RealGM

How many years does a rookie have to stay with the team that he was drafted by?

Rookie contracts are four years long, and the last two years are option years. So that's a maximum of four years, and a minimum of two. However, they can also trade or waive him whenever they wanted.

Thanks for the quick response Sham. I know that the contracts are 4 years long with the last two being option years. What I was confused with was whether the last 2 years were the player's or the team's option.

So is it the player's option to leave after his second year? If not, when can a player say "seeyalater"?

They are team option years. Players enter free agency after year four; however, if the team wants to make them restricted free agents, they can, simply by extending a qualifying offer. So at that point, the player has six options. He can:

a) re-sign with his team for the value of that qualifying offer,

b) re-sign with his team for some other amount

c) sign an offer sheet (a contract) with another team (which his initial team can then decide if they want to match; if they do, he stays there, signed to the value of that new contract)

d) get signed and traded somewhere,

e) sign a contract with a non-NBA team, or

f) retire from the game and run a country pub.



If the player's a bit crap, they might not be given a QO. And if they're really crap, then they won't even get to the end of year 4. So there's many ways it can go.

heinz- I think what you are asking is when a player can hit unrestricted free agency to be able to sign with whatever team they wish to. Assuming that the player doesn't have any of his team options declined then the quickest route to UFA would be to play out the 4 years of his rookie scale contract and then to accept the 1 year Qualifying offer. So after year 5 then the player could sign with any team he wanted to and the team that drafted him couldn't do anything about it.

killbuckner - yes, thanks.

Sham - thanks for the details.

Wow - six options. I never thought it through like that. Thanks sham.

heinz - I just popped in to state maybe an obvious point .. this info was all about rookies picked in the first round. If the rookie was drafted in the second round, contracts can be unguaranteed and he'd just be limited from free agency by whatever deal he signed.