All-NBA teams: Four significant financial effects, including the uncertain future of Jaren Jackson Jr.

For most of the NBA history, the announcement of all-NBA teams was a relatively low event. They existed for boastful rights and posterity. They encouraged Hall of Fame cases and gave the fans a short snapshot of the time that were important in a certain season.

But now? In this malignant salary limit, it is one of the most important days of the year. For many superstars it is the day that determines how much money they are to earn. Usually the maximum content of a player depends on his experience. Four and six years of experience can start contracts with 25% of the salary upper limit. When you achieve between seven and nine years of experience, this number jumps up to 30%and with 10 or more seasons its peak at 35%.

However, when a player reaches certain criteria, he can effectively jump to the next stage and enable players with less than seven years of experience to start a new contract with 30% and less than 10 to start a deal with 35%. If you take into account the 8% annual increases that can be integrated into these contracts, the difference here can be absolutely enormous.

The three relevant criteria here are MVP, defensive player of the year, and the most common: All-NBA. The first two had already been awarded. On Friday, The all-NBA teams were named. Now that this year's awards have been settled, we can deal with the financial effects of the vote. So let's talk about who made money this season and who lost it.

A number of 2026 free agents have lost Supermax offers in recent months. Luka Dončić was entitled until February when he was traded on Los Angeles Lakers. One player can only sign a supermax with the team that has designed him or a team that acts for him in the first four years. So the Dallas Mavericks not only threw him in February, they also took money out of their pockets. Trae Young might have been able to put a supermax on the table with an all-NBA selection (it would have needed one next year), but he didn't do the cut.

However, Dončić and Young do not exactly harm here because the standard veterans extension work. A typical veteran extension can offer an increase of 40% in the first year of a new deal. For players such as Dončić and Young, who are currently in Max contracts anyway, they comfortably lead to their maximum. Where the 40% rule has stalled, players who earn Max money or something nearby, but do not earn in their current business in this environment.

This is the case with Jaren Jackson Jr. The rookie extension, which he signed in 2021, not only started under the maximum, but actually reduced his salary every year. Next year he will only earn around 23.4 million US dollars. This means that an increase of 40% in the first year of his New Deal would not even bring it to $ 33 million, and since this starting point determines the size of the annual increases of a player, the total value of a new contract would be far below the market on this basis for an all-star and former defender of the year.

The Supermax would have solved this problem immediately. If a player is justified, all other expansion rules go out the window. Jackson was almost a castle in the middle of the season, but when the grizzlies ran down the route, he was ultimately drained off by the final team.

Under normal circumstances, this would have created a very scary situation for the grizzlies. Most of the teams that cannot expand the upcoming free agents a year in advance look like the very real danger of losing them for free. This fear still exists to the grizzlies to a certain extent. In the summer of 2026 there is a lot of space in the cap, and some of the teams that hold it (we see them, Lakers), would be quite tempting for Jackson. But Memphis predicted this possibility and planned accordingly.

A problem bypass of the veteran extension limits is to create the cap room. If a team has space, it can negotiate the existing contract of a player before giving him an extension about it. This was done by Utah Jazz for Lauri Markkanen last summer: they pushed its salary from 2024-25 to the maximum and then gave it a strong expansion to avoid the 40% limit. In anticipation that Jackson could miss all-NBA, the grizzlies used their first round in 2025 to dispose of Marcus Smart. This brought them into a position in which they can create around 17.5 million US dollars in Cap Space this low season to pay Jackson.

Now there are reservations here. The first is that creating this cap means to do without all of your own free agents. So long, Luke Kennard and Santi Aldama. These are valuable players and it would make the grizzlies very sensible. This is part of why all-NBA was so important for Jackson and Memphis. It would have allowed the grizzlies to sign it again without making these drastic cuts in their immediate roster.

Second, and perhaps more important, it is that a bump of 17.5 million US dollar Jackson does not bring its maximum. It would get its salary up to around $ 40 million. Jacksons Max, based on the planned salary limit, would be over 46 million dollars. Would he be ready to sign for less? He would cost it $ 10 million throughout the lifespan of a New Deal. The signing now offers security, but waiting for a year offers much more upward trend. Even if he plans to stay in Memphis, he could again sign Free Agent in 2026 by using bird rights for his 2026-27 Max-a projected $ 51 million. That would also give him the opportunity to explore free agency.

It is a risk expectation calculation for him at this point, but it is one that the grizzlies would also weigh. Say Jackson decided to play the 2025-26 season without extending. Would the grizzlies only decide to exchange it to avoid playing against freelance agency? It is quite possible. An all-NBA selection could have solved all of this. Instead, Jackson becomes one of the most interesting players in the low season.

Jackson's situation is complicated. Cade Cunninghams is not. In the last low season, he signed the standard Max Treaty from Derrick Rule Max and guaranteed him five years from 25% of the upper limit, but jumped up to 30% when he made an all-NBA team. Well, Cunningham was a third choice for teams on Friday, so he made the cut. That is the difference between 224 million and 269 million US dollars for its upcoming rookie extension.

Cunningham, however, was not the only affected person from 2021. Evan Mobley also made the leap from $ 224 million to $ 269 million, although he didn't just need NBA to do this. His defensive player of the year Trophy achieved his increase. This creates this Some important cap problems For the cavaliers who suddenly lie far above the second apron, but hey, at least it's worth Mabley.

Two more 2021 -weapon teas had Real Rule Bopps incorporated into their contracts, but ultimately did not install them. Scottie Barnes was never a serious all-NBA candidate, so he settles $ 25% in this $ 224 million. Franz Wagner had a realistic shot for a few months. However, an injury in the temporary season brought him out of running, so that he is at 224 million US dollars. Fortunately, none of these prices are starved.

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Cunningham and Mobley used their performance in their fourth seasons to earn these bumps from 25% to 30% in their new contracts. What Jalen Williams did was probably more impressive. In his third season, he just did an all-NBA team and defeated them for one year. However, due to the wording, Williams is not yet entitled to a rose rule.

In order for a player to be justified by the all-NBA selection, he has to do an all-NBA team in the season before the new deal begins or in two of the last three seasons. While Williams can negotiate a rookie extension this summer, the deal would only start technically in the 2026-27 campaign.

In other words, this season would not have played a role if he hadn't won MVP, which covers a period of three years. If he does all-NBA again next year, it will be justified, but at the moment he has signed a contract that is formatted similar to the signed cunningham. It will start at 25%, but a escalator of up to 30% will include if it produces an all-NBA team next year.

So these are the good news for thunder, at least for the time being. What is the bad news? Well, it's not that bad per se, just a little expensive. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won MVP on Wednesday. This was included in his Supermax authorization for an expansion, which he will probably sign in the next low season. It will be worth – to take a deep breath, people – over five years 380 million US dollars. That is 76 million US dollars a year, a number that reaches relatively close to $ 1 million per game.

Obviously, this is an enormously expensive contract, even if it is worth it for an MVP. Things are becoming even more expensive for thunder if Williams (or Chet Holmgren) will also be an all-NBA team next year. But the thunder built their team in mind with this jump. You are ready to pay your stars. Isaiah Hartenstein has a team option for the 2026-27 season, so that it can be cut out as required. The thunder has obtained draft picks so that they can drive in a new, cheap depth when their role players become expensive. Don't be surprised if you explore offers for players like Hartenstein, Lu there or Alex Caruso for exactly this purpose in the next a year or two. The thunder wants to build a sustainable winner. You probably have a plan to do this, even if your three best players become expensive. The award ceremony this year made these players only more expensive.

Anthony Edwards has been removed from the Free Agency for four years. He is in no hurry to make contractual decisions. Next summer, however, he will achieve the three -year anniversary of the signing of his current deal, which enables him to extend if he wants one. It would probably not make sense to sacrifice the flexibility for a standard extension. However, if he can bake the Supermax increase in one, the financial rewards are likely to be worthwhile.

Edwards is not quite there yet. By producing an all-NBA team this season, he can be considered for a supermax extension next season if he is repeated as an all-NBA election. According to Yossi Gozlan, this extension would pay him $ 360 million for over four years. That is 90 million US dollars a year, well north of $ 1 million.

This is what the new TV deal is expected for player salaries. The new CBA stipulates that the cap can rise to 10% every year. The money from this new TV deal almost ensures that this will be the case, and since maximum salaries are a percentage of the upper limit, they also increase by 10%every year. This makes this all-NBA selection more important every year. It will not be long before they are literally worth hundreds of million dollars.