Good read. Behind a wall. Here's some of it:
"A study conducted by
The Athletic — using publicly available contractual information collected and organized by
Eric Pincus and
Spotrac in addition to sources within the NBA — shows that second-round salaries and the frequency that second-rounders selected directly from the NCAA have received guaranteed contacts have risen substantially over the last four years, particularly for players picked in the first 10 spots of the second round.
While it may be technically correct to say that each NBA Draft only has “30 guaranteed contracts” handed out to first-round picks, it’s no longer true that those are the only players getting substantial guarantees in their contracts.
Before going into detail on what the study shows, it’s worth outlining just exactly how much the minimum salary has jumped in the last year for first- and second-year players.
In the 2016-17 season, the minimum salary for rookies was only $543,471, and for second-year players it was $874,636. That’s a total of $1,418,107 over the first two years a player is in the NBA.
That changed substantially for the current season. This year, minimum-salaried rookies received $815,615, with second-year players getting $1,312,611. That’s $2,128,226, or an increase of about 50 percent on the previous season. That’s a big number to pass up as a rookie, but it is still just a pittance for NBA teams to give a potentially useful player.
With the NBA’s salary cap set to reach $101 million next season, teams are basically giving up about 1.4 percent of their salary cap to take fliers on potentially useful players. Because of that, NBA teams have increasingly realized how worthwhile it is to sign second-round picks long-term (three-year deals are the most common)....
Back in the 2014 NBA Draft, just eight out of 22 NCAA-based second-rounders received at least one million dollars and multiple years fully guaranteed. Last year, 13 of the 23 college players picked in the second round received at least a $2 million guarantee, and 15 players received sizable second-year guarantees.
That stands up well with the results of the 2016 Draft, where just six out of 22 NCAA second-round draftees received a $2 million guarantee, but 10 players received full two-year guarantees and 14 players received substantial second-year guarantees.
The numbers are even better if a player is selected in the first 10 picks of the second round. Over the last four drafts, only one NCAA player (DeAndre Daniels, who suffered a shoulder injury and Jones fracture injury in his first two years out of college) out of 32 selected did not receive at least one guaranteed contract year in an offer.
Both K.J. McDaniels and Glenn Robinson III took one-year “prove it” contracts after being picked in 2014, but both had better offers from their respective teams before taking the “qualified tender” contract that every NBA team must offer its second-round picks. In addition, just six out of those 32 players picked from No. 31 to No. 40 didn’t receive full two-year guarantees....
So what does all of this mean?
First and foremost, the discussion surrounding the decision-making process for NBA Draft prospects has to shift. Of course, kids and their families should be allowed to make their own professional choices, something that pundits often seem to forget in analyzing whether or not a kid made a “good or bad” decision to stay in the NBA Draft."
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