The Nets have signed No. 28 overall pick Joshua Jefferson to his rookie scale contract, the team announced today in a press release.
The signing of Jefferson’s first NBA contract was postponed because he was involved a trade that wasn’t made official until Friday. The Timberwolves drafted him on behalf of the Nets last month.
After finally being acquired the four-team deal that also sent Julius Randle to Brooklyn, the former Iowa State star wasted little time putting pen to paper — the Nets announced his contract just a couple hours after having put out a press release confirming the trade. He’s expected to earn $2.97MM as a rookie and $15.3MM over his first four years in the NBA.
Jefferson was a four-year college player who spent his first two seasons with St. Mary’s, earning a starting spot in his sophomore year. The 6’9″ forward then transferred to the Cyclones and started 70 games for the team from 2024-26.
Jefferson’s production ramped up throughout his college career. As a senior, he averaged 16.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 1.6 steals in 30.9 minutes per game. He also started to develop a three-point shot, making 34.5% of 3.1 attempts per contest, and was selected to the Associated Press’ All-America second team.
Nets Summer League coach Dutch Gaitley said today that he hopes Jefferson will be able to make his debut on Saturday vs. Atlanta, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post.
As our tracker shows, 28 of 30 first-round picks have now signed their rookie scale contracts. The only two outliers are Grizzlies draftees Cameron Boozer and Karim Lopez. Memphis currently doesn’t have room on its 21-man offseason roster to add both Boozer and Lopez, which is presumably the reason for the delay.
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