With the All-Star Game behind us, we’re preparing for the home stretch of the 2024/25 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 salary to give him a raise as part of a contract extension. There are no legitimate candidates for a renegotiation at this point in the season though, with all 30 teams operating over the cap.
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 4
- Last day for a team to sign a player to a two-way contract.
Under the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement, the deadline to sign a player to a two-way contract was January 15, but it has been pushed back in the current CBA and teams are taking full advantage. In 2024, a total of 15 two-way deals were officially finalized on March 2, 3, or 4.
In the 12 days since the trade deadline, eight players have signed new two-way contracts. That number figures to grow significantly by the end of the day on March 4, despite the fact that there are only three two-way openings around the league right now.
March 10
- Last day to use a disabled player exception.
The Hornets ($6.5MM) and Jazz ($2.9MM) are among the teams that still have available disabled player exceptions, which could be used 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, and neither Charlotte nor Utah has reason to be especially aggressive in free agency. The likeliest scenario is that these DPEs – as well as those belonging to the Pacers and Nuggets – will expire without being used.
April 10
- Last day to waive a player on an expiring contract or a player with an option for 2025/26 (4:00pm CT).
Players with at least one year still left on their contracts can be waived during the postseason or offseason, but if a team wants to part ways with a player who has the ability to reach free agency this summer, he must be cut in time to clear waivers before the last day of the regular season.
April 13
- Last day of the NBA regular season.
- Last day players can sign contracts for 2024/25.
- Last day two-way contracts can be converted to standard NBA contracts.
- Luxury tax penalties calculated based on payroll as of this day.
Several teams around the NBA have at least one open spot on their 15-man rosters. We can probably assume that most – if not all – of those clubs will fill their openings by April 13.
Playoff teams will want to make sure they have as much veteran depth as possible, just to be safe, while lottery teams will look at signing younger players to multiyear deals that include little to no guaranteed money beyond this season in order to get a longer look at them in the summer.
April 14
- Playoff rosters set (2:00pm CT).
April 15-18
- NBA play-in tournament.
April 19
- NBA playoffs begin.
While they wait for the play-in tournament to conclude, the top six teams in each conference will get a few days off between the regular season and the postseason, giving them some time to recharge before the playoffs begin.