G Dejounte Murray, Atlanta Hawks
Things aren’t going well with the Atlanta Hawks, but Dejounte Murray could have millions of more reasons to smile this offseason.
Murray is entering the final year of his four-year, $64 million deal he initially signed with the San Antonio Spurs before being traded to Atlanta. He will earn $17.7 million during the 2023-24 season.
With the old CBA, Murray would be eligible for an extension worth $76.8 million over four years. The new CBA makes him eligible for an extension worth $89.6 million over four years, almost $13 million more than before.
That doesn’t seem like it would be enough to sway Murray to sign an extension in the offseason, especially as the team flounders to the play-in tournament without a clear direction for the future. Murray is the kind of player who would probably seek the max in his next deal, which will almost certainly be well above the average annual salary he would command with the $90 million extension.
Like many players on this list, the changes to the CBA close the gap between what can be had and what should be had, but not entirely. Dejounte Murray is another example of a player who could benefit from the extension limit increase without it necessarily being a likely possibility.