NBA rumors: Jalen Green's eye-opening trade update after $106 million contract extension
10/24/2024 10:40 AM
While many of the top players from the 2021 NBA Draft class received max or near-max-level contract extensions, Jalen Green signed an interesting, shorter-term deal with the Houston Rockets, which one reporter said could make him tradeable.
Green, who is entering his fourth season in the league, signed a three-year, $106 million contract extension before the season began, giving him some security for the next few seasons. Before signing the deal, Green was set to become a restricted free agent next offseason, but now, he is set to earn nearly $70 million over the next two seasons and has the ability to exercise a $36 million player option in 2027, his earliest chance at hitting free agency.
But just because he could be under contract until 2028 doesn’t mean Green will be on the Rockets that long, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
“This is a contract that a lot of people in the league think was signed for the option to be traded,” Windhorst said on the ‘Hoop Collective’ podcast “And getting the 10% trade kicker in there, which is the biggest trade kicker that was given out yesterday in all these deals, to me — I'm not saying the Rockets are definitely going to trade him — I'm just saying this contract was designed to allow him to be traded.”
Trade kickers, commonplace in high-dollar NBA contracts, are effectively bonuses paid to the player in the event they are traded. In the case of Green, for example, he would receive 10% of the remaining salary on his deal if he were to be traded.
Bobby Marks, Windhorst’s ESPN colleague and a former front-office executive with the Brooklyn Nets, agreed with Windhorst and said that his belief is that Green also benefits from the shorter contract because if he does get traded by Houston, Green can sign elsewhere sooner than many of his fellow fourth-year players could.
Rockets sign Alperen Sengun, Jalen Green to interesting extensions
Either way, the Rockets’ extensions drew much attention from the NBA. Green’s caught the eye of fans and analysts around the league because of the term, while Alperen Sengun’s extension proved intriguing because of the dollar amount and a player option.
Sengun, who finished third in the Most Improved Player award voting last season, has drawn comparisons to Nikola Jokic for his offensive skillset and playmaking ability at the center position. However, the Rockets’ so-so end to 2023-24 without Sengun raised questions about his true value to the team, and with so many young players who will certainly demand extensions soon — Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason, Amen Thompson, and Cam Whitmore are all set to become restricted free agents if not extended in the next few years — Houston apparently wasn’t willing to give Sengun the full max.
Instead, the Turkish big man signed a five-year, $185 million deal, which is about $39 million less over the life of the contract than players such as Scottie Barnes, Cade Cunningham, Franz Wagner, and Evan Mobley. However, unlike those players, Sengun negotiated a player option into his deal.
Marks said that Sengun is the first player in three years to sign as large of a contract as he did and have it include a player option, which, in Sengun’s case, could allow him to opt out and become an unrestricted free agent in 2029.
Sengun will earn just $5.4 million this season, the last of his rookie-scale contract, before jumping up to a $33.9 million salary next year. After the 2028-29 season, Sengun will have the choice to accept or decline a $39 million player option.
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