Teams With Disabled Player Exceptions

Today is the last day for NBA teams to apply for disabled player exceptions to offset the loss of players who are likely to miss the rest of the season. The league granted five such exceptions this season, but it’s unlikely that any more are forthcoming, barring a major injury today. Eric Moreland is the only one among current NBA players expected to miss the balance of the season whose team is over the cap, which a team must be in order to receive an exception, and whose team hasn’t already received a disabled player exception for him. Still, he’s making the rookie minimum salary this season, so the exception, which would be worth half of that, wouldn’t give the Kings much more financial wherewithal than they already have.

The deadline to use disabled player exceptions isn’t until March 10th, so they’ll remain a factor on the market until then. Only one of the league’s five disabled player exceptions has been used so far. The Cavaliers took Iman Shumpert in via trade from the Knicks using the $4,852,273 disabled player exception they received for Anderson Varejao. Shumpert is making not quite $2.617MM this season, but even though the Cavs used little more than half of the exception, the rest of it is no longer available. Teams can only acquire a single player with a disabled player exception, unlike the trade exception, mid-level exception and biannual exception, which can be split into parts for multiple players. The only team that’s able to use a disabled player exception twice is the Lakers, and that’s only because they have two disabled player exceptions, one for Steve Nash and another for Julius Randle.

Below is a summary of the disabled player exceptions the NBA has granted this year, along with the amount they’re worth and the players for whom they were granted. Teams can use the exceptions to sign, trade for, or make a waiver claim of a player. Teams can use the value of the exception plus $100K to trade for a player, but they can’t exceed the amount of the exception if they’re signing someone or claiming a player off waivers. For more information on disabled player exceptions, check out our Hoops Rumors Glossary Entry.

• Pacers: Paul George ($5,305,000)
• Cavaliers: Anderson Varejao ($4,852,273) — USED: Iman Shumpert
• Lakers: Steve Nash ($4,850,500)
• Heat: Josh McRoberts ($2,652,500)
• Lakers: Julius Randle ($1,498,680)

The Basketball Insiders Salary pages were used in the creation of this post.