Rockets list minutes played, net rating as Dante Exum contract incentives

ESPN’s Bobby Marks, who serves as the network’s NBA salary cap guru after spending time in the league as an executive, has new details on the creative contract between Dante Exum and the Houston Rockets.

Per Marks, Exum’s non-guaranteed base salaries for the next three seasons are $2.5 million, $2.3 million, and $2.1 million, respectively. Each year contains a trigger date, and the base amount becomes guaranteed as long as the veteran guard is not waived by that date.

But for Exum to reap the full value of the contract, which is worth up to $15 million over the 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24 seasons, he needs to hit certain incentives each year. According to Marks, the incentive figures negotiated by Houston general manager Rafael Stone are an average of 15.8 minutes played per game, along with a personal net rating of +2.7 or better. For players, net rating is defined as the team’s point differential per 100 possessions while they are on court.

“They [the Rockets] are one of the most creative front offices,” said Marks, who broke down the contract on his Instagram page. Because the incentives are deemed likely by the league, Marks reports that Exum’s outgoing salary figure in future trades will be the maximum $5-million annual amount, as of Jan. 7, 2022. It will be $3.3 million when Exum is first eligible to be dealt on Dec. 15, 2021, and it will gradually increase on a daily basis until hitting the full amount in early January.

Players who sign new NBA contracts during a given offseason are not eligible to be traded until Dec. 15 of that season.

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