Anshari Taslim
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams has remained sidelined for the entire 2024-25 NBA season thus far, missing the team’s first 18 games following offseason wrist surgery. While a full physical recovery is anticipated, this unanticipated and prolonged absence has triggered specific clauses within the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), potentially costing the burgeoning star an estimated $47 million in future earnings from his recently signed contract extension.
Williams, a key component of the Thunder’s young core, completed his third NBA season as a first-round pick in 2023-24. His promising performance, which included an All-Rookie First Team selection in 2023 and an All-NBA Third Team nod in 2024, made him eligible to sign a contract extension last offseason. As per standard CBA regulations for players with six or fewer years of experience, such extensions typically commence at 25% of the league’s salary cap. Williams secured a five-year extension projected to guarantee him approximately $240 million based on this initial percentage.
However, the NBA’s CBA incorporates provisions, colloquially known as the "Derrick Rose Rule" or more formally as the Designated Rookie Extension, allowing exceptionally productive young players to earn a higher starting salary. This rule permits a player to sign an extension that begins at 30% of the salary cap, rather than the standard 25%, if they meet specific performance criteria. These criteria include being named to an All-NBA Team (First, Second, or Third), winning Defensive Player of the Year, or winning Most Valuable Player either in the season immediately preceding the new contract’s commencement or in two of the three seasons prior. Players who are not yet eligible for this higher tier but could potentially become so based on future performance can sign contracts with performance-based escalators. Evan Mobley of the Cleveland Cavaliers notably benefited from such a clause, earning a salary bump after winning Defensive Player of the Year in his fourth season.
Williams’ extension, signed last offseason, included a similar structure, albeit with terms reportedly more team-friendly than some other designated rookie deals, as detailed by NBA insider Zach Lowe. Had Williams achieved a Third-Team All-NBA selection during the 2024-25 season, his contract’s starting percentage would have increased from 25% to 26% of the salary cap. A Second-Team selection would have elevated him to 27%, and earning a First-Team selection or winning either Defensive Player of the Year or MVP would have qualified him for the full 30%. At this maximum 30% tier, his projected contract value would have reached approximately $287 million over five years, representing a substantial $47 million increase over his base guaranteed amount. However, Williams is now ineligible to activate any of these performance-based escalators for the current season.
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The pivotal factor in this forfeiture is the NBA’s 65-game minimum rule for major individual honors. Instituted to encourage player participation and address concerns regarding load management, this rule mandates that a player must appear in at least 65 regular-season games to be eligible for awards such as MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and all All-NBA Team selections. With Williams having missed the Thunder’s first 18 games, the maximum number of games he can play in the 82-game season is 64. This figure falls one game short of the required threshold, automatically disqualifying him from consideration for these awards for the 2024-25 season. Consequently, the contractual escalators tied to these achievements are now unattainable for this period.
While Williams is still set to earn a substantial sum of $240 million, a figure that places him among the league’s higher earners, the missed opportunity highlights a specific aspect of the CBA that some analysts consider problematic. The rule’s specific language regarding eligibility for the Designated Rookie Extension allows for the salary bump if a player hits the benchmark in the season before the new contract kicks in, or in two of the previous three seasons. Williams demonstrated All-NBA caliber performance in his third professional season (2023-24), earning a Third-Team selection. This achievement occurred prior to his extension commencing in the 2025-26 season. Had the injury delayed his All-NBA recognition until the 2024-25 season, he would have satisfied the criteria. The timing of his injury, coinciding with the critical window for his performance-based escalators, has effectively negated his prior achievement in the context of this specific rule.
This scenario draws a distinction from the Designated Veteran rule, often referred to as the "supermax" contract, which allows players with seven to nine years of experience to jump from 30% to 35% of the cap. For these older players, requiring a recent All-NBA selection or major award makes logical sense, as it accounts for potential age-related decline and ensures sustained elite performance. However, for players signing rookie extensions, like Williams, the expectation is typically continued improvement rather than plateau or decline. The intent behind such rules for young players should arguably be to incentivize and reward them for reaching an elite level, not necessarily maintaining it every single year of their early career. Achieving All-NBA status in both a player’s second and third seasons – 67% of their career to that point – is an exceptionally rare feat; Luka Dončić is one of the few players to accomplish this since the rule’s inception. Most other beneficiaries of the Derrick Rose Rule, apart from Rose himself, earned their eligibility through their performance in their fourth season. Williams’ early All-NBA selection, while impressive, ironically occurred a year too soon to activate his current extension’s escalators under the current rules.
Beyond the immediate impact on Williams, this situation carries broader implications for competitive balance across the league. The Oklahoma City Thunder are poised to become one of the league’s most financially committed teams in the coming seasons. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is slated to begin a supermax deal in 2026-27, while Chet Holmgren, like Williams, will soon be eligible for a max rookie extension. With Williams’ contract now locked in at the lower 25% base, the Thunder will benefit from reduced salary cap commitments for a foundational piece of their roster. While a "good problem to have," this financial flexibility could afford General Manager Sam Presti more latitude in retaining other key players, navigating the luxury tax, or pursuing future acquisitions. In contrast, the 29 other NBA teams would typically prefer a rival’s core to be as expensive as possible, thereby creating greater financial constraints and harder roster decisions.
Furthermore, the "one-shot" nature of these contractual escalators is a point of contention. Williams cannot earn back the lost potential earnings with subsequent All-NBA performances after his extension officially begins. This mirrors the situation of Jayson Tatum, who earned Third-Team All-NBA in his third season, missed All-NBA in his fourth (the critical season for his extension), and then proceeded to make four consecutive First-Team All-NBA selections afterward. Tatum’s subsequent performance clearly demonstrated his worthiness of the higher contractual tier, yet the Boston Celtics benefited significantly from his single missed opportunity in a crucial year. The Thunder now stand to benefit similarly from Williams’ situation, underscoring what some perceive as an inherent flaw in the rule’s design.
With the current CBA’s opt-out clause not scheduled until after the 2028-29 season, immediate changes are unlikely. However, when the CBA is revisited, this specific rule is expected to be a key point of discussion. The emphasis on a single season’s performance, particularly for young players whose careers are still developing, is often seen as overly restrictive. Rookie contracts are fundamentally designed to compensate for future potential, which can be demonstrated over multiple seasons, not just the most recent one. Potential compromises could include modifying the timing of eligibility, allowing players who missed out on initial escalators to earn them in subsequent seasons by achieving All-NBA status during the life of the contract, or designing boosts to stack, granting increasing annual raises with each All-NBA selection earned during the extension’s term. Such adjustments would aim to better align the contractual rewards with the sustained elite performance that players like Jalen Williams demonstrably provide.
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