The NBA and the players’ union reached an agreement on Sunday night to adjust roster rules to address the COVID-19 outbreaks occurring across the league, according to Tim Bontemps and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The new rules will go into effect immediately and will remain in place until at least January 19, per ESPN. At that point, the NBA will give teams guidance on how to proceed.
The new rules are as follows:
- A team will be permitted to sign a replacement player for each player on its roster who tests for positive for COVID-19. For instance, a team that has five players test positive would be allowed to sign up to five replacement players.
- As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), the hardship exception generally requires a team to be missing at least four players before a replacement player can be signed, so the new rule is essentially splitting the hardship rule into two parts — it will remain the same for injured players, but will be available immediately (without the four-player minimum) for COVID-related absences.
- A team will be required to sign at least one replacement player if it has two players test positive for COVID-19, at least two replacements if it has three players test positive, and at least three replacements if it has four or more players test positive.
- When a team is required to sign a replacement player, the player must be available for the team’s next game.
- A player signed as a replacement won’t count toward team salary for cap or tax purposes.
- This is a significant win for teams like the Nets, who are so far into the tax that they were on the hook for an extra $500K+ for every replacement signing they were making.
- A player on a two-way contract will no longer be limited to 50 games on his team’s active roster.
- A two-way player who was signed in the preseason and exceeds 50 games will earn a salary of $751,682 (up from $462,629), according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link).
- While the rest of the rules on this list could be reversed later in the season, it’s safe to assume this will cover the rest of 2021/22.
The NBA has been forced to postpone seven games within the last week, including Monday’s Raptors/Magic game and Tuesday’s Nets/Wizards contest.
[RELATED: 2021/22 NBA Health And Safety Protocols Tracker]
The hope is that these new rules will help the league avoid postponements going forward, since teams will have the opportunity to act faster to replace players who test positive for COVID-19 and will essentially be forced to sign replacements if multiple players test positive.
Caleb Martin just became a Heat lifer thanks to this
Retire his number today
I like the NFL’s plan better, but at least the NBA is trying to insure they don’t go into full chaos like the NHL is right now. Also, this is a big thing for Hoops Rumors. They will have to start paying overtime for all the transactions coming soon. :)
the NFL plan? To just not test? lol
Yep. COVID is starting to trend as being seasonal every year just like the flu. A lot of people are not aware that COVID has been around long before COVID-19 even existed. Variants are more than likely going to be around every year now. The hysteria will die down once organizations start treating it like that.
Players in the NFL have the right to not participate under the new plan if they choose so they are not being forced to play if they are that worried about their families.
You should get your information straight. Covid is the disease not what causes it.
Coronaviruses have been around for a long time though. Just not this particular one, thus why it was called a novel virus.
Will two-way players now be allowed on playoff rosters without being converted to standard contracts?
No word on any changes to that rule. That could be something that’s revisited later in the season.
if its like last year… yes
Teams that provide clear and easy to follow guidelines will have the advantage.
From the summary:
1. All teams win but see statement above because the more players you have to bring in the worse your team will get.
2. Win: Players not currently in the NBA. Lose: Owners because they can’t cheap out although these players are not that costly.
3. Win: Opposing team if a recently signed player is immediately put into action. Lose: Recently signed player forced into action may not do to well not knowing any of the offensive or defensive schemes of his team.
4. Win: Tax or close to tax teams. Lose: Financially prudent teams.
5. Win: Teams with two-way players. Lose: Heavily used two-way players as they won’t get a regular contract but at least they won’t get sent to the G League if they reach the limit.
I think a simpler way may involve codifying the relationship between NBA teams and their G-League clubs. For teams that have affiliates, they would be able to call up players on a game by game basis for each game the affected player is out. The player called up would get the NBA game minimum salary rate commensurate with experience and would not count against cap or luxury tax figures. The call-up wouldn’t be signing a ten-day contract and would be returned to the G-League affiliate as soon as the replaced player clears protocols.
For teams that don’t have affiliates, they would be able to call up players from the unaffiliated G-League teams like the Ignite or Los Capitanes that are eligible. That means the player would have already played either one collegiate or professional year after high school. Also, for players that are not currently in the G-League, they should be able to sign a G-League contract in order to be called up.
Team already have that option.. IE the Heat and hte Sioux Falls Skyforce… if there’s a heat contract on the team the heat can “call them up” at anytime. Baseball has been doing that for over 100 years too lol
Issue is that teams can poach from others. Like for practice squads in the NFL. MLB and NHL you cannot do that and hence they have a much more robust developmental system.
Exactly. The affiliates and their NBA clubs usually run similar systems, so the player shouldn’t be joining the big club completely cold. The poaching is exactly what I was talking about. In MLB, a formal trade of some fashion, even for cash considerations or the ubiquitous PTBNL, would need to happen for that to occur.