A series of players have been issued qualifying offers by their respective teams, making them restricted free agents, according to RealGM’s official NBA transaction log.
Nets forward Cameron Johnson and Bulls guard Coby White are among the most notable QO recipients within the last couple days. Johnson’s qualifying offer is worth $8,486,620, while White’s is worth $7,744,600.
For many restricted free agents, qualifying offers essentially function as placeholders, giving the team the right of first refusal on the player as long as that QO remains on the table.
It’s also a one-year contract offer that the player is free to accept at any time, which is a more viable route for some RFAs than others — Johnson, for instance, looks like a safe bet to secure a lucrative multiyear deal, so it would be a major surprise if he simply accepted his $8.5MM qualifying offer.
Besides Johnson and White, here are some of the players who have received qualifying offers this week and are now restricted free agents, per RealGM:
- Ayo Dosunmu, Bulls ($5,216,324)
- Jock Landale, Suns ($2,219,706)
- Note: This is a projected amount. Landale’s QO will be worth $200K more than his minimum salary.
- Trent Forrest, Hawks (two-way)
- Terry Taylor, Bulls (two-way)
- Collin Gillespie, Nuggets (two-way)
- Jack White, Nuggets (two-way)
- Kendall Brown, Pacers (two-way)
- Moussa Diabate, Clippers (two-way)
- Saben Lee, Suns (two-way)
The deadline for teams to issue qualifying offers is Thursday, so we’ll likely get many more updates on QOs being extended to players today and tomorrow.
Ayo is another guy I could see getting some pretty serious looks as an RFA. His sophomore slump this past season happened, but I think he’s more like his rookie self; his 3pt percentage dropoffs look like an anomaly rather than real regression. Solid player at both guard spots, can defend, can hit the three, can create his own shot from two and run plays for others at an above-average level, and takes good care of the ball.
Everything you said about Ayo is how I look at him as well. He can be a poor man Jrue Holiday but very nice young player that can turn into a very solid role player.
Cameron Johnson has to be brought back to the Brooklyn Nets. Him and Mikal Bridges are the type of wings you need to win in the NBA.
Coby White to me is 6th man material. It’s no knock on him. I think that’s how you maximize his skill set. He wants to be a starting Point Guard and I’m not sure about that unless he playing on a team where he’s the secondary ball handler.
With Johnson, I wonder if it won’t come down to how much the Nets are willing to pay him. We know Tsai will pay up for a potential winning team, but will he for a play-in squad? Potentially not even that? I expect a slight uptick from letting Vaugh run his system from the beginning instead of having to readjust on the fly, but they went 12-15 after the Durant trade. Ben Simmons is still eating up a massive amount of cap for very little production as well, and he’s an immovable object at the moment. The Nets are already projected for 145 million in salary this season without Johnson on the books, though they’re certain to trade a few guys for future assets. I think it could become awkward for them if somebody hands Johnson a poison pill contract like the Rockets did to Jeremy Lin way back.
Agreed on White. He’s an interesting player who can score and run plays, but I don’t see him as starting PG material.
Cam is not going anywhere. Only Thunder, Pistons, Rockets can offer a contract. No one is overpaying in todays cap. Nets will give him his due. And are better team than those three teams. Cam is about to blow up. No better place to do it than in NYC.
He has a great fit in Sacramento. While I think Nets match any offer just to keep value, I expect Monte to at least pick up the phone