3 Kentucky players with the biggest NBA contracts in 2024 ft. Jamal Murray’s $209 Million Deal
The Kentucky Wildcats have emerged to be a sanctuary of high-caliber NBA players, with more than 40 players stemming from the program since 2010. Their ex-coach John Calipari recently shed light on five of its players pulling north of $800 million through contract extension last month alone.
With that, here are three Kentucky Wildcats players with the biggest NBA contracts heading into the 2024-25 season.
Kentucky players with the biggest NBA contracts in 2024
#3 Jamal Murray – $209 million
Despite the lack of All-Star selections in his NBA resume, Jamal Murray is one of the most impactful players on the Denver Nuggets roster.
While he has a year left in his $158,253,000 five-year contract, the Nuggets are in the process of offering him a $209 million contract extension across four years. That will enable the franchise to retain of of the top points in the league by ensuring that he doesn’t enter free agency
#2 Karl-Anthony Towns – $224 million
The Wolves offered a supermax four-year extension to Karl-Anthony Towns, valued at $224 million. The contract activates from the 2024-25 season and will keep the big man with the franchise until the end of the 2027-28 campaign.
The Wolves mounted their best-ever playoff run of the modern-day basketball last season, and KAT was an integral part of their success. He abruptly left the Wolves in the middle of the regular season behind a knee issue and gripped his role efficiently during the playoffs.
#1 Devin Booker – $224 million
Phoenix Suns and Devin Booker agreed on over a $224 million supermax extension in 2022.
At the time, Booker was under a five-year maximum extension worth $158 million signed in July 2018. His blockbuster contract extension begins from the 2024-25 season and will keep him tethered to the Suns until the end of the 2027-28 season.
Booker averaged 27.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 6.9 last season last season and registered his fourth All-Star appearance.
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Kentucky basketball continues to be disrespected by the national media
Over the last few seasons of college hoops, teams that are full of veteran players who have played multiple years of college basketball have led teams to deep runs in the NCAA Tournament.
Looking at that blueprint, Kentucky’s new head basketball coach, Mark Pope, put together a roster full of players who have played a ton of college basketball and lots of games in the NCAA Tournament. Despite all of these elite additions via the transfer portal, the 2024-25 Kentucky basketball isn’t receiving much respect from the national media.
CBS Sports put out their updated top 25 for the upcoming 2024-25 season and the Kentucky Wildcats are not listed. The reality here is there are not 25 teams better than Kentucky in college basketball.
Coach Pope added an elite mix of defense and offense that should have the Wildcats in the top 20 of both the offensive and defensive numbers on KenPom. This plus players with a ton of upside, like Brandon Garrison, Otega Oweh, and Andrew Carr, should have the Wildcats listed in the top 25 ahead of the season.
It makes sense, though, as Coach Pope’s team isn’t one that gets college basketball writers excited ahead of the year because there aren’t a ton of highly ranked players when it comes to high school recruiting, but this team will have writers excited when March comes around.
Coach Pope and his team don’t care about rankings, but once this team is on the floor together, they will be able to prove to the college basketball world that they are capable of making a run in March.
