Thursday, August 29 is the last day that an NBA team will be able to waive a player who has a fully or partially guaranteed salary for 2024/25 and stretch that player’s ’24/25 salary across multiple seasons.
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The stretch provision deadline has historically been August 31, and while that’s technically still the case, the current Collective Bargaining Agreement tweaked the wording of the rule. As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), in order to apply the stretch provision to a player’s current-season salary, a team must now ensure the player clears waivers on or before August 31 rather than simply requesting waivers on him by August 31.
The adjusted wording is similar to the CBA language related to the league-wide salary guarantee date in January. In that case, a team must place a player on waivers on or before January 7 in order to have him clear waivers ahead of the league-wide Jan. 10 guarantee date. In the case of the stretch provision rule, a player whose salary is being stretched now must be waived by August 29 at 4:00 pm Central time to ensure he has cleared waivers prior to September 1.
A player who clears waivers between September 1 and the end of the 2024/25 season can still have his cap hit(s) for 2025/26 and future seasons stretched across multiple years, assuming he’s owed guaranteed money beyond this season. But his ’24/25 cap charge would remain unchanged in that scenario, unless he reaches a buyout agreement with his team.
The stretch provision allows teams to gain some short-term relief at the cost of reduced long-term flexibility. It’s used most frequently by teams in the luxury tax who want to lower their projected tax bill (or duck out of tax territory entirely) or by teams who want to create a little extra cap room to accommodate a specific roster move.
Teams haven’t employed the stretch provision all that frequently in recent years, but three players waived this week will have their guaranteed money stretched across multiple seasons. The Suns are stretching the $21.75MM owed to Nassir Little for the next three years, as well as the $2,120,693 owed to E.J. Liddell for 2024/25, while the Grizzlies are stretching Mamadi Diakite‘s $1,392,150 partial guarantee for ’24/25.
Since the stretch provision allows a team to spread the player’s remaining salary across twice the remaining years on his contract, plus one additional year, the new cap hits for those players will be as follows:
- Little (Suns): $3,107,143 for seven seasons (through 2030/31)
- Liddell (Suns): $706,898 for three seasons (through 2026/27)
- Diakite (Grizzlies): $464,050 for three seasons (through 2026/27)
The Suns’ moves reduce their projected tax bill, while the Grizzlies’ move creates a little additional breathing room below the tax line.
We likely won’t see a flurry of cuts today and tomorrow in order to take advantage of this rule, but the deadline is still worth keeping in mind for the possibilities it will take off the table. Any player on a guaranteed expiring contract who is waived after August 29 will have his remaining salary count entirely against his team’s ’24/25 books.
Didn’t know the Suns stretched Liddell too. They’ll save 10.2M this year but pay an extra 5.8M next year when Liddell would have been off the books.
How will they save money? They should not be on the roster anyway
Saving $1M in payroll also saves $7.25M in luxury tax payments given where their team salary is.