On draft day, the New York Knicks sent Kemba Walker away, clearing $16 million in cap space, just one or two contracts away from their rumored four-year, $100 million deal for Jalen Brunson. The alarm bell of digging the wall officially sounded, and the direction of the Lone Ranger in the opening of the free market became confusing.
The rules of the NBA rookie contract have a huge advantage for the home team, from the signing of the contract to the renewal of the next contract. However, Brunson, who has just finished his rookie contract, why is the home team’s Mavericks’ contract renewal advantage so weak? This article uses Brunson as an example to briefly discuss the NBA’s rules for restricted free agency.
What is restricted free agency?
When the parent team makes a Qualifying offer (QO) to an expired player, the player officially becomes a Restricted Free Agent (RFA). After the free market opens, the RFA can negotiate contracts with other teams as free agents, however,When the RFA signs a new contract with the team, the parent team has three days to decide whether to follow up the contractif it follows up, it is equivalent to the parent team signing the same contract with the player, and the player stays on the team.
These three days and the final follow-up right give the parent team a great advantagebecause the free market in the NBA is changing rapidly in three days. If the team that wants to grab someone after three days encounters a follow-up offer from the parent team, it is not just that they did not grab the RFA.Their offer to RFA during these three days is to be counted in the salary space, which means that it is very likely that no more players of the same level will be able to make quotations within these three days. The Lone Ranger’s offer to Chandler Parsons was a big gamble. At that time, the maximum salary was about 15 million. The salary space within three days after their offer was not enough to open contracts of the same level to other free agents, so it was almost an idle three. Days waiting for the rocket’s response.
Because these three days are costly, few teams have chosen to wait for three days in recent years.Mostly start-up sign exchanges to speed up the process, the Pacers got Malcolm Brogdon in exchange, and the Bulls got Lonzo Ball. The parent team of these two transactions has at least obtained immediate combat power or even a first-round pick. It can be seen that when the team has enough strength RFA, whether the parent team can keep it or not, it can be rewarded to some extent.
What qualifies as a restricted free agent?
The parent team can make a QO to make its player an RFA only if:
- First-round rookie contract, successfully completed the four-year contract (the first-round rookie contract is 2 + 1 + 1, the second two years are team options, and the team options for the second two years are implemented, which is called successful completion).
- Players who are not first-round picks with three years of experience or less. The exception is first-round picks who “haven’t managed to run a four-year contract” when their parent team chooses not to exercise any one-year team option, although they are also three years old or less, they can’t become an RFA.
- Two-way contract, log in the home team for more than 15 days in the contract year.
(References: NBA.com)
What about Brunson?
From the above, the closest Brunson situation is 2. However, the Mavericks directly offered Brunson a four-year contract with no team option. What does a four-year contract stand for?That is, the parent team gave up all the contract extension advantages after negotiating the rookie contract with Brunson.。
If Brunson’s contract expired last year, the Lone Ranger can open a QO and renew the contract with the advantage of the RFA home team. If a four-year contract and the last year of the team option are opened, the Lone Ranger can at least Decide whether or not to risk Brunson becoming an unrestricted free agent last year.
The four-year contract and the last-year team option are currently the most mainstream second-round and undrafted contracts, and they have been around for a long time. Parsons dug up by the Lone Ranger was one of them. He turned into an RFA, and finally the Mavericks made an offer. There are several players in the same situation this year:PreambleMentioned Oshae Brisset, Jalen McDaniels, Thunder’s Isaiah Roby.
So, what motivated you to open an unconditional four-year contract in the first place?
Second-round rookies can be said to be the group with the lowest contract advantage, they are not as good as the first-round rookies who have the standard contract stipulated by the league, and they are not as free as the undrafted to negotiate contracts with all teams, let alone compare with other veterans. Therefore, the “Brunson team is good at negotiating” should be ruled out.
That depends on the motives of then-director Donnie Nelson. If Nelson really appreciates Brunson’s ability and gives a generous four-year contract, then he has a good eye, and that’s exactly what’s going on. This year’s Brunson is playing a career year and facing a contract extension, but the Mavericks can’t hold the RFA advantage.While Nelson was optimistic about him, he gave the team a contract that left the team with no way back。