New Contract Details Emerge On Newest Atlanta Hawks Signing

Last week, the Atlanta Hawks announced two signings that seemingly rounded out their roster. The Hawks signed Rockets center N'Faly Dante and Magic forward Caleb Houstan and that got them to 15 players on their roster, but more details have emerged about the contracts.

New Details

N'Faly Dante Atlanta Hawk — Apr 11, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Houston Rockets center N'Faly Dante (3) moves the ball against Los Angeles Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt (2) and guard Austin Reaves (15) during the second half at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images | Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images

It was reported that Dante's contract was for two years and $4.4 million, but according to ESPN's Bobby Marks, the deal only carries a partial guarantee of $85,300 in year one. Per Luke Adams at Hoops Rumors, "Matching the offer sheet would have been a very low-risk move for the Rockets, who would have only been on the hook for that $85,300 partial guarantee if they had decided to waive Dante before the start of the regular season. But Houston didn’t have enough room below its first-apron hard cap to match the offer without making a corresponding roster move to shed salary."

While it was assumed that Houstan was the 15th man on the roster (and he still might be), he was not signed to a regular contract. According to Keith Smith at Spotrac, Houstan's deal with the Hawks is an Exhibit 10 deal with the Hawks.

Caleb Houstan's contract with the Atlanta Hawks is an Exhibit 10 deal, a league source told @spotrac.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) August 21, 2025

What exactly is an Exhibit 10 contract?

Per hoopsrumors, "Exhibit 10 contracts are one-year deals worth the minimum salary. They don’t come with any compensation protection, but can include an optional bonus. Exhibit 10 contracts don’t count against a team’s salary cap during the offseason. However, they would begin to count against the cap if a team decides to keep a player on an Exhibit 10 contract into the regular season, essentially converting his deal to a standard one-year, minimum-salary deal."

What does this mean?

Apr 9, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Houston Rockets center N'Faly Dante (3) block Los Angeles Clippers guard Bogdan Bogdanovic (10) in the second half at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Hawks have two players who could possible fill out their roster, but because the deals are not guaranteed, Atlanta could move on from them and have enough space to sign multiple minimum contracts and still be under the luxury tax.

Per Bobby Marks, N'Faly Dante's contract reported 2/$4.4MM only has a tiny partial guarantee.

In reality, the Hawks still have room for two minimum-valued players below the tax despite the Dante and Houstan signings. pic.twitter.com/K9PQGIjGpj
— Wes (@bloghawk) August 24, 2025

Will that happen? We will have to see, but general manager Onsi Saleh values optionality and the deals in the last week prove that.

It is possible that Dante and Houstan end up being the last two guys on the roster though and they would make a lot of sense.

Houstan (pronounced “Houston”) appeared in 58 games (six starts) during the 2024-25 season with the Orlando Magic, averaging 4.1 points and 1.3 rebounds in 13.6 minutes (.421 FG%, .400 3FG%, .882 FT%). Following the All-Star break, he recorded a .507% clip from three-point range, the second-highest mark in the NBA amongst all players over that time (min. 35 3FGM). Against Minnesota on March 14, Houstan poured in a season-best 18 points on a season-high tying six made triples (6-8 3FGM), in addition to swiping a career-high tying four steals in 27 minutes of action.

Selected by Orlando with the 32nd overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, Houstan has seen action in 168 career games (23 starts), owning averages of 4.1 points and 1.5 rebounds in 14.4 minutes. He has also appeared in eight playoff games across two postseason runs with the Magic.

Dante appeared in four games with the Houston Rockets on a two-way contract during the 2024-25 season, averaging 6.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 12.8 minutes of action (.769 FG%, .800 FT%). In his NBA debut against the Oklahoma City Thunder on March 3, he tallied a near double-double, contributing 10 points, nine rebounds, one assist and two blocks in 18 minutes of play. He became just the second player in the NBA since 1983-84 to post those numbers in an NBA debut while appearing in fewer than 20 minutes, joining Kevin Love (Oct. 29, 2008, vs. Sacramento).

The 6-11 center saw action in 42 total games (all starts) with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA G League this past season, averaging 15.1 points, 9.8 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 2.2 blocks and 1.0 steal in 26.8 minutes (.743 FG%).