How much do NBA draft players make? The salary they receive is from 1 to 10

Zakkari Risaker is the new No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft. The French forward (19 years old, 2.06), selected by the Atlanta Hawks, was selected in the first draft (78th edition) in NBA history, which is held over two days: one in the first round, the other in the second. which will move from Barclays Center in Brooklyn to ESPN Seaport District Studios in Manhattan.

If a year ago Victor Vembanyama was a recognized and very clear number 1, without any discussion, then in 2024 things are more complicated. But for several months, the best positions were Risaker and his compatriot Alex Sarr, a center who came through Real Madrid’s youth academy. The picks confirmed those predictions, with Risaker becoming the new No. 1 pick and Sarr, the Washington Wizards’ pick, becoming No. 2.

Their salaries as first-round players are for their first four seasons in the NBA and are structured according to the tables that govern those first 30 picks and which include two guaranteed years and two with one-way options that franchises must exercise (team options). . If players become the stars they promise to be, they won’t be able to start getting their first big extension until they’ve completed their first four seasons, which would allow the new No. 1 to sign for $57.2 million.

Here’s what Risacher will get: $25.8 guaranteed over two years (he’ll make $12.6 in 2024-25 as a rookie), and the rest as long as all goes well and his team exercises its extension options in seasons three and four. Once season three is over, he’ll be eligible to sign his first extension, which would kick in for the NBA’s fifth season. First-round picks are tied to the salary cap available to teams, which is projected to be $141 million next season, up 3.7 percent from the season that just ended. That’s why Risacher is getting more than Victor Wembanyama signed: four years and $55.2 million. If all 30 first-round picks were to exercise four-year NBA contracts, that would total $718 million for the 30 franchises. The agreement requires them to cover at least 80% of what they can offer their first-round players, with a maximum limit of 120%, which is what they usually sign in practice in almost all cases.

Here are the salaries of the first ten selected in the project:

In the case of second-round players, there are no such large-scale restrictions, and there are plenty of minimum salaries and two-way contracts. In 2023, for example, the biggest contract after a second-round pick went to 34th overall pick Colby Jones, who signed a four-year deal worth $8.8 million with the Sacramento Kings.

Risacher’s contract is more than three times that of any big star in the EuroLeague, a competition where salaries are less publicly determined (and subject to various options) but where the highest salary last season went to Shane Larkin, who earned nearly four million. net dollars in Efes (for 12.6, which Risacher will receive as a newcomer). In the NFL, America’s biggest competition, top rookies also sign a four-year contract and receive a salary based on the height of their choice. But they don’t reach NBA levels in terms of bonuses: last-overall draft pick Caleb Williams (the guard who will play for the Chicago Bears) will earn $39.5 million over those four years, which includes a $26.6 million signing bonus. million dollars. In 2020, the margin in favor of the NBA was only 18% in terms of what No. 1 perceived, now that figure is 45%, another example of the NBA’s enormous economic growth.

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