Leonard made approximately $34.4M this past season, so 175% of that amount would’ve exceeded $60M, far above the allowable maximum. That meant that he qualified for a starting salary worth 35% of the cap, which is the maximum for players with 10+ years of service.Īlthough the Clippers didn’t have the cap room to accommodate that sort of deal, they held Leonard’s Early Bird rights, which gave them the ability to offer either 175% of his previous salary or the league-wide max (35% of the cap), whichever was lesser. 1, the two-time Finals MVP entered free agency as a player with 10 years of NBA experience under his belt.

After he declined his player option for 2021-22 on Aug. Of all the players who signed maximum-salary contracts this offseason, Leonard has perhaps the most straightforward deal. With the help of our glossary entry on maximum salaries and contract data from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac, we’re going to break down these 11 deals and explain how the “maximum” values were determined in each case and why the contracts look so different. Hardly any of these 11 contracts project to be worth the same amounts, providing a case study in just how different a “maximum” NBA contract can look from player to player. The parties never discussed financial terms of a possible deal, but Durant wouldn’t have considered an offer below the full max, which Brooklyn, Golden State and the LA Clippers offered, league sources said.So far in August, eight players who have been eligible for either free agency or an extension have signed what we’d traditionally consider maximum-salary contracts, while another three have agreed to extensions worth the maximum they could be offered. However, their thinking changed after Durant’s injury, which is likely to keep him out all of next season. With New York unwilling to take that risk, the Knicks front office instead flew to Los Angeles to meet with and secure a commitment from Julius Randle on a three-year, $63 million deal.ĭurant had long been a focus for the Knicks, who made several trades this year to secure the requisite salary-cap space to sign him and another superstar. PlayerĬoming off such a catastrophic injury, Durant was interested in only maximum contract offers. The New York Knicks were not prepared to offer Kevin Durant the four-year, $164 million contract he eventually committed to with the Brooklyn Nets because of concerns about his recovery from his Achilles injury, league sources told ESPN.

Golden state wont offer kd max