Checking In On Open Roster Spots
As our tracker shows, the following teams currently have one spot available on their 15-man standard rosters:
- Brooklyn Nets
- Golden State Warriors
- Houston Rockets
- Orlando Magic
- Toronto Raptors
The Nets have an opening after they decided not to re-sign rookie forward Grant Nelson, whose 10-day contract expired on Sunday night. They’re still operating below the salary cap, so there isn’t anything preventing them from signing another player.
The Warriors and Rockets are operating in luxury tax territory, and while they have plenty of room below their hard caps to add a 15th man, they’re probably not all that eager to increase their projected tax bills by bringing in someone who won’t play at all.
The Magic and Raptors are both operating less than $1MM away from the tax line, but each team has enough room to bring in a minimum-salary veteran on a rest-of-season contract without becoming a taxpayer, so if there’s someone out there they like, they don’t necessarily have to wait.
The Kings and Jazz are worth mentioning too. Sacramento’s 15th spot is currently held by Killian Hayes, whose second 10-day contract will expire on Saturday night. Utah, meanwhile, has two players — Mo Bamba and Andersson Garcia — signed to 10-day deals through next week.
Finally, there’s one notable team not mentioned in the list above because they technically have three open 15-man roster spots, not just one. That’s the Celtics. Boston is in the midst of executing an intricately timed plan to meet the NBA’s rules related to roster minimums for the rest of the season while narrowly staying out of the tax.
It’s a safe bet that Boston will stick with just 12 players for the maximum allowable 14 days before making a couple roster additions in mid-March. Current two-way player Max Shulga will likely get a promotion at that time for financial reasons (his rookie minimum salary wouldn’t be subject to “tax variance“). If all goes according to plan, the Celtics will be able to sign a 15th man on the last day of the regular season without surpassing the tax threshold.
Bulls’ Simons Out At Least Two More Games Due To Wrist Fracture
Combo guard Anfernee Simons will visit a hand specialist after the Bulls finish their ongoing road trip, per Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. The Bulls face the Clippers on Thursday and the Lakers on Friday before returning to Chicago ahead of Monday’s home game vs. Memphis.
Head coach Billy Donovan said Simons was able to take some shots during the Bulls’ shootaround on Tuesday. However, the 26-year-old is still experiencing pain, particularly when catching and dribbling the ball, Cowley writes.
Simons, who was acquired ahead of the deadline in a trade with Boston, appeared in six games with Chicago prior to aggravating an ulnar styroid fracture in his left wrist on February 21. He originally sustained the injury during training camp with the Celtics.
Donovan said a couple weeks ago that surgery wasn’t being considered for Simons. At the time, he suggested it might be an option once the season ends if the fracture was still causing Simons problems. The former first-round pick has missed Chicago’s last eight games because of the injury and will miss at least two more.
Simons, who is earning $27.7MM in the final season of his contract, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer if he doesn’t sign a veteran extension before then. In 55 total games this season (24.9 minutes per contest), he has averaged 14.3 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists on .440/.385/.896 shooting splits.
Jazz Sign Andersson Garcia To 10-Day Contract
The Jazz have signed free agent forward Andersson Garcia to a 10-day contract, the team announced in a press release.
A native of the Dominican Republic, Garcia went undrafted in 2025 out of Texas A&M. He played five years of college basketball — two with Mississippi State and his final three with the Aggies.
As a reserve for Texas A&M in 2023/24, Garcia led the SEC in rebounds per game (9.1) en route to a spot on the conference’s All-Defense team. He averaged 6.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.1 steals on .518/.403/.702 shooting over his final two seasons with the Aggies (26.5 MPG).
Garcia has spent this season with the Mexico City Capitanes, the lone independent team in the NBA G League. In 35 combined games (25.3 MPG) in 2025/26, the 25-year-old has averaged 10.9 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 2.0 APG and 1.4 SPG on .547/.267/.691 shooting.
Garcia will be eligible to play up to five games with the Jazz and will earn $73,153 during his 10 days with the team. His contract runs through March 20.
The Jazz had an opening on their standard roster and didn’t need to waive anyone to sign Garcia.
Eastern Notes: Banchero, Poole, Pistons, P. Williams
Magic forward Paolo Banchero admits the first half of the season didn’t go the way he or the team wanted it to, but he has been playing excellent basketball over the past few weeks. The former No. 1 overall pick tells Marc J. Spears of Andscape he was motivated by not making the All-Star team.
“I’m always honest with myself,” Banchero told Andscape. “I looked in the mirror first. Over the All-Star break, I watched a lot of film over the early part of the season. I just wasn’t happy with what I put out. Some of that had to do with me being injured and coming back. …
“I could’ve had a better mindset, and that was part of it. But I know I’m an All-Star in this league. My confidence is still the same. It’s about being honest with yourself and realizing that you didn’t really deserve to be an All-Star, honestly. It’s about taking that with a grain of salt and being better in the second half of the season.”
In his 10 games (36.1 MPG) since the break, Banchero is averaging 26.2 points, 9.2 rebounds and 5.7 assists (3.8 turnovers) on .508/.341/.822 shooting. The Magic are 7-3 in that span and currently have their longest winning streak of the season at four games.
“Paolo has been ultra-aggressive attacking, getting early baskets,” head coach Jamahl Mosley told Spears. “He’s also been taking on the best player assignments defensively.”
Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Jordan Poole was disappointed he was traded by the Wizards over the summer, as he says he was told he was in the team’s long-term plans. “That’s what I was looking forward to,” Poole told Josh Robbins of The Athletic. “But it’s the NBA, so things happen differently.” According to Robbins, Poole’s tenure with the Wizards was largely “misunderstood.” While the team was abysmal during his two seasons, Poole was beloved by his teammates, who rushed over to greet the veteran guard after Sunday’s game in New Orleans. Keyonte George, Alex Sarr and Bilal Coulibaly all have said Poole helped boost their confidence, Robbins writes. “He just kept my head straight,” George said. “I didn’t necessarily shoot it well at the beginning of (last) season, but he was always there to tell me, ‘Keep going. Keep going. We need you to make shots at the end of the season. We need you to make shots through the next couple of years on the road, the important shots.’ (He was) just making sure that I stick with my habits, and I don’t lose confidence. I think that’s a big thing for me that he taught me: (With) 82 games in the NBA season, the first 15 don’t define you, the first 30 don’t define you. It’s really how you finish. And when it’s time to really play and hoop, you’ve got to show up.”
- The Pistons snapped their four-game losing streak on Tuesday with a 38-point road victory at Brooklyn, per Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. “We’ve been playing high-level basketball all year. Had a little bit of a dip,” Cade Cunningham said in his post-game interview. “Every team has a moment in the season where they think the sky is falling. We had that and we just wanted to get back on the right track.”
- Bulls head coach Billy Donovan is optimistic better days are ahead for Patrick Williams, per Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. “He’s turned out to be a really good catch-and-shoot three-point shooter, but one of the things he was getting himself into trouble [with] was putting it down on the floor — traffic, turnovers,” Donovan said. “For him, it’s just a consistency part. He’s shown more consistent signs this year than he has in the past, but I still feel like there’s more there for him. I believe that.” The sixth-year forward has battled injuries in recent weeks and Williams’ contract — he’s in the second season of a five-year, $90MM deal — is “effectively immovable,” Cowley writes.
And-Ones: 2026 Mock, Schedule, Contracts, Weaver
Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, BYU forward AJ Dybantsa, Duke big man Cameron Boozer, and UNC forward Caleb Wilson are the top four picks — in that order — in the latest 2026 mock draft from Jeremy Woo of ESPN.
As Woo writes, while Peterson is the most talented offensive player in the 2026 class, injuries and inconsistency have led to a perception that selecting him No. 1 overall might carry more risk than adding Dybantsa or Boozer, who are both still in the mix for the top spot. Woo suggests which team wins the draft lottery might ultimately determine which player goes No. 1, with Peterson and Dybantsa viewed as the two frontrunners.
Illinois guard Keaton Wagler (No. 6) and Texas wing Dailyn Swain (No. 29) are among the prospects who have boosted their stocks this season, while Kansas forward Koa Peat (No. 19) and Baylor wing Tounde Yessefou (No. 30) are trending in the opposite direction, according to Woo.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Dean Oliver of ESPN takes a look at how teams’ remaining strength of schedule could impact which NBA teams secure the third and fourth seeds in the Western Conference, the No. 2 spot in the East, and the fifth and sixth seeds in the East.
- Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report predicts which NBA contracts will be the riskiest ahead of the 2027/2028 season. Although he’s the “most likely” player to live up to his lucrative long-term contract, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander‘s super-max extension will be the riskiest deal in the league in a couple seasons, per Pincus. The reigning MVP will be owed a projected $273.3MM over four years in ’27/28.
- Former NBA assistant Will Weaver has been named head coach and president of basketball operation of the Brisbane Bullets, he told Olgun Uluc of ESPN. The Bullets compete in the National Basketball League, which features nine Australian teams and one based in New Zeland. Weaver, who previously coached the Sydney Kings in 2019/20, is currently a coaching advisor for the Hornets and will continue in that role through the end of ’25/26, Uluc reports.
Injury Notes: Antetokounmpo, Prince, Young, Hart
Playing on Tuesday in just his fourth game since January following a lengthy absence due to a calf strain, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 22 points against Phoenix, but gave fans a scare or two when he appeared to tweak that troublesome calf. After the game, head coach Doc Rivers spoke about the injury, saying the calf wasn’t affected and that the incidents weren’t as bad as they initially appeared, as Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes (Bluesky link).
“I was scared,” he said, per The Athletic’s Eric Nehm (Twitter link). “The one time he went down in the first half, he said he was fine, he just tripped over a guy’s foot, so there was no injury. And then he got hit in the groin. And I’m thinking that’s a calf, the way he went down… and then he was just winded.”
Antetokounmpo ended up playing 32 minutes in the loss, his highest minutes total since January 23.
We have more injury news from around the league:
- Bucks forward Taurean Prince, who has been out since November after undergoing surgery to address a herniated disk in his neck, returned to action on Tuesday. “It’s cool because, honestly, I didn’t think he’d play this year,” Rivers said, per Nehm (via Twitter). “The fact that he’s worked the way he’s worked to get back on the floor, it’s just all about him and who he is. It really is. It’s really a cool thing.” The Bucks’ head coach went on to elucidate how important Prince’s presence was throughout the season, even when he was hurt. “When he got injured, we grabbed him and told him, ‘Welcome to the coaching staff’ because that’s basically what he was gonna be this year,” the coach said. “And early on, it did look like that. He was in a brace, couldn’t really do anything. And then as his neck started healing, hope came.”
- Wizards guard Trae Young missed Tuesday’s against the Heat, which turned out to be a historic contest, due to knee injury management, the team tweeted. Young recently returned to play for Washington after speculation that he would miss the rest of the season following his trade from the Hawks. He has yet to play more than 20 minutes in a game for Washington.
- Josh Hart is being listed as questionable for the Knicks‘ game against the Jazz on Wednesday due to left knee soreness, Steve Popper notes (Twitter link). Hart has suited up for the last 15 Knicks games, and while he’s averaging just 28.7 minutes per game, he is coming off one of his heaviest workloads of the season, playing nearly 37 minutes in Monday’s loss to the Clippers.
Bam Adebayo Becomes Second-Highest Single-Game Scorer In NBA History
Bam Adebayo scored 83 points in the Heat‘s victory over the Wizards on Tuesday, becoming the sole owner of the second-highest scoring game in NBA history.
In doing so, Adebayo passed Kobe Bryant‘s longstanding 81-point second-place mark, which the former Lakers star recorded on January 22, 2006.
Adebayo went 20-of-43 from the field, including 7-of-22 from three-point range, and 36-for-43 from the free throw line. He broke the NBA record for made free throws (previously 28, by Adrian Dantley and Wilt Chamberlain), attempted free throws (previously 39, by Dwight Howard), and became the first player ever to ever attempts 30 or more free throws and 20 or more three-pointers in a game, per The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov (Twitter link).
By the end of the night, the Wizards were triple-teaming Adebayo and intentionally fouling his teammates just to keep the Heat’s center off the free-throw line, but a quick spin move in transition drew the shooting foul and allowed Adebayo to reach his goal. He was subbed out soon after getting to 83 points.
Head coach Erik Spoelstra said the three-time All-Star made his decision-making down the stretch easy.
“I didn’t even dare think about taking him out,” Spoelstra said, per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel (Twitter link).
Chamberlain’s 100-point record has remained unbroken since March 2, 1962.
Pacific Notes: James, Kennard, Melton, Warriors Youth
LeBron James is missing his third straight game for the Lakers on Tuesday as he works his way back from arthritis in his left foot, as well as a left elbow contusion. James went through his pregame shooting routine prior to the Lakers’ matchup against the Wolves, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin (via Twitter), but ultimately decided that he needed more time before he’ll be ready to return to action.
According to coach JJ Redick, James was a participant in the team’s film session on Monday, but he did not take part in the on-court practice (Twitter link via McMenamin).
After the 22-time All-Star missed the first 14 games of the season due to a sciatic nerve issue, James has been quite durable. Prior to his recent absences, he had only sat out four of the team’s previous 48 games.
We have more from the Pacific Division:
- Luke Kennard‘s elite three-point shooting is transforming the Lakers‘ attack, writes Thuc Nhi Nguyen of the Los Angeles Times. Kennard is making 56.1% of his outside shots over the last six games coming into Tuesday’s contest, with the Lakers going 5-1 in that span. Nguyen notes that the Lakers were shooting 34.9% from three prior to trading for Kennard and have bumped that figure to 39.2% since bringing in the sweet-shooting guard. Kennard, for his part, is grateful to be able to play with play-makers like James and Luka Doncic. “It’s definitely something you think about like, ‘Man, I wish that was me there getting those open looks,'” Kennard said. “But now it’s a reality.”
- De’Anthony Melton is set to play in his first back-to-back set of the season on Tuesday as the Warriors take on the Bulls, writes Nick Friedell of The Athletic (Twitter link). Melton played just 20 minutes in Monday’s loss to the Jazz in order to ensure he’d be ready for tonight’s game, according to coach Steve Kerr. Melton, who is officially listed as questionable, has scored at least 20 points in four of his last six games.
- The Warriors have one of the NBA’s oldest and most expensive rosters, which is why team-friendly deals for players like Moses Moody and Gui Santos are particularly valuable to the club, Dalton Johnson writes for NBC Sports Bay Area. In a conversation with Spotrac’s Keith Smith, Johnson outlines how these deals that young players can outplay can be crucial for building sustainable teams around superstars, with Smith pointing to Miles McBride‘s three-year, $13MM extension with the Knicks as another example.
Heat Notes: Adebayo, Herro, Guard Depth, Johnson
Bam Adebayo‘s elite-level impact on the Heat has become undeniable, Ira Winderman writes for the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Winderman makes a stat-based argument for Adebayo’s stardom, noting that he’s second in the league in on/off differential behind only Nikola Jokic (among players who have logged at least 1500 minutes) and that the Heat have a 99.7 defensive rating with him on the court since the start of February.
Winderman notes that with the Heat surging, award consideration could soon follow for Adebayo. Head coach Erik Spoelstra agrees, according to the Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang, who says (via Twitter) Spoelstra believes that if the Heat continue to win, the Defensive Player of the Year award will be a two-man race between Adebayo and Victor Wembanyama.
While there’s still plenty of work to do to secure a playoff spot, the Heat are playing with a real joy and belief in themselves, Winderman writes.
“You can sense that our locker room is trying to seize the moment right now,” Spoelstra said. “We’re having a lot of fun competing with each other and playing to a consistent identity on both ends.”
We have more from the Heat:
- One reason for Miami’s improved play of late is Tyler Herro, who has been rounding into his customary form after an injury-riddled start to the season, Chiang writes. Herro was recently named Eastern Conference Player of the Week and is relishing being back on the court with his teammates. “I’m appreciating just, again, being out there,” he said. “I was without the game for a while, and to be out there means a lot. Now to be winning out there with these guys, it feels amazing.” Chiang notes that Herro is the only player averaging more than 20 points with at least .500/.450/.900 shooting splits since the All-Star break.
- The point guard position has been something of a question mark outside of Davion Mitchell this season, but Spoelstra says he’s very happy with how the depth chart has shaped up, according to Chiang. “We have three really good point guards,” Spoelstra said, referring to Mitchell, rookie Kasparas Jakucionis, and Dru Smith. “… We feel very fortunate. We haven’t had this kind of point guard play and that depth at that position — I can’t remember. It’s been a while.” Spoelstra added that each guard brings a different skill set to the table, so when one doesn’t play, it’s not an indictment on that player, but more related to what the team needs in that moment.
- Keshad Johnson is ready to defend his dunk contest crown next season, writes Cyro Asseo of HoopsHype. “I’ll for sure be down to do it again next year,” he said. “Make a bigger name for myself. I do believe bigger names are gonna start getting involved with All-Star Weekend, based on how the politics are playing out and how the fans are being very vocal about wanting to see big names go out there and do stuff during All-Star Weekend.” In the interview, Johnson said that he believes in himself and his work, and is embracing what the Heat have asked of him. “It’s all about being a winner, whatever it takes to win,” he said. “That’s what the Heat values, that’s what I’m trying to show I can do. So whether that’s guarding the best player, rebounding, or hitting shots, that’s what I’m trying to work on.”
Doctors Discuss Zach Edey’s Long-Term Injury Outlook
The Grizzlies had hoped that, entering the 2025/26 season following an offseason surgery, Zach Edey‘s ankle issues would be behind him, Damichael Cole writes for the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
Instead, Edey played just 11 games before being sidelined with a stress reaction that led to him undergoing another surgery on March 3. In that time, he averaged 13.6 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks in just 25.8 minutes per game.
In order to get a clearer picture of the outlook for the second-year big man moving forward, Cole spoke to two doctors, Kenneth Jung and Nicholas Strasser, neither of whom played a part in Edey’s surgeries and who instead spoke based on the publicly released information from the Grizzlies.
Both doctors noted that the most recent surgery addressed a different ligament than the first one, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t cause for concern.
“When there are multiple setbacks like this, you start to worry about whether it represents a more progressive injury,” Strasser said.
The doctors said that the issues come when the bone in the ankle becomes inflamed due to repeated stress.
“He had injuries that altered the anatomy of the ankle,” Jung told. “By restoring that anatomy and stabilizing the ligaments, the goal is to get him back to his pre-injury status. It’s different from something like an ACL that tears again. This is another ligament being stabilized to restore the ankle’s structure.”
Both doctors emphasized the need for patience when it comes to establishing a recovery timeline for Edey. Strasser notes that the best-case scenario would be three months, but six months is more realistic, given that the talus bone can be a slow healer.
“Even when you repair ligaments — like he had on the other side — the tissue needs time to heal,” Jung said. “The bone stress also needs time to heal, and then he has to rebuild his strength.”
The Grizzlies expect Edey to make a complete recovery for the 2026/27 season, Cole notes (via Twitter), but the idea of the big man playing in Summer League or FIBA World Cup qualifiers is probably unrealistic. According to Cole, Edey being back on the court in six months would be a big win for Memphis.