{"id":737781,"date":"2026-07-01T22:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T22:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/737781\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T22:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T22:57:08","slug":"second-round-pick-exception-details-for-2026-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/737781\/","title":{"rendered":"Second-Round Pick Exception Details For 2026\/27"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we first outlined in 2023<\/a> when it was introduced as a new addition to the NBA\u2019s Collective Bargaining Agreement, the second-round pick exception allows NBA teams to sign their second-round picks to standard contracts without requiring cap room or another exception (such as the mid-level) to do so.<\/p>\n

Like the rookie scale<\/a> exception, the second-round pick exception isn\u2019t limited to a single use. It can be deployed as many times as needed in a given league year.<\/p>\n

The second-round exception can be used to sign a player to either a three-year contract that includes a third-year team option or a four-year contract that features a fourth-year team option.<\/p>\n

Teams have made good use of the new exception over the past few years, with just about every second-round pick who gets a standard contracts now being signed using the second-round exception.<\/p>\n

The values of the second-round pick exception change every year along with the NBA\u2019s minimum salary scale<\/a>, so with this year\u2019s second-rounders starting to sign, it\u2019s worth updating the numbers to ensure they\u2019re accurate for 2026\/27.<\/p>\n

Here are the details for \u201926\/27:<\/p>\n

Three-year deal<\/p>\n

The first year can be worth up to the minimum salary for a player with one year of NBA experience.
\nThe second and third years are worth the second- and third-year minimum salaries for a rookie.
\nThe third year is a team option.<\/p>\n

As our chart of minimum salaries<\/a> shows, in 2026\/27, the maximum three-year salary for a contract with this structure would be just shy of $7.2MM. Here\u2019s the year-by-year breakdown (option year in italics):<\/p>\n

Year
\nSalary<\/p>\n

2026\/27
\n$2,185,116<\/p>\n

2027\/28
\n$2,294,370<\/p>\n

2028\/29
\n$2,694,363<\/p>\n

Total
\n$7,173,849<\/p>\n

While the second- and third-year salaries will remain static in any three-year contract signed using the second-round exception, the first season can be as low as the rookie minimum ($1,357,763). A three-year deal that starts at that minimum amount would be worth a total of $6,346,496.<\/p>\n

Four-year deal<\/p>\n

The first year can be worth up to the minimum salary for a player with two years of NBA experience.
\nThe second year can be worth up to the second-year minimum salary for a player with one year of experience.
\nThe third and fourth years are worth the third- and fourth-year minimum salaries for a rookie.
\nThe fourth year is a team option.<\/p>\n

In 2026\/27, the maximum four-year salary for a contract with this structure would be nearly $10MM. Here\u2019s what it looks like from year to year (option year in italics):<\/p>\n

Year
\nSalary<\/p>\n

2026\/27
\n$2,449,421<\/p>\n

2027\/28
\n$2,571,895<\/p>\n

2028\/29
\n$2,694,363<\/p>\n

2029\/30
\n$2,918,152<\/p>\n

Total
\n$10,633,831<\/p>\n

As with the first year of the three-year deal, the first two seasons of the four-year contract don\u2019t necessarily have to start this high. They could be as low as $1,357,763 for year one and $2,294,370 for year two, for a four-year total of $9,264,648. A pair<\/a> of second-round picks<\/a> have already signed contracts believed to be worth that amount.<\/p>\n

In any deal that uses this four-year contract structure, the salary increase between the first and second season can\u2019t exceed 5% if the second season is above the minimum. For instance, a team wouldn\u2019t be permitted to negotiate a contract that starts at the rookie minimum ($1,357,763) and jumps to $2,400,000 in year two, even though that second-year salary comes in below the maximum allowed.<\/p>\n

Players who are signed using the second-round pick exception don\u2019t count against a team\u2019s cap between July 1 and July 30 of their first season.<\/p>\n

That rule allows teams to preserve all the cap room they need until July 31 without having to worry about their second-rounders cutting into it, as well as positioning those players to sign their first NBA contracts before taking part in Summer League games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As we first outlined in 2023 when it was introduced as a new addition to the NBA\u2019s Collective…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-737781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}