Normally, the NBA's deadline for teams to pick up team options on their rookie-scale contracts is Halloween. As the end of October came on a weekend this year, however, it was pushed to Monday. This deadline is usually relatively uneventful.
Former first-round picks living up to expectations, or with obvious paths to improvement in the near future, have their third- and fourth-year options picked up. Obvious busts tend not to. Of course, teams inevitably get these decisions wrong from time to time, and that sends promising players to unrestricted free agency at the end of the season in question.
The most notable recent example came in 2021, when the Phoenix Suns declined their third-year option on Jalen Smith, whom they'd selected at No. 10 overall ahead of players like Devin Vassell and Tyrese Haliburton less than a year earlier. Smith has since grown into one of the NBA's better shooting big men for the Chicago Bulls. I bring this up because a handful of notable team options were declined ahead of Monday's deadline, setting some interesting prospects up for unrestricted free agency next summer.
The NBA is more financially cautious than it has ever been thanks to the aprons, forcing teams to make hard decisions on young players before their futures are fully written. There will inevitably be more Jalen Smiths in the years to come, and a few declined options from the past few days stand out as candidates. There's a degree of validation that comes with being drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Sam Presti thought Nikola Topić was worth the No. 12 overall pick in 2024, and while Presti is hardly infallible, he's the NBA's best general manager by a wide margin and his instincts are usually worth imitation. Oklahoma City didn't decline Topić's 2027-28 option because he's played poorly. They declined it because he's barely played at all.
He missed his rookie season with a torn ACL. He missed most of his second getting treated for testicular cancer, only appearing briefly in 10 games. He has not yet played this season because of back surgery.
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