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Big Pay Raises Coming for G League Players

Guerschon Yabusele of the Maine Red Claws (42) and Alfonso McKinnie of Raptors 905 in a G League game. The N.B.A. will give the league’s players a pay raise of 35 percent or 84 percent, depending on the player’s classification.CreditCreditCarl D. Walsh/Portland Press Herald, via Getty Images

By Marc Stein

April 17, 2018

The N.B.A. is instituting a long-anticipated salary increase in its developmental league, the league announced Tuesday.

Effective next season, players signed to G League contracts will earn $35,000 — or $7,000 per month — in addition to housing and insurance benefits over the course of the league’s five-month regular season.

Players under G League contracts previously earned either $26,000 or $19,000. The increase will represent a pay raise of 35 percent or 84 percent, depending on the player’s classification.

The N.B.A. pays all player salaries in the G League.

Players also will remain eligible to earn affiliate player bonuses worth as much as $50,000, which are triggered when a player goes to training camp with an N.B.A. team and then plays for that team’s G League affiliate.

The G League will expand to 27 teams next season when the Washington Wizards introduce the Capital City Go-Go. That will leave Denver, New Orleans and Portland as the only N.B.A. teams that do not field a direct G League affiliate.

N.B.A. teams will continue to have the ability to carry two players on their rosters using what are known as two-way contracts. Starting next season, according to the new salary figures, such deals will pay $77,250 in the G League (prorated for days spent on a G League roster) and an N.B.A. rookie minimum salary prorated for days spent with their N.B.A. team.

The $77,250 is an increase from $75,000 this season, and it means the maximum potential earnings for two-way players in the 2018-19 season will be $385,000.

The 2017-18 season was the N.B.A.’s first to feature two-way contracts. Eighty-three players signed such deals, while a record 50 players on G League contracts received N.B.A. call-ups.