Australian NBA superstar Dyson Daniels has a signed a monster four-year, $100 million (A$153.5m) rookie contract extension with the Atlanta Hawks.
ESPN’s Shams Charania broke the news on Tuesday morning AEDT that on the eve of the new season, the 22-year-old has been rewarded for his breakout campaign last time out.
Daniels won the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award after snatching 229 steals, the most in 30 years, as the nickname ‘The Great Barrier Thief’ took off.
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He also averaged 14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 3.0 steals per game last season.
The Victorian’s contract matches that of Boomers teammate Josh Giddey, who signed an extension with the Chicago Bulls last month after a lengthy stand-off between player and team.
Daniels was heading into the final season of his four-year $25m ($38.4m) rookie deal, but snuck in an extension before the league deadline on October 21.
The new deal has also taken Daniels’ name out of the pool of potential candidates for the likely 2026 off-season bidding war.
More teams are set to have salary cap space open up next year, which is expected to lead to plenty of player movement, but Daniels is now locked away unless circumstances change.
When you dive deeper into his 2024-25 statistics, it is clear to see why the Hawks were eager to hand him an extension.
Daniels was voted the best perimeter defender in the league by club general managers, receiving almost a third of the vote.
His 229 steals was the most this century, and the most since Gary ‘The Glove’ Payton had 231 in 1995-96, in a Seattle Supersonics team that lost in the finals to the Bulls.
Daniels was also the youngest player ever to have 200 steals in an NBA season, taking the record from Los Angeles Laker legend Magic Johnson.