Cameron Thomas Signs Rookie Contract With Nets
Cameron Thomas, the 27th overall pick in this year’s draft, has signed his rookie contract with the Nets, the team announced today in a press release.
While terms weren’t officially disclosed, we can project what Thomas will earn based on the NBA’s rookie scale. If he signed for the maximum allowable amount – as most first-rounders do – the 6’4″ guard will earn a first-year salary of $2.04MM and a four-year total of $10.46MM. The third and fourth years of the deal will be team options.
Thomas, who declared for the draft following his freshman season at LSU, was one of college basketball’s top scorers in 2020/21, averaging 23.0 points per contest in 29 games (34.0 MPG). Although the 19-year-old struggled a little with his shot from the floor (40.6%) and from beyond the three-point line (32.5%), his ability to get to the free throw line (7.6 attempts per game) and make his foul shots (88.2%) was a big plus.
Brooklyn entered draft night last Thursday with four picks and – somewhat surprisingly – kept all of them and agreed to acquire another, drafting five players in total. We should hear more in the coming days about the Nets finalizing deals with some of their other draftees.
Pacers Announce Three Signings
The Pacers have officially confirmed three previously-reported signings, announcing today in a press release that they’ve added Duane Washington, Terry Taylor, and Keifer Sykes to their roster. Washington received a two-way deal, while Taylor and Sykes are believed to have signed Exhibit 10 contracts.
Washington, a 6’3″ shooting guard, went undrafted last Thursday out of Ohio State. A second-generation NBA pro, Washington is the son of former journeyman shooting guard Duane Washington Sr. and the nephew of five-time Lakers champion point guard (and current Sparks coach) Derek Fisher. Our full story on his two-way deal is here.
Taylor, a 6’5″ wing, who worked out for more than half the teams in the NBA during the pre-draft process, had a big senior year in 2020/21 for Austin Peay, averaging 21.6 points and 11.1 rebounds in 27 games (37.0 MPG). The full story on his training camp agreement with Indiana is here.
An undrafted free agent out of Green Bay in 2015, Sykes has spent most of the last several seasons playing in international leagues. The 27-year-old point guard participated in this summer’s The Basketball Tournament and hit the game-winning three-point shot on Tuesday night to clinch the title and the $1MM prize for Boeheim’s Army (video link). Our story on his Exhibit 10 deal is here.
Indiana’s roster is now officially at 16 players, with deals for T.J. McConnell, Torrey Craig, and Isaiah Jackson still to be finalized and Cassius Stanley‘s contract situation still to be resolved (he’s a two-way RFA). Teams can carry up to 20 players in the offseason.
Kings Sign Davion Mitchell To Rookie Contract
The Kings have officially signed Davion Mitchell to his first NBA contract, the team announced today in a press release.
The Naismith Defensive Player of the Year in 2021, Mitchell helped lead the Baylor Bears to a national title in his junior season, averaging 14.0 PPG, 5.5 APG, and 1.9 SPG on .511/.447/.641 shooting in 30 games (33.0 MPG).
Sacramento made Mitchell the ninth overall pick in last Thursday’s draft, surprising observers who expected the team to opt for a wing or a big man. Mitchell will vie for minutes in a talented backcourt led by rising stars De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton.
As our breakdown of first-round salaries shows, Mitchell will earn $4.6MM as a rookie, assuming he receives 120% of his rookie scale amount, as nearly every first-rounder does. His four-year deal will be worth just shy of $21MM.
Hawks Sign Lou Williams To One-Year Deal
AUGUST 6: The Hawks have officially signed Williams, according to a press release from the team.
AUGUST 5: After a successful late-season run with the Hawks in 2020/21, veteran guard Lou Williams has agreed to re-sign with the team on a one-year, $5MM deal, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links).
Williams, a three-time winner of the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award, began the 2020/21 season with the Clippers, but was sent to Atlanta in a deadline deal involving Rajon Rondo when the Clips determined their backcourt needed more of a play-maker than a scorer.
Having spent the last three-and-a-half seasons in Los Angeles and having won two Sixth Man awards with the franchise, Williams was hit hard by the trade and admitted he contemplated retirement upon being sent to the Hawks. However, his arrival and his strong play in Atlanta helped push the team to the No. 5 seed in the East and the third round of the playoffs.
Williams averaged 10.0 PPG and 3.4 APG on .389/.444/.870 shooting in 24 regular season contests (21.0 MPG) for the Hawks, then put up 7.7 PPG and 2.2 APG on .455/.433/.963 shooting in 18 playoff games (15.4 MPG).
The Pacers, Bucks, and Heat were among the other teams linked to Williams during free agency, but a reunion with the Hawks was always viewed as a realistic possibility. While the 34-year-old won’t get the multiyear deal he’d reportedly been seeking, his $5MM salary will be nearly double the veteran’s minimum.
The Hawks had Williams’ Bird rights, so they won’t have to use cap room or a mid-level exception to re-sign him.
Eastern Notes: Love, Livers, Heat, D. Robinson, Drummond
After drafting Evan Mobley with the No. 3 overall pick and agreeing to re-sign Jarrett Allen to a five-year, $100MM contract, the Cavaliers appear to have locked up their frontcourt of the future, prompting Jason Lloyd of The Athletic to suggest that if Kevin Love is going to remain in Cleveland, he should be prepared to accept a role off the bench.
According to Lloyd, the Cavaliers have already spoken to Love about his minutes and role moving forward. The first step will be getting the veteran power forward healthy following the calf strain that has nagged him for much of the year, but even if that calf injury is no longer an issue in the fall, Cleveland will have to closely manage Love’s minutes, writes Lloyd.
While a buyout could ultimately be in both sides’ best interests, those discussions have not yet taken place, according to Lloyd, who suggests Love would likely have to be willing to give back at least $12-15MM for the Cavs to consider buying him out. He’s owed just north of $60MM over the next two seasons.
Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Rookie Pistons forward Isaiah Livers, who was selected 42nd overall in last Thursday’s draft, continues to recover from the right foot surgery that ended his college career, but remains optimistic that he’ll be fully cleared around the start of the 2021/22 season, writes Rod Beard of The Detroit News. “For five-on-five, I expect to be fully cleared, hopefully, at some point in October,” Livers said. As Beard observes, Detroit will likely play it safe with Livers and have him start the season with the Motor City Cruise in the G League.
- Although the Heat might not get much out of Victor Oladipo in 2021/22, their minimum-salary agreement with the two-time All-Star will put them in good position to re-sign him next summer if he earns a raise, since they’ll hold his full Bird rights, as Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald details. Oladipo is recovering from surgery on his quad tendon and the Heat aren’t expecting him to be ready to return until sometime in 2022.
- After agreeing to a five-year, $90MM deal with the Heat as a restricted free agent, sharpshooter Duncan Robinson said on The Long Shot podcast that he entered the week focused on getting a deal done with the only NBA team he has ever played for. “Miami ultimately, for me, felt like it was going to be the best situation because it was something I was really familiar with,” Robinson said, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. “I felt like I had built equity with an organization, the coaching staff, the front office, the fans even, the city.”
- Despite their past squabbles on and off the court, new Sixers center Andre Drummond doesn’t anticipate teaming up with Joel Embiid will be an issue, he told reporters today. “For me, there was never any real beef,” Drummond said (Twitter link via Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice.com). “The way we play, sometimes we talk. I don’t think it goes any further than that. … We’re on the same team now.”
Atlantic Notes: Knox, Raptors, Sixers, Beckner, Kemba
Knicks forward Kevin Knox will not play for the team in the Las Vegas Summer League, the club announced today (via Twitter). According to the Knicks, Knox has been placed in the NBA’s health and safety protocols.
It’s unclear whether Knox has tested positive for COVID-19. Regardless, he’ll miss out on an important opportunity for offseason development following three underwhelming seasons with the Knicks, creating further uncertainty about his future with the franchise.
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Even though Masai Ujiri has made several savvy roster moves during his tenure as head of basketball operations in Toronto, he has had a hard time luring top free agents to the Raptors and many of his biggest free agent signings have been busts, write Eric Koreen and Blake Murphy of The Athletic. That’s likely a big reason why the Raptors appear to be forgoing cap space and operating over the cap this offseason, per The Athletic’s duo.
- The Sixers have hired Phil Beckner as a coaching consultant, Yaron Weitzman of FOX Sports relays (Twitter links). While it’s probably unwise to read too much into the move, it’s worth noting that Beckner is a former Weber State assistant coach and Damian Lillard‘s trainer.
- Mike Vorkunov, Jay King, and Jared Weiss of The Athletic discuss Kemba Walker‘s injury history and his fit with the Knicks. As Vorkunov points out, even if Walker’s left knee isn’t 100% healthy going forward, the cost of signing him (about $8MM) isn’t prohibitive and he has proven in the last two seasons that he can still be productive while dealing with that knee issue.
2021/22 NBA Two-Way Contract Tracker
One of the most notable additions to the NBA’s most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement, which went into effect at the start of the 2017/18 league year, is the two-way contract.
As we explain in depth in our FAQ, two-way contracts allow NBA teams to carry two extra players in addition to the 15 on their regular season roster. These players generally bounce back and forth between the NBA and G League, but remain under team control and can’t be poached by rival franchises.
The NBA has carried over some rule changes for two-way deals that were first introduced during the 2020/21 season. Rather than being limited to 45 days with their NBA teams, two-way players will be eligible to be active for up to 50 of their team’s 82 regular season games. And instead of having their salaries determined by how many days they spend in the NBA, they’ll receive flat salaries of $462,629, half of the rookie minimum.
NBA teams have begun to fill in their two-way slots for the 2021/22 league year, so we’ll track all those deals in the space below. Some two-way players from 2020/21 inked two-year contracts and remain under contract for this season, while others have been newly signed.
If a two-way signing has been reported but isn’t yet official, we’ll list it in italics and link to the report, updating the info as necessary. Players who are in the first year of two-way contracts that cover two years (the maximum length), will be noted with an asterisk (*) once that info is confirmed.
This tracker will continue to be updated throughout the 2021/22 league year, and can be found anytime in the “Hoops Rumors Features” menu on the right-hand sidebar of our desktop site, or in the “Features” menu on our mobile site.
Here are 2021/22’s two-way players:
Updated 4-11-22
Atlanta Hawks
- Sharife Cooper, G
- Chaundee Brown, G *
Boston Celtics
- Brodric Thomas, G
- Matt Ryan, G/F
Brooklyn Nets
- David Duke, G
- Empty
Charlotte Hornets
- Scottie Lewis, G/F
- Arnoldas Kulboka, F
Chicago Bulls
- Tyler Cook, F/C
- Malcolm Hill, F
Cleveland Cavaliers
- Brandon Goodwin, G
- RJ Nembhard, G
Dallas Mavericks
- Theo Pinson, G
- Moses Wright, F
Denver Nuggets
- Markus Howard, G
- Davon Reed, G
Detroit Pistons
- Jamorko Pickett, F
- Braxton Key, F *
Golden State Warriors
Houston Rockets
- Trevelin Queen, G
- Anthony Lamb, F
Indiana Pacers
- Nate Hinton, G
- Gabe York, G
Los Angeles Clippers
- Jay Scrubb, G/F
- Xavier Moon, G/F
Los Angeles Lakers
- Mason Jones, G
- Mac McClung, G
Memphis Grizzlies
- Yves Pons, F
- Tyrell Terry, G *
Miami Heat
- Javonte Smart, G *
- Mychal Mulder, G *
Milwaukee Bucks
- Sandro Mamukelashvili, F/C *
- Lindell Wigginton, G
Minnesota Timberwolves
- Nathan Knight, F/C
- McKinley Wright IV, G
New Orleans Pelicans
- Gary Clark, F
- Jared Harper, G
New York Knicks
- Jericho Sims, F/C *
- Feron Hunt, F *
Oklahoma City Thunder
- Lindy Waters III, G *
- Melvin Frazier, G
Orlando Magic
Philadelphia 76ers
- Myles Powell, G
- Charlie Brown Jr., G *
Phoenix Suns
- Gabriel Lundberg, G
- Empty
Portland Trail Blazers
- Keljin Blevins, G/F
- Brandon Williams, G *
Sacramento Kings
- Neemias Queta, C
- Empty
San Antonio Spurs
- D.J. Stewart, G
- Robert Woodard, F
Toronto Raptors
Utah Jazz
- Xavier Sneed, F *
- Empty
Washington Wizards
- Cassius Winston, G
- Jordan Schakel, G *
Ishmail Wainright Signs With Raptors
AUGUST 7: The signing is official, the Raptors announced (via Twitter).
AUGUST 5: The Raptors have agreed to a two-year deal with free agent swingman Ishmail Wainright, agents Deirunas Visockas and Jim Tanner tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
While the exact terms of the deal aren’t known, Blake Murphy of The Athletic says (via Twitter) it’ll include a partial guarantee, giving Wainright the opportunity to compete for a regular season roster spot. It seems likely to be worth the minimum.
Wainright, 26, went outdrafted out of Baylor in 2017 and has bounced around a handful of international leagues since then. In 2020/21, he played for Strasbourg in France, registering 11.7 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.5 APG, and 1.8 SPG on .485/.320/.726 shooting in 36 games (28.1 MPG). He’s considered a versatile defender on the wing, notes Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
A report in June stated that Wainright was eyeing a move to the NBA for 2021/22 and identified Toronto as the frontrunner to land him. Murphy reported on Wednesday (via Twitter) that Wainright would be on the Raptors’ Summer League roster in Las Vegas.
Wizards Notes: Trade Negotiations, Dinwiddie, Kuzma, Neto, Avdija
The Nets, who recognized that Bradley Beal wanted the Wizards to acquire Spencer Dinwiddie and knew they had some leverage in sign-and-trade talks, initially asked Washington for a first-round pick, reports Fred Katz of The Athletic. When they were unsuccessful, the Nets tried to get Washington to part with Deni Avdija or Rui Hachimura, according to Katz.
However, the Wizards held firm in those negotiations and ended up keeping their top assets, instead sending Brooklyn a future second-round pick and a second-round pick swap. The Nets will also generate an $11.5MM trade exception in the deal.
As Katz details, the Wizards also had to sweeten the deal for the Lakers to convince them to loop the Russell Westbrook trade agreement into Washington’s acquisition of Dinwiddie via sign-and-trade, which is why L.A. will be receiving three second-round selections from the Wizards instead of just two.
Finally, Katz reports that the final version of the complex five-team trade will see the Wizards acquire cash considerations from the Pacers. The full breakdown of the trade agreement can be seen on our offseason trade tracker.
Here’s more on the Wizards:
- For much of this week, there had been a league-wide assumption that the Wizards may end up rerouting Kyle Kuzma to a new team as part of the Dinwiddie deal, but Washington never included him in trade discussions, according to David Aldridge of The Athletic, who notes that the club has significantly improved its depth with this week’s roster moves.
- Raul Neto‘s new deal with the Wizards will be a one-year, minimum-salary contract, according to Katz. Neto will join Dinwiddie and Aaron Holiday on the club’s point guard depth chart.
- Although Deni Avdija has been cleared for basketball activities, he’s not playing for the Wizards in Summer League, writes Katz. The club wants to limit the risk of a setback for 2020’s lottery pick, who is recovering from a right fibular hairline fracture.
NBA Minimum Salaries For 2021/22
An NBA team that has spent all its cap space and doesn’t have any of its mid-level or bi-annual exception available still always has the ability to sign a player to a minimum-salary contract, unless that club is right up against its hard cap.
Teams with cap room or with access to the non-taxpayer mid-level exception will have a little more flexibility to sign players to longer-term minimum-salary contracts. However, teams without cap room and without any other exceptions on hand can still use the minimum salary exception to add as many players as roster limits and the hard cap allow, for contracts of up to two years. Unlike other exceptions, such as the mid-level or the bi-annual, the minimum salary exception can be used multiple times.
[RELATED: Values of 2021/22 mid-level, bi-annual exceptions]
Undrafted free agents and second-round picks are often recipients of minimum-salary contracts, but there are plenty of veterans who end up settling for the minimum too. Because a player’s minimum salary is determined by how much NBA experience he has, many veterans will earn more than twice as much money as a rookie will in 2021/22 on a minimum-salary contract.
Listed below are 2021/22’s minimum salary figures, sorted by years of NBA experience. If a player spent any time on an NBA club’s active regular season roster in a given season, he earned one year of experience. So any player with zero years of experience has not yet made his NBA debut.
These figures represent a 3% increase on last season’s figures, since that’s the amount of the NBA’s salary cap increase for 2021/22.
Here’s the full breakdown:
| Years of Experience | Salary |
|---|---|
| 0 | $925,258 |
| 1 | $1,489,065 |
| 2 | $1,669,178 |
| 3 | $1,729,217 |
| 4 | $1,789,256 |
| 5 | $1,939,350 |
| 6 | $2,089,448 |
| 7 | $2,239,544 |
| 8 | $2,389,641 |
| 9 | $2,401,537 |
| 10+ | $2,641,691 |
Because the NBA doesn’t want teams to avoid signing veteran players in favor of cheaper, younger players, the league reimburses clubs who sign veterans with three or more years of experience to one-year, minimum salary contracts. Those deals will only count against the cap – and against a team’s bank balance – for $1,669,178, the minimum salary for a player with two years of experience.
For instance, Trevor Ariza, who has 17 seasons of NBA experience, is signing a one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Lakers, who will only be charged $1,669,178 for Ariza’s contract. He’ll earn $2,641,691, but the NBA will make up the difference. This only applies to one-year contracts, rather than multiyear deals.
If a player signs a minimum-salary contract after the regular season begins, he’ll earn a prorated portion of the amount listed above.
Those figures listed above also only apply to players who are signing new contracts in 2021/22. Players who are in the second, third, or fourth year of a minimum-salary deal will be earning a slightly different predetermined amount.
For example, a player like Spurs guard Tre Jones – who signed a minimum-salary contract last offseason and now has one year of NBA experience – will earn a $1,517,981 salary in the second year of his contract, exceeding the $1,489,065 he’d receive if he were signing a new minimum deal this fall. That’s because his second-year salary is based on a 5% raise over last season’s minimum salary for a player with one year of experience.
Here’s what multiyear minimum-salary contracts signed in 2021/22 will look like:
| Experience |
2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | $925,258 | $1,563,518 | $1,836,096 | $1,988,598 |
| 1 | $1,489,065 | $1,752,638 | $1,902,137 | $2,057,646 |
| 2 | $1,669,178 | $1,815,677 | $1,968,182 | $2,230,253 |
| 3 | $1,729,217 | $1,878,720 | $2,133,285 | $2,402,862 |
| 4 | $1,789,256 | $2,036,318 | $2,298,390 | $2,575,475 |
| 5 | $1,939,350 | $2,193,920 | $2,463,498 | $2,748,090 |
| 6 | $2,089,448 | $2,351,521 | $2,628,607 | $2,761,767 |
| 7 | $2,239,544 | $2,509,123 | $2,641,690 | $3,037,946 |
| 8 | $2,389,641 | $2,521,613 | $2,905,862 | $3,037,946 |
| 9 | $2,401,537 | $2,773,776 | $2,905,862 | $3,037,946 |
| 10+ | $2,641,691 | $2,773,776 | $2,905,862 | $3,037,946 |
Technically, a minimum-salary contract could cover five years for a player with full Bird rights, but in actuality, that never happens. While some second-round picks and undrafted free agents will sign three- or four-year minimum-salary contracts, a minimum deal exceeding two years is rare for a player with more than a year or two of NBA experience under his belt.
Information from RealGM was used in the creation of this post.