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Payton Sandfort spurned NBA 2-way deal, opening path for Iowa to reach higher ground
Hawkeye forward was terrific last season in many ways. He wants to bow out at Iowa with a big senior season and “a ton of wins” before turning toward pro basketball.
Oct. 3, 2024 4:25 pm, Updated: Oct. 3, 2024 5:08 pm
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ROSEMONT, Ill. — Men’s college basketball isn’t in the rut some say it is, but it has issues.
The main one is how transient it’s become and how rosters change wildly from year to year. Four of the 10 players on the preseason All-Big Ten team came from other programs. Two — Indiana center Oumar Ballo and Washington forward Great Osobar — are on their third team and haven’t played a Big Ten game.
“Everybody’s a free agent,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said here Thursday at the conference’s men’s basketball media day.
And those free agents have agents.
Many of the 18 coaches here have turned-over rosters. Illinois, a 29-game winner last season, lost two players to the NBA and had two players transfer to West Virginia and one apiece to Indiana, Kansas State, and Florida Atlantic. Coach Brad Underwood replaced them with transfers from Arizona, Louisville, Mercer, Notre Dame and Evansville.
Illini fans can’t be blamed for feeling like they’re cheering for school colors, not the strangers wearing them.
So, Iowa supporters should take an extra shine to Payton Sandfort this season. He’s a senior who came to Iowa City from Waukee High and has stayed, growing into a player who is preseason All-Big Ten himself.
Purdue junior guard Braden Smith is the popular preseason Player of the Year pick in the league, but Sandfort has to be a contender. The forward averaged 16.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists. He led the Big Ten in 3-pointers with 95 and free throw percentage with .911.
He had the first triple-double in program history. His last home game of 2023-24 was a 30-point, 12-rebound effort in an NIT win over Kansas State. His assist-to-turnover ratio was 2-1.
That’s a really good player, and you know him. Yes, he would have left last spring had the conditions been right. He was an NBA draft early-entry candidate. He found out where he stood, as anyone with legitimate NBA aspirations would do. He would be in an NBA training camp today had he wanted, but returned to Iowa.
“There were some pretty good deals on the table that I had to turn down,” Sandfort said here. “I took it to the last day (the deadline to stay in the draft). I worked out for Utah the day of the decision with the mindset of trying to earn a job with them.”
But the offers were for two-way contracts. Each team has three players on those. They make $578,577, half the minimum rookie salary. They can play in just 50 NBA regular-season games, and usually spend more time in the NBA G League than not.
The first two years of a first-round pick’s contract are guaranteed. Second-rounders can be signed to three- or four-year contracts, but many end up on two-way contracts. Sandfort was projected for the middle of the second round, two-way land.
“Kris Murray (after his 2022 sophomore season, the year before he was a first-rounder) and Payton both were offered two-way contracts,” said McCaffery. “Kris wanted to come back and be a first-round pick. Essentially, he bet on himself. And that’s what Payton’s doing, betting on himself.”
“There was a path into the NBA right now and I could have taken that,” Sandfort said, “but the goal is to stick in that league, which is a much, much harder thing to do.
“There’s 450 jobs, and most of the people are on contracts that are short-term. They’re just trying to see if they stick. But the others are people who stick. They bring something, bring something every day. And that’s where I want to get to.”
Sandfort could join Luka Garza, Keegan Murray and Kris Murray as recent Hawkeyes who topped 20 points per game. That, Sandfort said, isn’t paramount.
“This season is about this team,” he said. “We’ve accomplished good things in my career at Iowa, but I have bigger goals than what we’ve accomplished. And I think this is a team that can do it.
“Now the goal is to win the national championship and win a ton of games with a great group of guys and a team that I’m very confident in.”
If that happens, Sandfort won’t just get his name called by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on the first night of the 2025 draft. He’ll become a mythical figure in Hawkeye lore.
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com
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