With the All-Star Game behind us, we’re preparing for the home stretch of the 2021/22 NBA season. Here are a few noteworthy dates and deadlines to keep an eye on before the playoffs begin in April.
February 28
- Last day for contract renegotiations.
A team with cap room can renegotiate a player’s current-year contract to give him a raise as part of a contract extension. However, the only club with any real cap space is Oklahoma City, and the Thunder only have one extension-eligible player, Isaiah Roby (Luguentz Dort will become extension-eligible next month). I wouldn’t count on the Thunder renegotiating and extending Roby’s contract in the next week — he has spent much of the season out of the team’s rotation.
March 1
- Last day a player can be waived by one team and remain eligible to appear in the postseason for another team.
As we outline in our glossary entry on buyouts, a player doesn’t need to be signed by March 1 in order to retain his playoff-eligible — he simply can’t be waived after that date. A player who is waived on March 1 and signs with another team on April 8 would be playoff-eligible for his new team, but a player who is waived on March 2 and signs on March 5 wouldn’t be.
March 10
- Last day to use a disabled player exception.
The Cavaliers ($3.2MM), Nuggets ($2.6MM), and Pelicans ($1.9MM) still have disabled player exceptions available that they could use to sign a player to a rest-of-season contract or to claim a player with an expiring contract off waivers. However, disabled player exceptions are used more frequently at the trade deadline than after it, especially when the buyout market lacks marquee names. The likeliest scenario is that these DPEs will expire without being used.
April 10
- Last day of the NBA regular season.
- Last day players can sign contracts for 2021/22.
- Last day two-way contracts can be converted to standard NBA contracts.
- Luxury tax penalties calculated based on payroll as of this day.
More than half of the NBA’s teams currently have at least one open spot on their 15-man rosters. It’s safe to assume that most – if not all – of those clubs will fill those openings by April 10. Playoff teams will want to make sure they have as much veteran depth as possible, just to be safe, while several lottery teams will likely sign younger players to multiyear deals without guarantees beyond this season in order to get a longer look at them in the summer.
April 11
- Playoff rosters set (2:00pm CT).
April 12-15
- NBA play-in tournament.
April 16
- NBA playoffs begin.
While they wait for the play-in tournament to conclude, the top six teams in each conference will get a longer-than-usual break between the regular season and the postseason, giving them some time to recharge before the playoffs begin.
Excellent work Mr. Adams. Answered a lot of questions. thx