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A group of new athletes will join the NBA fraternity on Thursday night as the league holds its annual draft.
While a few of the teams selecting players at the start of the draft have already indicated who they may select — like the Detroit Pistons with Cade Cunningham and the Houston Rockets with Jalen Green — most of the NBA draft picks remain unknown.
For players, the team that drafts them can have a major impact on how they develop as basketball players, but it also can have a huge impact on their salaries.
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What number draft pick a player is determines how much money he will earn on his rookie contract. This is due to the NBA’s rookie wage scale, which assigns dollar amounts to specific draft slots. The higher a player is drafted, the more lucrative their overall contracts are.
Due to the NBA’s rookie wage scale, dropping a few spots during the draft can actually cost players millions of dollars on their rookie contracts.
Also read: Detroit Pistons nab Cade Cunningham at No. 1 in NBA draft
Each player selected in the first round of the NBA Draft is awarded a 4-year contract with an NBA franchise, but only the first two years are fully guaranteed.
Here are the estimated contracts for the first round selections of the 2021 NBA draft, according to contract monitoring site Spotrac.
Pick No. 1
Guaranteed: $17.2 million
Total value: $38 million
Pick No. 2
Guaranteed: $15.4 million
Total value: $34 million
Pick No. 3
Guaranteed: $13.8 million
Total value: $30.6 million
Pick No. 4
Guaranteed: $12.4 million
Total value: $27.6 million
Pick No. 5
Guaranteed: $11.3 million
Total value: $25 million
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Pick No. 6
Guaranteed: $10.2 million
Total value: $22.7 million
Pick No. 7
Guaranteed: $9.3 million
Total value: $20.7 million
Pick No. 8
Guaranteed: $8.6 million
Total value: $19 million
Pick No. 9
Guaranteed: $7.9 million
Total value: $17.4 million
Pick No. 10
Guaranteed: $7.5 million
Total value: $16.6 million
Pick No. 11
Guaranteed: $7.1 million
Total value: $16 million
Pick No. 12
Guaranteed: $6.7 million
Total value: $15.3 million
Pick No. 13
Guaranteed: $6.4 million
Total value: $14.8 million
Pick No. 14
Guaranteed: $6.1 million
Total value: $14.2 million
Pick No. 15
Guaranteed: $5.8 million
Total value: $13.6 million
Pick No. 16
Guaranteed: $5.5 million
Total value: $13 million
Pick No. 17
Guaranteed: $5.2 million
Total value: $12.3 million
Pick No. 18
Guaranteed: $5 million
Total value: $11.7 million
Pick No. 19
Guaranteed: $4.7 million
Total value: $11.2 million
Pick No. 20
Guaranteed: $4.5 million
Total value: $10.7 million
Pick No. 21
Guaranteed: $4.4 million
Total value: $10.4 million
Pick No. 22
Guaranteed: $ 4.2 million
Total value: $10.1 million
Pick No. 23
Guaranteed: $4 million
Total value: $9.8 million
See also: Cost of the Olympics: How the 2020 Tokyo Games are one of the most expensive ever
Pick No. 24
Guaranteed: $3.9 million
Total value: $9.6 million
Pick No. 25
Guaranteed: $3.7 million
Total value: $9.3 million
Pick No. 26
Guaranteed: $3.6 million
Total value: $9 million
Pick No. 27
Guaranteed: $3.5 million
Total value: $8.7 million
Pick No. 28
Guaranteed: $3.4 million
Total value: $8.7 million
Pick No. 29
Guaranteed: $3.4 million
Total value: $8.6 million
Pick No. 30
Guaranteed: $3.4 million
Total value: $8.5million
Rookies from the NFL Draft will make similar money to NBA rookies, while rookies from the MLB Draft make considerably less.
The NBA Draft begins on Thursday at 8 p.m. EST and will air on the Disney
DIS,
-owned channels ABC and ESPN.
