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Summary

I was surprised that Exum was able to get a 3-year, $33 million contract back in 2018, especially considering he didn't have much of a market as a restricted free agent. But the Jazz likely just wanted to show faith in one of the highest picks they had in the past decade. While Exum has shown some potential, particularly during the 2018 playoffs as a perimeter defender against James Harden, he just hasn't been able to stay healthy, and thus has not been able to live up to that contract. Exum missed his entire second season due to injury, and has only played in 96 games since the '17-'18 season.

 

On the offensive side, Exum has never developed his skills enough to live up to the hype that he had coming out of the draft in 2014. While he has some real quickness, it only works in straight-line drive situations. Exum never developed his ball-handling enough to be able to use that athleticism to actually get by defenders. His outside shot hasn't come around, and he never developed any sort of off-the-dribble jumper. He has decent vision, but the actual execution of his passes doesn't match that vision, partly due to his inability to create off-the-dribble as previously mentioned.

 

Cap Considerations

Exum will be an unrestricted free agent with full Bird rights. As his cap hold ($18.2 million) exceeds the salary he will get in free agency, his cap hold is not really relevant. If the Rockets re-sign Exum, his cap hold will be replaced by his starting salary, and the Rockets may still have some cap space available depending on his salary and what happens with their other free agents. If Exum is brought back by the Rockets on a multi-year contract, they could benefit from frontloading his contract, as it could give them additional flexibility in the future.

 

Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Exum as even teams without cap space could possibly use either of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or possibly even the Room MLE to sign him. It's also possible that Exum only gets offers for the minimum this summer.

Potential Teams: Timberwolves, Suns, Rockets, Hornets, Bulls

Predicted Contract: 1-year, $2.2 million ($1.7 million cap hit) with the Timberwolves

Actual Contract: 3-year, $15 million (non-guaranteed) with the Rockets

Exum signed a very interesting contract with Houston, where his base salary is not much more than the minimum, and has very little guaranteed money, but he has some likely bonuses that pushes his cap hit up to $5 million per year.

Last updated: 9/26/2021

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