March 10 is the last day that teams are allowed to disabled player exceptions for the 2019/20 season, which means the six clubs that still have DPEs available will see them expire if they’re not used on Monday or Tuesday.
We go into more detail on how exactly disabled player exceptions work in our glossary entry on the subject. Essentially though, a DPE gives a team the opportunity to add an injury replacement by either signing a player to a one-year contract, trading for a player in the final year of his contract, or placing a waiver claim on a player in the final year of his contract.
Trades are often the simplest way to make use of disabled player exceptions, but we’re well past the 2019/20 deadline, so that’s no longer an option.
There also don’t appear to be any players on the free agent market or on waivers at the moment who are worthy of an investment larger than the veteran’s minimum — especially since there are no true contenders among the five teams with disabled player exceptions still on hand. As such, I expect the remaining six available DPEs to ultimately go unused.
Here’s a breakdown of the eight DPEs granted by the NBA this season, including the two that were used in recent weeks:
Disabled player exceptions still available:
- Detroit Pistons: $9,258,000 (Blake Griffin) (story)
- Orlando Magic: $4,629,000 (Al-Farouq Aminu) (story)
- New Orleans Pelicans: $3,625,000 (Darius Miller) (story)
- Portland Trail Blazers: $2,859,000 (Rodney Hood) (story)
- Cleveland Cavaliers: $1,017,900 (Dylan Windler) (story)
- Brooklyn Nets: $839,427 (David Nwaba) (story)
Disabled player exceptions that have been used:
- Washington Wizards: $4,365,079 (C.J. Miles) (story)
- Used to acquire Shabazz Napier.
- Los Angeles Lakers: $1,750,000 (DeMarcus Cousins) (story)
- Used to sign Markieff Morris.