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Like his Oklahoma City Thunder teammates Shai-Gilgeous Alexander and Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams signed a gigantic contract extension this offseason.
After cementing himself as Gilgeous-Alexander's co-star en route to an NBA championship, Williams inked a five-year extension earlier this month that is currently worth about $240 million but can be worth as much as $287 million. And according to popular NBA podcaster and writer Zach Lowe, Williams' deal has elements he would like to see more of in the future.
“A couple people who have seen the Jalen Williams contract have described it to me like this,” Lowe began on the ‘Zach Lowe Show' podcast. “It has the escalators for all the All-NBA, Defensive Player of the Year, MVP stuff. These people have told me, ‘Here's how the escalators work…' And this, to me, is like a fair negotiation — fair representation of how I would like a lot of these to go. Third team All-NBA, you bump up from 25 to 26%. Second-team All-NBA, you bump up from 25 to 27%. All other things, first-team All-NBA and the major individual awards, the full 30% max.
“I've always said that third team All-NBA should be treated as a different thing. That's one way of doing it. And by the way, again to repeat this, I think it's BS right off the bat that Jalen Williams even has to re-earn the 30% bump. He just made All-NBA in his third year; he should automatically get the whatever bump is necessary for him. He shouldn't have to negotiate it, but he did, and this is a fair negotiation.”
Since the extension does not kick in until the 2026-27 season, Williams has a very valuable year coming up. Williams already has a designated rookie extension, which allowed him to sign for an additional year and get 25% of the salary cap in the first year of the deal. However, thanks to the “Rose Rule,” named after former MVP Derrick Rose, players' first-year salaries can be worth up to 30% of the cap if they earn specific accolades.
In Williams' case, according to Lowe, he can secure himself several more million dollars if he, like this past season, is named to an All-NBA team or wins MVP or Defensive Player of the Year. Currently, Williams is slated to be paid $41.4 million in Year 1 and then $44.7 million, $48 million, $51.3 million, and $54.6 million from 2027 to 2031, respectively.
