As the NBA regular season approaches and teams reduce their rosters from the 21-player offseason limit to the 15-man regular season max, the best way to determine which players will survive preseason cuts is to consider their contracts. Players with guaranteed salaries for 2024/25 are far more likely to earn spots on 15-man rosters than players whose contracts aren’t fully guaranteed.
Keeping that in mind, we’re using the space below to keep tabs on the players on each NBA team who don’t have fully guaranteed contracts. The players listed here have non-guaranteed salaries, partially guaranteed salaries, or Exhibit 9 or Exhibit 10 contracts, which essentially function like non-guaranteed deals.
Unless otherwise noted, these players are on minimum-salary contracts. Some players on this list have partial guarantees, which we’ve also mentioned below.
Not all of these players will be waived before the regular season begins, so we’ll maintain this list for the next several months, up until January 10, 2025. That’s the day that all players still under contract will have their salaries fully guaranteed for the rest of the 2024/25 season.
[RELATED: Early NBA Salary Guarantee Dates For 2024/25]
Only players who have formally signed contracts are listed below, so if a player has reportedly reached an agreement with a team on a non-guaranteed deal, we’ll add him to our list when that deal becomes official and we confirm the details.
Without further ado, here’s the full list of players without fully guaranteed salaries for 2024/25, broken down by team:
Updated 9-7-24 (1:02pm CT)
Note: Players on Exhibit 10 contracts are marked with an asterisk (*).
Atlanta Hawks
- None
Boston Celtics
Brooklyn Nets
- Keon Johnson
- Partially guaranteed for $250,000.
- Jalen Wilson
- Partially guaranteed for $75,000.
Charlotte Hornets
- Taj Gibson
- Partially guaranteed for $1,082,270.
- Keyontae Johnson *
Chicago Bulls
Cleveland Cavaliers
- Craig Porter
- Partially guaranteed for $1,000,000.
- Sam Merrill
Dallas Mavericks
Denver Nuggets
Detroit Pistons
- Paul Reed ($7,723,000)
Golden State Warriors
Houston Rockets
Indiana Pacers
- James Johnson
- Partially guaranteed for $750,000.
- James Wiseman
- Partially guaranteed for $500,000.
- Kendall Brown
- Cole Swider
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Memphis Grizzlies
Miami Heat
Milwaukee Bucks
- Andre Jackson
- Partially guaranteed for $945,929.
- James Akinjo *
- Liam Robbins *
Minnesota Timberwolves
- PJ Dozier
- Partially guaranteed for $1,000,000.
New Orleans Pelicans
New York Knicks
- Jericho Sims
- Partially guaranteed for $1,302,359.
- Chuma Okeke *
Oklahoma City Thunder
Orlando Magic
- None
Philadelphia 76ers
Phoenix Suns
- None
Portland Trail Blazers
- Dalano Banton
- Partially guaranteed for $217,533.
- Devonte’ Graham
- Henri Drell *
Sacramento Kings
- Keon Ellis
- Orlando Robinson
- Partially guaranteed for $500,000.
missing: Zion Williamson, TJ McConnell, Garrison Mathews
shouldn’t be included: PJ Dozier, Keon Ellis, Lindy Waters III
(could be wrong with Dozier)
McConnell and Mathews became guaranteed near the end of June. I don’t believe Williamson’s 2024/25 salary has ever been non-guaranteed (there were criteria under which the guarantee could be reduced to 50%, but they weren’t met)
I trust my sources on Dozier, Ellis, and Waters.