Rookie Scale Salaries For 2021 NBA First-Round Picks
With the NBA’s salary cap set at $112,414,000 for the 2021/22 league year, the rookie scale has been set as well. The rookie scale locks in the value of contracts for first-round picks.
In every NBA league year, rookie scale amounts are assigned to each first-round slot, from No. 1 through No. 30. Teams can sign their first-rounders to as little as 80% of that rookie scale amount, or up to 120% of that figure.
While that rule theoretically affords teams some flexibility, first-round picks virtually always sign contracts worth 120% of their rookie scale amount, and unsigned first-rounders have a cap hold worth 120% of their rookie scale amount.
Listed below are the salary figures that represent 120% of the rookie scale amounts for 2021’s first-round picks. If a first-round pick signs a rookie scale contract in 2021/22, it will be for the amount below unless he accepts a deal worth less than the maximum allowable 120%. If that happens, we’ll adjust their amounts below.
These salary figures will only apply if the player signs in 2021/22. For instance, if Usman Garuba decides not to come stateside right away, his rookie contract will look a little different in future seasons. Meanwhile, if Leandro Bolmaro – last year’s No. 23 overall pick who remained overseas in 2020/21 – signs his rookie contract with the Timberwolves this year, it will look like identical to the deal listed below for Garuba (2021’s No. 23 pick).
Rookie scale contracts are guaranteed for the first two years, with team options on the third and fourth years.
Here’s the 2021 breakdown:
| Player | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cade Cunningham | $10,050,120 | $10,552,800 | $11,055,360 | $13,940,809 | $45,599,089 |
| Jalen Green | $8,992,080 | $9,441,840 | $9,891,480 | $12,483,048 | $40,808,448 |
| Evan Mobley | $8,075,160 | $8,478,720 | $8,882,640 | $11,227,657 | $36,664,177 |
| Scottie Barnes | $7,280,400 | $7,644,600 | $8,008,680 | $10,130,980 | $33,064,660 |
| Jalen Suggs | $6,592,920 | $6,922,320 | $7,252,080 | $9,188,385 | $29,955,705 |
| Josh Giddey | $5,988,000 | $6,287,400 | $6,587,040 | $8,352,367 | $27,214,807 |
| Jonathan Kuminga | $5,466,360 | $5,739,840 | $6,012,840 | $7,636,307 | $24,855,347 |
| Franz Wagner | $5,007,840 | $5,258,280 | $5,508,720 | $7,007,092 | $22,781,932 |
| Davion Mitchell | $4,603,200 | $4,833,600 | $5,063,640 | $6,451,077 | $20,951,517 |
| Ziaire Williams | $4,373,040 | $4,591,680 | $4,810,200 | $6,133,005 | $19,907,925 |
| James Bouknight | $4,154,400 | $4,362,240 | $4,570,080 | $6,064,496 | $19,151,216 |
| Joshua Primo | $3,946,800 | $4,144,320 | $4,341,600 | $5,982,725 | $18,415,445 |
| Chris Duarte | $3,749,400 | $3,936,960 | $4,124,400 | $5,893,768 | $17,704,528 |
| Moses Moody | $3,562,200 | $3,740,160 | $3,918,480 | $5,803,269 | $17,024,109 |
| Corey Kispert | $3,383,640 | $3,552,840 | $3,722,040 | $5,705,887 | $16,364,407 |
| Alperen Sengun | $3,214,680 | $3,375,360 | $3,536,280 | $5,424,654 | $15,550,974 |
| Trey Murphy | $3,053,760 | $3,206,520 | $3,359,280 | $5,159,854 | $14,779,414 |
| Tre Mann | $2,901,240 | $3,046,200 | $3,191,400 | $4,908,373 | $14,047,213 |
| Kai Jones | $2,770,560 | $2,909,040 | $3,047,880 | $4,693,735 | $13,421,215 |
| Jalen Johnson | $2,659,680 | $2,792,640 | $2,925,360 | $4,510,905 | $12,888,585 |
| Keon Johnson | $2,553,240 | $2,681,040 | $2,808,720 | $4,474,291 | $12,517,291 |
| Isaiah Jackson | $2,451,240 | $2,573,760 | $2,696,280 | $4,435,381 | $12,156,661 |
| Usman Garuba | $2,353,320 | $2,471,160 | $2,588,400 | $4,392,515 | $11,805,395 |
| Josh Christopher | $2,259,240 | $2,372,160 | $2,485,200 | $4,346,615 | $11,463,215 |
| Quentin Grimes | $2,168,640 | $2,277,000 | $2,385,720 | $4,296,682 | $11,128,042 |
| Bones Hyland | $2,096,880 | $2,201,520 | $2,306,400 | $4,158,439 | $10,763,239 |
| Cameron Thomas | $2,036,280 | $2,138,160 | $2,240,160 | $4,041,249 | $10,455,849 |
| Jaden Springer | $2,023,680 | $2,125,200 | $2,226,240 | $4,018,363 | $10,393,483 |
| Day’Ron Sharpe | $2,009,160 | $2,109,480 | $2,210,040 | $3,989,122 | $10,317,802 |
| Santi Aldama | $1,994,520 | $2,094,120 | $2,194,200 | $3,960,531 | $10,243,371 |
Information from RealGM was used in the creation of this post.
Sixers Sign Jaden Springer To Rookie Contract
The Sixers have signed first-round pick Jaden Springer to his rookie contract, the team announced today in a press release.
Springer, who will turn 19 in September, played a single season at Tennessee before declaring for the draft as an early entrant. The 6’4″ guard averaged 12.5 PPG, 3.5 RPG, and 2.9 APG on .467/.435/.810 shooting in 25 games (25.5 MPG) as a freshman.
There was a belief leading up to the draft that Philadelphia might trade the No. 28 overall pick, but the team ended up hanging onto it and using it to select Springer.
Assuming he signs for 120% of his rookie scale amount, as nearly every first-round pick does, Springer will earn approximately $2.02MM as a rookie and could make up to $10.39MM over the life of his four-year deal.
Celtics Sign Enes Kanter To One-Year Deal
AUGUST 13: Kanter has officially signed his contract, according to a team press release.
“Enes has a unique ability to both score and rebound. Beyond his on-court contributions, he is a great teammate. We are thrilled he chose to return to Boston,” Celtics president Brad Stevens said in a statement.
AUGUST 4, 11:21am: Kanter’s one-year deal will be worth $2.7MM, according to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link).
The veteran’s minimum for a player with Kanter’s 10+ years of experience is about $2.64MM, so it sounds this will be a minimum-salary contract.
However, Jared Weiss of The Athletic (Twitter link) says there’s still a chance the C’s could bump up that number and use part of the mid-level exception to complete the signing, depending on how the rest of the week plays out. Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald (Twitter link) hears that the club has “three or four balls still in the air,” albeit nothing too major.
10:58am: The Celtics have reached an agreement to bring back veteran center Enes Kanter on a one-year contract, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Kanter has bounced back and forth between Boston and Portland during the last few seasons. He finished the 2018/19 campaign with the Trail Blazers, spent ’19/20 with the Celtics, rejoined the Blazers for ’20/21, and is now headed back to the C’s for the coming season.
Kanter is a reliable scorer and rebounder, who played in all 72 games for Portland in 2020/21 and averaged a double-double (11.2 PPG, 11.0 RPG) while logging just 24.4 minutes per game. He’s not a strong defender, but he’ll fill a hole in the Celtics’ frontcourt following the departure of veteran center Tristan Thompson, who is being traded to Sacramento.
It’s an interesting signing from an optics standpoint for the Celtics, who essentially salary-dumped Kanter a year ago when they sent his contract to Memphis along with the No. 30 pick in the draft (Desmond Bane) in exchange for two future second-rounders. A year later, new president of basketball operations Brad Stevens is signing up for a reunion with the 29-year-old.
Bulls Sign Tony Bradley
AUGUST 12: The Bulls have officially signed Bradley, per RealGM’s transactions log.
AUGUST 4: The Bulls have reached an agreement to sign free agent center Tony Bradley, according to multiple reports.
Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter links), who first reported the agreement, says it’s a two-year deal, with a player option on year two. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), it’ll be a minimum-salary contract.
Bradley, 23, was the 28th pick in the 2017 draft and spent his first three NBA seasons as a reserve big man in Utah, playing limited minutes. After being traded multiple times, he spent the 2020/21 season with Philadelphia and Oklahoma City, averaging 7.1 PPG and 5.7 RPG in 42 games (16.3 MPG) for the Sixers and Thunder.
The Thunder had the option of making Bradley a restricted free agent by extending him a qualifying offer, but chose not to do so. Given that the former UNC standout has agreed to a minimum-salary deal as an unrestricted free agent, it appears Oklahoma City made the right call — his qualifying offer would have been worth about $5.3MM.
While he’s not as flashy as the Bulls’ other free agent additions, including Lonzo Ball, DeMar DeRozan, and Alex Caruso, Bradley will provide the club with some depth at center behind starter Nikola Vucevic.
Eastern Notes: Pacers, Knicks, Madar, Nets, Wizards
While it’s not out of the question that the Pacers will make a major trade this offseason, the team isn’t any rush to move Myles Turner or Malcolm Brogdon, the two names that pop up most frequently in Pacers-related trade rumors, writes J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star.
Of those two players, Turner is less likely to be dealt, according to Michael, who suggests that new head coach Rick Carlisle would like to try to figure out the best way to maximize the Turner/Domantas Sabonis duo. It’s possible Carlisle will split up the two Pacers bigs and have Turner come off the bench to start the season, Michael adds.
As for Brogdon, the Pacers have been trying to determine whether he’s the right long-term fit as the team’s point guard and leader, according to Michael. As Michael details, Indiana had some locker room issues in 2020/21 and president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard suggested at the end of the season that the club lacked vocal leadership. The Pacers may expect more in that regard from Brogdon going forward.
Here’s more from around the East:
- The Knicks, who remain on the lookout for another point guard, have some interest in Dennis Schröder, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post. Berman also says New York contacted Elfrid Payton at the start of free agency, though it’s unclear if the club views him as a viable fallback option.
- Yam Madar, the 47th overall pick in the 2020 draft, hopes to play for the Celtics this season, he told reporters on Tuesday. As Jared Weiss of The Athletic tweets, Boston’s plan is to see how Madar’s Summer League stint goes and to evaluate its options from there.
- Nets star Kevin Durant is thrilled that Blake Griffin is set to return to the team for another season, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. “To have Blake back, I’m so excited,” Durant said from Tokyo. “I mean, as soon as the season was over, I was telling him that we want him back and telling him that, you know, we should try to do it again. And I was glad to see it get done.” In a separate story, Lewis confirms that James Johnson‘s new deal with Brooklyn is worth the veteran’s minimum.
- After recently announcing a new deal for NHL star Alex Ovechkin, the centerpiece of his other franchise, Wizards owner Ted Leonsis discussed the contrast between how things played out with Ovechkin and Russell Westbrook, per Emily Kaplan of ESPN. “We had a superstar player with the Wizards, he had an opportunity and wanted to be traded to the Lakers,” Leonsis said. “And I was dealing with that as we were announcing Alex. I couldn’t help but self-reflect on what a difference it is. Here’s a great player in Russell Westbrook, played in OKC, wanted to be traded, went to Houston, wanted to be traded, came to D.C., wanted to be traded and is now in L.A. He’s an unbelievably great person and an unbelievably great player. But that’s the difference between the NBA and the NHL, I suppose.”
NBA 2021 Free Agency: Day 2 Recap
After a wild first day of free agency on Monday, things slowed down a little on Tuesday, with only two of today’s reported free agent agreements exceeding $12.1MM. Still, another 20+ free agents came off the board over the course of the day.
[RELATED: 2021 NBA Free Agent Tracker]
Listed below are Tuesday’s notable contract agreements and news items. For the most part, these deals aren’t yet official, so the reported terms could change — or agreements could fall through altogether. Generally speaking though, teams and players are on track to finalize these deals sometime after the moratorium ends on Friday.
Here are Tuesday’s noteworthy free agent agreements:
Note: Some of these salary figures may includes options, incentives, or non-guaranteed money.
- DeMar DeRozan, Bulls agree to three-year, $85MM contract (sign-and-trade).
- Talen Horton-Tucker, Lakers agree to three-year, $32MM contract.
- Rudy Gay, Jazz agree to two-year, $12.1MM contract.
- Patty Mills, Nets agree to two-year, $12.1MM contract.
- Kendrick Nunn, Lakers agree to two-year, $10MM contract.
- Ish Smith, Hornets agree to two-year, $9MM-ish contract.
- Georges Niang, Sixers agree to two-year, $6.7MM contract.
- Robin Lopez, Magic agree to one-year, $5MM contract.
- Bruce Brown, Nets agree to one-year, $4.7MM contract.
- Abdel Nader, Suns agree to two-year, $4.2MM contract.
- Carmelo Anthony, Lakers agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract.
- Nemanja Bjelica, Warriors agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract.
- Sam Dekker, Raptors agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract.
- Andre Drummond, Sixers agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract.
- Taj Gibson, Knicks agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract.
- James Johnson, Nets agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract.
- Malik Monk, Lakers agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract.
- Markieff Morris, Heat agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract.
- Hassan Whiteside, Jazz agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract.
- Didi Louzada, Pelicans agree to four-year contract.
- Jock Landale, Spurs agree to two-year contract.
- Tony Snell, Trail Blazers agree to one-year contract.
- Bryn Forbes, Spurs agree to contract.
Here are a few more of the day’s most notable headlines:
- Stephen Curry and the Warriors agreed to four-year, $215MM veteran contract extension.
- The Hawks reportedly made a five-year, $125MM contract offer to restricted free agent John Collins.
- The Spurs will acquire Thaddeus Young, Al-Farouq Aminu, and three draft picks – including a first-rounder – from the Bulls in the DeRozan sign-and-trade.
- The Bucks are preparing to sign both George Hill and Rodney Hood after they clear waivers later in the week.
Previously:
Sixers Re-Sign Rayjon Tucker To Two-Way Deal
Rayjon Tucker is back under contract with the Sixers on a new two-way deal, according to NBA.com’s official transactions log.
After going undrafted out of Little Rock in 2019, Tucker spent much of his rookie season with the Jazz, but was dealt to Cleveland in the 2020 offseason and was subsequently waived. He spent training camp last December with the Clippers, then signed a two-way deal with the Sixers in January.
The 6’3″ guard appeared in just 14 games for Philadelphia, averaging 2.4 PPG and 0.8 RPG in 4.9 minutes per contest. He was a full-time starter for the Delaware Blue Coats during the abridged G League season, however, recording 19.4 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and 4.1 APG in 15 games (33.0 MPG).
The Sixers finished the 2020/21 season with Tucker and Gary Clark on two-way deals, then tendered a qualifying offer to Tucker to make him a restricted free agent. Tucker may have simply accepted that QO, which is the equivalent of another two-way deal.
For now, Tucker occupies one of Philadelphia’s two-way slots and undrafted rookie Aaron Henry is reportedly poised to fill the other. However, two-way contracts don’t count against the cap and aren’t burdensome to move on from, so there’s no guarantee the 76ers won’t make changes to those two-way slots at some point this season.
Mavs Re-Sign Nate Hinton To Two-Way Contract
The Mavericks have re-signed shooting guard Nate Hinton to a new two-way contract, according to NBA.com’s official transactions log.
Hinton, who finished the 2020/21 season on a two-way deal with the Mavs, received a qualifying offer equivalent to another one-year, two-way contract, so he may have simply accepted that offer.
Undrafted out of Houston in 2020, Hinton caught on with the Mavs and appeared in 21 games for the team as a rookie, though he saw very limited minutes. He averaged 2.0 PPG in 4.4 minutes per contest at the NBA level, but saw more action at the G League level for the Santa Cruz Warriors, putting up 10.6 PPG and 7.1 RPG in 10 games (23.0 MPG).
While Hinton got a qualifying offer from Dallas, the club didn’t extend one to its other two-way player, Tyler Bey, so one of its two-way slots for 2021/22 is open.
Pacers, Keifer Sykes Agree To Exhibit 10 Deal
Free agent point guard Keifer Sykes has agreed to sign with the Pacers, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Sources tell Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files (Twitter link) that it’ll be an Exhibit 10 deal for Sykes, who will play for Indiana in Summer League.
An undrafted free agent out of Green Bay in 2015, Sykes has spent most of the last several years playing in international leagues. He has spent time in Korea, Turkey, Italy, China, and Greece, and is coming off a one-year stint with the South East Melbourne Phoenix in Australia’s National Basketball League.
Sykes also 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).
Sykes and undrafted rookie Terry Taylor will reportedly be among the Pacers’ training camp invitees this fall.
Bucks Sign Sandro Mamukelashvili To Two-Way Deal
The Bucks have signed rookie big man Sandro Mamukelashvili to a two-way contract, per NBA.com’s official transactions log. According to Eric Nehm of The Athletic (Twitter link), the deal will cover two seasons.
Mamukelashvili, who spent four seasons at Seton Hall, averaged 17.5 PPG, 7.6 RPG, and 3.2 APG in 27 games (35.6 MPG) as a senior in 2020/21, earning Big East Player of the Year honors.
The Pacers technically made the 6’11” forward/center the No. 54 pick in the draft last Thursday, but they were making the pick on behalf of the Bucks, having agreed to a trade involving the No. 31 selection. That trade was finalized on draft night.
The Bucks finished the season with Justin Jackson and Axel Toupane on two-way deals, but didn’t make either player a qualifying offer, signaling their intent to turn over those two slots. Mamukelashvili will fill one, while the other remains open for now.