Timberwolves big man Jesse Edwards has accepted his two-qualifying offer and so has Bulls forward Emanuel Miller, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter links). The signings are official, per NBA.com’s transactions log.
Both players were restricted free agents after their respective teams issued them qualifying offers. By accepting the QOs, Edwards and Miller will each receive a small partial guarantee of $85K, but their two-way contracts are otherwise non-guaranteed and don’t count against the salary cap, so they could still be released at any point in the coming weeks or months.
Edwards, 25, only appeared in two NBA games for Minnesota, having spent the majority of his rookie campaign with the team’s G League affiliate in Iowa. The Dutch center went undrafted last year out of West Virginia after spending his first four college seasons with Syracuse.
Miller, 25, inked a two-way deal with Chicago in December after going undrafted out of TCU. He played in six games for the Bulls but was a mainstay in the NBAGL, first with the Dallas Legends and then the Windy City Bulls.
How can this be? Isn’t that so that NBA contracts expire at the end of the league’s calendar year, on June 30? If that is the case, how could these players have been “re-signed” on June 29, when their previous contracts was not expired at the time?
This happened last year as well and confused me, but apparently it’s permitted. From the CBA:
“A player who receives a Required Tender or a Qualifying Offer during the month of June may accept such Required Tender or Qualifying Offer beginning on the date he receives it.”