There’s a line of thinking in NBA circles, already prevalent but growing in recent years, that a player’s decision about when to declare for the draft should be more about the second contract than the first. In theory, this is 100 percent true, but it’s also an inexact science. There is no hard and fast rule that dictates why teams make the decisions they do, and the choices made by NBA front offices on how to handle a player coming off his rookie deal oftentimes will have no similarity whatsoever from case to case.

Here’s a look at some of the more interesting second-contract decisions from this past summer and fall — notable players that either took the restricted free agency path, signed extensions with their current team, or rolled the dice without inking a deal.

There were four curious cases of restricted free agency:

Chandler Parsons

(AP)

Parsons was a second-round steal for Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, who signed the small forward to a very cheap contract, which Parsons outperformed to say the least. The contract had an option for the 2014–2015 season. If the Rockets exercised the option, they would have paid Parsons the paltry sum of $964,750 for the season. The catch is that at the end of the season, Parsons would become an unrestricted free agent.

The Rockets chose to decline the option, allowing Parsons to immediately become a restricted free agent. Conventional wisdom assumed that the Rockets would match any offer to Parsons, and that they declined the option strategically, to retain their right of first-refusal during restricted free agency and ink the budding star to a long-term deal. There was also speculation that the big bump in salary ahead of schedule for Parsons was part of an under-the-table quid pro quo with Parsons’ agent, Dan Fegan, who also happens to represent Dwight Howard. Either way, the odds of Parsons leaving Houston seemed remote.

While the Rockets waited on the LeBron James dominoes to fall this past summer — ultimately hoping to make a run at Chris Bosh — Parsons hit the club, and waited. And while Parsons waited, Mark Cuban moseyed his way on into said club, as well. And, like the greatest episode of Entourage never aired, the music scratched to a stop so that Parsons and Cuban could ink their respective John Hancocks to a three-year, $46 million contract. Though the money may be a tad much for Parsons, the Mavs had the cash to spend this offseason, with Dirk Nowitzki taking a large pay cut.

Morey was reluctant to match the Mavs’ offer, but for reasons that went beyond the price tag. The objectionable part of the Parsons contract for Morey was the clause that gave Parsons the right of first-refusal on any trade after this season. Morey also didn’t believe that Parsons was the type of third star his team could win a title with. If they had gotten Bosh, Morey would have tried to retain Parsons, no-trade clause be damned, because Parsons is good enough to be a fourth option on a title team.