Checking In On 10-Day Contracts

With the NBA’s 2020 trade deadline just 10 days away, most teams around the league are looking to preserve roster flexibility, which means that several teams with open roster spots are currently opting not to bring in a 15th man on a 10-day contract.

While that’s understandable for teams with potential tax concerns, like the Rockets and Thunder, a number of teams that aren’t up against the tax – including the Kings, Timberwolves, and Magic – are currently carrying just 14 players, leaving an open roster spot rather than bringing in a player on a 10-day audition.

We’ll see if that changes in the coming days, but for now it looks like those clubs may wait to add a 15th man until after they see what happens at the deadline. That would be a little surprising, since 10-day contracts can be terminated before they expire if necessary at a low cost, and a team like Orlando could use the depth.

Currently, there are just three players league-wide who are on active 10-day contracts, and two of them are on the same team. Here’s the list:

• Tyler Cook, F (Cavaliers)
  • Second 10-day contract with Cavs; runs through January 29.
• Alfonzo McKinnie, F (Cavaliers)
  • Second 10-day contract with Cavs; runs through February 1.
• Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, G/F (Nets)
  • Second 10-day contract with Nets; runs through February 3.

Those three players are the only ones who have signed multiple 10-day contracts so far this season, as our tracker shows. The other four – Justin Anderson, Paul Watson, Josh Magette, and Gary Clark – signed just one 10-day deal apiece with their respective teams, though Watson did get a two-way contract with Toronto after spending 10 days with Atlanta.

Currently, seven teams have at least one open spot on their 15-man roster (the Warriors have two). The Cavaliers and Nets would join that list if they don’t re-sign their 10-day players to rest-of-season deals when those contracts expire.

We still have a few more days left in January, but barring a surge in 10-day deals this week, 2020 will become just the second year since the strike season in 2011/12 not to feature 15 or more 10-day signings in January. The only other recent year to start with so few 10-day deals was 2018, when just eight were signed during the entire month of January.

As always, you can keep tabs on all of this season’s 10-day contracts – and all the 10-day deals dating back to 2007 – using our tracker.