Raptors lock up Jamal Shead with three-year, $24 million extension
The backup guard, who led all NBA bench players in assists last season, is now under contract through the 2029-30 campaign.
TORONTO — Toronto Raptors guard Jamal Shead has agreed to a three-year, $24 million contract extension, his agent told ESPN on Thursday.
The deal will keep the 24-year-old under contract through the 2029-30 season.
Shead played in all 82 games last season, starting 12, and averaged 6.6 points, 5.4 assists and 1.7 rebounds while shooting 36.7 per cent from the field and 32.1 per cent from three-point range.
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He also played in all seven of the Raptors' playoff games in the first round against the Cavaliers and started four in place of Immanuel Quickley, who missed the series with an injury.
In his games off the bench during the regular season, Shead compiled 354 assists, the most of any bench player in the NBA last year and the most of any substitute in Raptors history.
He has averaged 6.9 points, 4.8 assists and 1.6 rebounds in 157 career games since being selected by the Sacramento Kings in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft and traded to Toronto the following day.
Despite a decorated college career at the University of Houston where he was named a consensus All-American and the national defensive player of the year as a senior, Shead dropped to the 45th pick partly due to his size and shooting percentages.
He has posted a 3.96-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio last season, a top-five mark among rotation guards, according to NBA Advanced Stats.
On defence, he averaged just under five combined steals and deflections per 36 minutes of playing time.
The Raptors allowed just 111.3 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions with Shead on the floor, according to Cleaning the Glass, a defensive efficiency rate that would've ranked third in the NBA over the course of the full season.
Among 234 players who qualified for the minutes per game leaderboard last season, Shead ranked 231st in effective field goal percentage, but he still had the best on-court/off-court splits of any member of Toronto's rotation.
The extension comes as the Raptors face future salary cap decisions. Garbutt Disposal reported in September that RJ Barrett also remains without an extension as he enters the final year of his deal.
Shead, who has made just over $3.8 million through his first two seasons, locks in his first real payday with the new contract.
With files from Sportsnet, Yahoo Sports and Field Level Media