Former NBA executive and current ESPN scribe Bobby Marks has details on a number of contract incentives around the league this season.
Players can earn bonuses for a number of reasons— everything from all-star appearances, to total games played, defensive production, and reaching certain statistical benchmarks.
Among those players is Kyle Lowry, who signed a new three-year, $100 million deal that will pay him an average of $33.3 million per year. Given those lofty numbers, Lowry’s contract bonus may seem like peanuts, but there is $2 million in incentives built into his new deal.
Lowry will earn a $200,000 bonus for each of the following:
*All-star appearance
*All-NBA team appearance
*All-Defensive team appearance
*Raptors reach conference finals
*Raptors reach NBA Finals
*Raptors win NBA championship.
But all of those benchmarks will only pay out should Lowry reach certain totals in minutes per game and total games played, ones Marks reports are unlikely to be met:
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Toronto Raptors PG Lowry’s $200K All-Star bonus is considered unlikely even with the point guard appearing in the All-Star Game last season. Lowry must appear in 65 games and play more than 25 minutes per game for the bonus to trigger. Last season, Lowry played in only 60 games. The same minutes and games criteria are also in place for All-NBA and All-Defense, if the Raptors reach the conference finals and NBA Finals and if they win the championship.
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Whether or not he hits those benchmarks and qualifies for the contract bonuses will affect the Raptors’ cap hit. With a hard cap ceiling of $125.26 million, Marks says, those bonuses will take the Raptors from $5.6 million below the hard cap to $3.5 million.
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