Tuesday Headlines: NBA Cats Getting Paid Edition

SGA got a huge extension; Nerlens and Lyles land contracts

By Zac Oakes@ZacOakes Aug 3, 2021, 6:40am EDT

Oklahoma City Thunder v Minnesota Timberwolves

NBA Free Agency kicked off yesterday and a couple of former Cats agreed on new contracts, while one former Cat landed a massive extension.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made a lot of money last night, inking a five-year, $172M max rookie extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has agreed to a five-year, $172 million maximum rookie contract extension, his agent Thaddeus Foucher of @Wasserman tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 3, 2021

As the Thunder continue to build for the future, locking in SGA, who has shown significant improvement over his young career and is viewed as a budding star in the league, seems like a smart move considering he’s still just 23 years old.

Nerlens Noel agreed to a multi-year deal to stay with the New York Knicks. as the two sides agreed to a three-year, $32M deal.

Noel appeared in 64 games last season for the Knicks. Noel played well on the defensive end, averaging 2.2 blocks per game to go along with about 1 steal per game. Noel shot 61.4 percent from the field and averaged 6.4 rebounds per game.

Trey Lyles also landed a new contract. Lyles will be headed to Detroit on a two-year, $5M deal.

This will be Lyles’ fourth NBA team as he tries to find his footing in the league, but it’s good to see him land a contract early on, indicating that Detroit believes they have a role for him. Hopefully he can find some success in Motor City, alongside Hamidou Diallo (if the Pistons retain him).

More former Cats could see deals announced today. Malik Monk is a name to watch for, along with Enes Kanter. It’ll be also something to watch to see if DeMarcus Cousins gets an offer in the near future.