Just a few weeks after his Boomers teammate and childhood friend Josh Giddey signed a four-year contract extension at the Chicago Bulls worth a reported $150m (US$100m), 22-year-old Dyson Daniels put pen to paper on his own deal to stay at the Atlanta Hawks through to the end of the decade.
On the eve of the October 21 deadline for extended non-expired contracts, Daniels negotiated an enormous payday heading into what would have been the final season of his four-year, $25m rookie contract at the Hawks.
Daniels was crowned as the Most Improved Player of the 2024/25 NBA season after a stellar campaign in which he was also voted as the best perimeter defender of the entire competition, eclipsing Magic Johnson's long-standing record as the youngest player to record more than 200 steals in a single season.
Drafted to the NBA in 2022 as pick number eight, the Bendigo prodigy also averaged an impressive 14 points, six rebounds and four assists per game in addition to his season haul of 229 steals, which is the most any one player has managed in the 21st century.
With that, he became just the fifth player in the last 50 years -- alongside Johnson and Michael Jordan amongst others -- to average at least 14 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals per game in a single season.
The Hawks, who are fourth-favourites to win the Eastern Conference, will commence their regular season on Thursday morning AEDT with a 10:30am tipoff against the Toronto Raptors.