plummeting with the loss of $$$ potentially!
The NBA’s huge jump in the salary cap had to do with the TV deal with ESPN and TNT that they signed in 2014. The whole China issue shouldn’t affect the cap at all. It’ll affect general revenue numbers but the cap itself was influence almost solely by the TV deal in the US.
Fat fingered the “Post Comment” button…also if teams were worried enough about a significant revenue loss next summer they wouldn’t be giving out the contracts now. Teams wouldn’t hand out 8 and 9 figure contracts if they thought they might have trouble reaching a profit to help pay for it. I’m pretty sure there is a cap floor (might be wrong) so its not like teams would be able to drastically slash their cap because of the whole China situation.
Why would the cap be based only on TNT & espn income?
If any dollar matters the most, it is the dollars on the margin, such as revenue from China. TNT and espn income can be assumed. But they wait to announce the cap figures for a reason– Revenues can change.
Hoped-for Chinese revenues even effects how fictional characters in major movie productions speak… dialogue is to be easily translated out of English. Investors have a higher take as a movie tours internationally on the back end.
Anyway all the recently signed players were desirable core players already on rosters. Such players always have a number the franchise set for them. It’s just a matter of the player saying yes to it, which would be more likely if there was a fear of the number being reduced.
A fear does not have to be “real” to have its effect. But yes the presense of a deadline would have more effect.
I think the figures have been high, like they were set as incentives for the players or as a “best case” scenario, then suddenly surprisingly accepted.