(03-17-2021, 02:46 PM)StepBackJay Wrote: That seems like a weird contract then to give a 2nd round pick bc aren't most 2nd round picks RFA's when their rookie contracts run out?
Brunson definitely has a non-guaranteed 4th year. Some NBA salary websites are more reliable than others. (Hoops hype has a long history of being one of the least accurate on the details.)
There are a lot of various ways to structure a contract for a 2nd-rounder, since there is no standard contract and no cap exception provided to sign them.
If they get signed to a deal that ends after year 1, year 2, or year 3, they become a RFA if their team offers a qualifying offer. In the most extreme case, a player could be a RFA 3 times.
The Mavs signed Brunson to a 4 year deal.
In doing so, they won't get RFA rights at the end, but they did get the right to keep him for one more year at minimum salary prices (with the opportunity to waive him at no cost, if he hasn't proved worth keeping in years 1-3). The apparent thinking is that with or without RFA control, they will have to pay him market value as a free agent, so we might as well delay that as long as possible and then see if that market value salary is feasible for us. (If it won't be, having RFA control wouldn't help.)