We don’t yet know what type of contract LeBron James will sign with the Cavaliers.
Will it be a two-year deal with a player option, a three-year deal with a player option or a four-year deal with a player option?
Those are the possibilities. Barring an unlikely extension, LeBron will hit free agency again by 2018.
Kyrie Irving can follow not long after – and a year earlier than expected.
Before LeBron announced his plan to sign in Cleveland, Irving agreed to a five-year contract extension with the Cavaliers that begins after the upcoming season. However, Irving could terminate that contract after just four years of the extension.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:
Jeffrey Wechsler, Irving’s agent, really took the Cavaliers to the cleaners.
The designated-player and Derrick Rose rules allow teams to offer a longer and larger rookie-contract extension. By design, those mechanisms are in place so a team rewards a player it wants to keep for five years rather than the standard four. That way, both the team (a young star under it’s control for longer) and player (more money) get something out of the arrangement.
Irving took his bounty and left the Cavaliers none of their extra security.
Essentially, Irving could escape Cleveland after four years of the extension, which starts in 2015-16. Thankfully for the Cavs, they signed LeBron, surely diminishing Irving’s desire to leave.
Blake Griffin and Paul George are the only other designated player to receive the ability to opt out after their fourth season of the extension. To get his player option, George had to drop his Rose-rule-raised salary from 30 percent to 27 percent. Griffin, though, got his full 30 percent along with an early termination option.
As can Irving.
We won’t know the value of Irving’s extension until the 2015-16 salary cap is set next July, but if the cap rises by the same amount it did this year, the baseline would be $90,686,380.
Irving would trigger the Derrick Rose rule – raising his contract to$108,823,656 based on the the same projected cap – only by winning MVP or being voted an All-Star starter this season. Considering he was already voted a starter last year and now the NBA’s most popular player is bringing more attention to his team, Irving should have no problem getting voted a starter again. Plus, I bet plenty of Heat fans wouldn’t mind voting for Irving if it makes Dan Gilbert write a larger paycheck.
Of course, 2020, when Irving can become a free agent, is a long way off. So much can change between now and then.
But that’s when Irving will get his first chance at the unrestricted ability to change NBA teams.
Luckily for the Cavaliers, they’ll have LeBron to coax Irving back to Cleveland. Probably.