A first-round pick signs a four-year rookie-scale deal, but only the first two years are guaranteed. Before the start of his second and third seasons, his team has to decide whether to pick up the option for the next year.

The usual deadline is Oct. 31. This year that fell on a Saturday, so the league moved it to Monday, Nov. 2. The 2027-28 options covered two groups: third-year options on 2025 first-round picks and fourth-year options on 2024 first-round picks.

Most calls are easy. Dallas picked up Zaccharie Risacher’s $17.4 million fourth-year option on Oct. 28, even though the former No. 1 pick was shooting 17.6% from three. Brooklyn kept all five of its 2025 first-rounders. Washington kept all five of its players with options, about $41.2 million in 2027-28 salary.

Some 2024 first-rounders whose fourth-year options were picked up ($ millions, 2027-28)

The first decline came almost two weeks early. On Oct. 20, New Orleans kept Jeremiah Fears, Derik Queen and Yves Missi and passed on AJ Johnson, who had joined the Pelicans in a trade the month before.

The last came on deadline day in Salt Lake City. In between, five more teams said no once each.

1. Oct. 20Pelicans decline AJ Johnson's $5.49 million option.
2. Oct. 29Knicks decline Pacôme Dadiet's $5.37 million option, the only rookie-scale option on their roster.
3. Oct. 30Timberwolves decline Cody Williams' $7.67 million option and keep Terrence Shannon Jr. and Joan Beringer.
4. Oct. 31Nuggets decline DaRon Holmes II's $5.55 million option.
5. Nov. 1Thunder decline Nikola Topić's $7.48 million option. Hornets leave Tidjane Salaün's $10.45 million option out of their announcement.
6. Nov. 2Jazz decline Isaiah Collier's $4.99 million option on deadline day.

Three of the seven were lottery picks. Salaün went sixth, Cody Williams 10th and Topić 12th. The other four came from the bottom half of the first round.

Every player whose option was declined was in his third season, so each lost a fourth year on his rookie deal, not a third.

The seven declined options ($ millions, 2027-28)

Cody Williams spent his first two seasons in Utah before an August trade to Minnesota. He had played 11 minutes in three games for the Wolves and had made under 24% of his career threes. Jon Krawczynski reported that the Wolves liked what they saw in practice and that the decision was about fitting salary under the luxury-tax aprons.

Salaün was the first lottery pick made by Jeff Peterson, the Hornets’ head of basketball operations, and the 6-foot-10 French forward was drafted as a long-term project.

His second season showed progress as a shooter, but his minutes kept shrinking. On Sunday, Charlotte picked up options on Kon Knueppel and Liam McNeeley and left Salaün out.

Salaün's minutes per game by season

Knueppel’s option is worth about $11 million and McNeeley’s about $3 million, so the Hornets kept two wings for roughly the price of one more year of Salaün.

The Thunder had three options due, worth $19.4 million together. Topić, the 12th pick in 2024, had played 10 NBA games. A torn ACL wiped out his first season, he was treated for testicular cancer, and he had lower-back surgery in June.

Oklahoma City is projected to be deep in the luxury tax in 2027-28, where every extra dollar of salary costs several more in tax. Brian Windhorst’s projection worked out to almost $5 in tax for every $1 of salary on Topić and Thomas Sorber.

Thunder options, 2027-28 salary ($ millions)

In the end Oklahoma City kept two of the three. Jared McCain has started three of his four games this season, and Sorber, who has not played yet after a torn ACL and a second knee procedure in July, was kept as well. Only Topić was let go.

Denver gave Phoenix three future second-round picks to move up from No. 28 to No. 22 for Holmes in 2024. He tore his right Achilles tendon in his first Summer League game and missed his rookie season.

Stats analyst Jake Coyne pointed out that Holmes’ 27 career games and 215 minutes were the second-fewest among 2024 first-round picks. Only Topić had played less.

Career NBA games before the decision

Dadiet averaged 1.6 points in 5.2 minutes over his 48 appearances for New York. Johnson averaged 3.3 points in 9.5 minutes across 48 games for Washington and Dallas last season. Collier’s 136 games are the most of the seven.

Collier, the 29th pick in 2024, was the cheapest of the seven at $4.99 million. He has started 65 games in three seasons and averaged 7.2 assists last season. The Jazz picked up Ace Bailey’s $9.98 million option the same day and let Collier go.

The passing is real. The shooting is the problem, and he has moved from the starting lineup to the bench as Will Hardy uses him as a second-unit pick-and-roll partner for Jaxson Hayes.

None of the seven loses money this season. Their 2026-27 salaries were already guaranteed, and they stay on their rosters unless they are traded or waived.

Next summer each becomes an unrestricted free agent instead of playing a fourth year on his rookie deal. None can sign a rookie-scale extension.

There is one catch. The team that holds each player at the end of the season cannot offer him a starting salary above the option it passed on. Every other team can.