A series of disabled player exceptions granted to teams earlier in the 2024/25 season will expire on Monday if they go unused. The annual deadline to use a disabled player exception is March 10.
We go into more detail on who qualifies for disabled player exceptions and how exactly they work in our glossary entry on the subject. But essentially, if a team has a player suffer a season-ending injury prior to January 15, the exception gives that team the opportunity to add an injury replacement by either signing a player to a one-year contract, trading for a player in the final year of his contract, or placing a waiver claim on a player in the final year of his contract.
Here are the teams whose DPEs will expire if they aren’t used on by the end of the day on Monday, per Eric Pincus of Sports Business Classroom:
- Charlotte Hornets: $6,512,625 (Grant Williams) (story)
- Orlando Magic: $5,500,000 (Moritz Wagner)
- Utah Jazz: $2,924,340 (Taylor Hendricks) (story)
- Indiana Pacers: $2,217,691 (Isaiah Jackson) (story)
- Philadelphia 76ers: $2,010,180 (Jared McCain)
- Denver Nuggets: $1,532,820 (DaRon Holmes) (story)
The Pacers were granted a second disabled player exception worth $1,118,846 for James Wiseman‘s season-ending injury, but forfeited it when they dealt Wiseman to Toronto at the trade deadline.
Since the trade deadline has passed and no players are currently on waivers, there’s essentially just one way left for those teams with disabled player exceptions to use them: signing a free agent. However, that seems unlikely, given that there are no free agents on the buyout market who would warrant a contract worth more than the veteran’s minimum.
In other words, these exceptions will, in all likelihood, expire on Monday without being used. Assuming that happens, no team will have used a disabled player exception this season.
Disabled player exceptions have never been used with much frequency, but the fact that mid-level and bi-annual exceptions could be used for the first time this season to acquire players via trade or waiver claim has further reduced their importance.