Extensions, meet the apron era

The future is built in the present moment for four more players who landed what appear to be team-friendly extensions in recent days. We run through them.

Good morning. Let's basketball.

Four contract extensions have been reported since Friday. All of them, while conferring deep wealth to the players involved, seem rather team-friendly. To wit: the Jazz reached a deal for five years, $157.5 million with Keyonte George. That's a 15% deal for a player who averaged 24 points and 6 assists per game last season. Sure, it was a huge breakout for George after two worrisome seasons to start his career. And sure, the Jazz are a weird team who were trying to lose every season since drafting George. And sure, Utah drafted a high-potential on-ball guard prospect in Darryn Peterson No. 2 overall this offseason. But guards who score like Keyonte don't usually take $17 million under the max in Year 1, which is what George did.

Utah had some burgeoning payroll problems: Jaren Jackson Jr. takes up about 30% of the cap, and Lauri Markkanen is near that level as well. Getting George at 15%, in a way, solves that problem for apron purposes. Here's another way to look at it: the first apron is about 27% higher than the salary cap. A deal at 30% of the cap is at about 24% of the first apron. George's deal in the 2027-28 season, when it kicks in, will be around 12% of the first apron. It's a lot of money for Keyonte, and good for him. But if he just stays the same level of player, that's a pretty good deal for Utah.

Meanwhile in Detroit, Ausar Thompson took a roughly identical deal: five years, $155 million.