The NBA’s Designated Veteran rule, as we explain in our glossary entry on the subject, allows players to qualify for a maximum salary worth 35% of the cap before they gain the required NBA service time.

Typically, a player is ineligible to receive a contract that starts at up to 35% of the cap until he has at least 10 years of NBA service under his belt. The maximum salary for a player with between seven and nine years of experience is 30% of the cap, but the Designated Veteran rule gives him the opportunity to get 35% if he meets certain performance criteria. This has become colloquially known as signing a “super-max” deal.

In order to qualify for a super-max contract, a player must have met one of the following performance criteria once he has the necessary years of service:

1. He was named to an All-NBA team and/or earned the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award in the most recent season, or in two of the last three seasons.
2. He won the NBA MVP award in any of the three most recent seasons.

Since the NBA introduced the Designated Veteran contract in 2017, 14 players have signed them across 10 offseasons. Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander became the latest player to join that group in the summer of 2025.

The 2026 offseason was just the second one since 2017 in which no players qualified for or signed a Designated Veteran contract, but there are a handful of candidates to keep an eye on going forward. We’re taking a look today at the players who have the best chance to join the list of super-max recipients in 2027.