According to Michael Scotto with The Athletic, the Denver Nuggets will exercise Malik Beasley’s team option for next season. It will be the final season of Malik’s rookie contract.
For those who are unaware, all first round picks in the NBA draft are subject to the same contract structure. All contracts are for a four year term and the salary amount is defined by the rookie pay scale. However, the third and fourth years of the contract carry a team option meaning if the team should so choose they can effectively end the contract with no penalty after the second or third season if they don’t exercise the option. The catch is they have to make that decision by the end of October in the season prior to the option year.
This rumor is not surprising, it’s exceedingly rare for a team to turn down a team option (though it does happen). First round picks in their third or fourth year have a high likelihood of outplaying their salary given that that are A. trying to earn their next contract and B. rookie scale contracts are fairly cheap given the inherent risk with rookie players. What is a bit surprising is neither Juancho Hernangomez nor Jamal Murray, both of whom were also drafted in the first round in the 2016 NBA draft, are mentioned. Both of those players also have 4th year team options that the Nuggets have to decide on by Wednesday. Jamal is likely just a formality as he clearly outplays his contract currently and Juancho I’m guessing is pretty close to a formality as well. Again, a player has to be an epic bust or a team has to be in absolute salary cap hell to decline these options. I speculate we’ll receive confirmation in the next couple days that all three of Beasley, Murray and Hernangomez’s options have been accepted.
