Last night, the NBA announced its All-NBA Teams, the annual award for those essentially deemed to have been the best 15 players in the league that season. And for the first time in a few years, the Detroit Pistons had a player on one of them.
Marking the first appearance of any Pistons on any of the three annual All-NBA Teams since Blake Griffin back in 2019, All-Star guard Cade Cunningham was named to the 2024-25 All-NBA Third Team, alongside clutch superstar Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers, James Harden of the L.A. Clippers, Jalen Williams of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks.
Cunningham’s accolade is a victory for both him and the Pistons. He has improved significantly over the last two years, and brought the Pistons with him this year, as they recorded the best single-season turnaround in NBA history to get back to the playoffs since the Griffin-led team of 2018-19, winning their first playoff game in 17 years in the process.
However, nothing ever comes for free.
What Happened And Why
Before the season began, Cade and the Pistons agreed a five-year, maximum value extension to his rookie scale contract.
âRookie scale contractsâ are the four-year deals for predetermined amounts signed by first-round picks to begin their NBA careers. After the third year of a rookie scale contract, in the offseason before the fourth one starts, these players are eligible to sign contract extensions that will begin the following season.
In the NBA, âMaximumâ salaries in the NBA are dependent on various factors. But for rookie scale extensions, the maximum salary a player can receive in the first year of extension is, normally, 25% of the salary cap.
However, given how complicated the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement always is, there exists an exception to that 25% rule. Specifically, via a provision called the 5th Year, 30% Max criteria, a player can instead receive a contract starting at 30% of the salary cap, if they have achieved any of the following:
[A] Named Defensive Player of the Year in the previous season, or both of the two prior to the previous season
[B] Named to the All-NBA first, second or third teams in the previous season, or both of the two prior to the previous season
[C] Won the MVP award in any of the three immediately prior seasons.
Cunningham Receives $45 Million Pay Bump
These caveats are not automatically included in extensions, and the conditional “if” language has to be included in negotiations. In the case of Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons, however, they were.
When signing his extension, Cunningham and the Pistons agreed that he would sign for the 30% maximum if applicable, and for the 25% maximum if it was not, with the maximum 8% raises in either event. Having not won the MVP award or been the DPOY, Cunningham was relying on caveat [B] above if he was to get the pay rise. And with today’s news, he has done just that.
Exact salary cap figures are not known until the first week of July of the season in question. There are however official NBA projections released occasionally, from which fairly accurate approximations of Cunningham’s extension value can be calculated.
If Cunningham was to receive the 25% first-year maximum, the value of his extension would have looked like this:
- 2025-26: $38,661,750
- 2026-27: $41,754,690
- 2027-28: $44,847,630
- 2028-29: $47,940,570
- 2029-30: $51,033,510
Total: $224,238,150
(* all figures calculated using the NBA’s latest official 2025-26 salary cap estimated amount of $154,647,000)
Now that Cunningham will get the 30% first-year maximum, however, those numbers raise to the following:
- 2025-26: $46,394,100
- 2026-27: $50,105,628
- 2027-28: $53,817,156
- 2028-29: $57,528,684
- 2029-30: $61,240,212
Total: $269,085,780
(* all figures calculated using the NBA’s latest official 2025-26 salary cap estimated amount of $154,647,000)
That is, near enough a $45 million pay increase for Cunningham. And for the Pistons, that is a high price to pay for good news.
Nevertheless, the validation for both the team and Cunningham will offset much of it. And given that they have the lowest payroll in the NBA currently, the Pistons can afford it. The price of good play is big payroll, and as the main driving force behind the franchise’s long-overdue resurgence, they will happily pay it to Cunningham.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post A Piece Of Good News Just Cost The Pistons $45 million appeared first on Heavy Sports.