With 30 NBA teams each permitted to carry 15 players on standard contracts and a pair on two-way deals, there are a total of 510 roster spots available across the league. Nearly two weeks into the 2022/23 season, 500 of those spots are filled, with only 10 still up for grabs.
[RELATED: 2022/23 NBA Roster Counts]
The NBA’s transaction wire has been pretty quiet since the regular season tipped off on October 18, as the teams that began the year with open roster spots are in no rush to fill them.
In some cases, that’s about maintaining roster flexibility — teams want to be able to make trades where they acquire more players than they send out, or sign a free agent to a non-guaranteed contract to address a positional hole if multiple players start to go down with injuries.
In most cases though, it’s more about financial concerns. Many of the teams with open roster spots are either already over the luxury tax line or dangerously close to it.
Here are the teams that have open roster spots:
- Atlanta Hawks
- Charlotte Hornets
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- Golden State Warriors
- Los Angeles Clippers
- Miami Heat
- Minnesota Timberwolves
- Note: The Timberwolves’ opening is a two-way slot.
- Philadelphia 76ers
- Phoenix Suns
- Portland Trail Blazers
Of these teams, the Timberwolves are the most likely to fill their roster opening in the coming days or weeks — since two-way signings don’t count against a team’s cap, there’s no compelling financial reason for a team not to be carrying two players on two-way deals.
Minnesota has a relatively healthy roster though, and the G League season hasn’t started yet, so there’s no urgent need to add a two-way replacement for Eric Paschall, who was waived last week.
Among the other teams on this list, only the Hornets and Cavaliers could sign a 15th man without any immediate luxury tax concerns, so they’re probably the first two teams to watch for potential signings. If they were to sign a player to a non-guaranteed contract, they’d only have to pay his daily salary and would be able to waive him at any time before January 7 without being on the hook for his full-season cap hit.
Why doesn’t the NBA have an injured list like MLB? I always thought that would be an easy thing to incorporate, even if they wanted to limit the number of players you could place on the list.