As expected, the majority of the NBA teams made their roster cuts on Saturday and didn’t wait until Monday’s deadline to set their regular season rosters.
Completing those moves on Saturday will ensure the players on non-guaranteed contracts clear waivers on Monday, before the regular season begins. If a team had waited until Monday to waive a player on a non-guaranteed deal, he wouldn’t clear waivers until Wednesday, and the team would be on the hook for two days’ worth of his salary.
After Saturday’s flurry of roster moves, here’s where things stand around the NBA…
Teams whose rosters are within the regular season limits
Of the NBA’s 30 teams, 29 have rosters that comply with the league’s regular season roster limits, which state that clubs can’t carry more than 15 players on standard contracts or three on two-way contracts.
The following 14 teams are right at the limit, carrying 15 players on standard contracts and three on two-ways:
- Atlanta Hawks
- Brooklyn Nets
- Chicago Bulls
- Dallas Mavericks
- Denver Nuggets
- Los Angeles Clippers
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Milwaukee Bucks
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- Portland Trail Blazers
- San Antonio Spurs
- Toronto Raptors
- Utah Jazz
- Washington Wizards
Just because these rosters look ready for the regular season doesn’t mean they’re fully locked in. It wouldn’t be be a surprise if one or more of these teams makes a minor tweak before Monday’s regular season roster deadline. That could be as simple as swapping out one two-way player for another.
The following 11 teams are carrying 14 players on standard contracts and three on two-ways:
- Boston Celtics
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- Golden State Warriors
- Houston Rockets
- Indiana Pacers
- Memphis Grizzlies
- Miami Heat
- New Orleans Pelicans
- Philadelphia 76ers
- Phoenix Suns
- Sacramento Kings
Several of these teams are in luxury tax territory or have minimal flexibility below the tax line, so they’ll open the season with an open roster spot to either keep their projected tax bill in check or maintain some financial flexibility. That’s not the case for all of them though. The Rockets are well clear of the tax, for instance, and could comfortably make a roster addition if they want to.
Four more teams are within the regular season limits. Those teams are as follows:
- Charlotte Hornets: 15 players on standard contracts and two on two-way deals.
- Detroit Pistons: 14 players on standard contracts and one on a two-way deal.
- New York Knicks: 12 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals.
- Orlando Magic: 15 players on standard contracts and two on two-way deals.
The Hornets, Pistons, and Magic will likely fill their open two-way slots sooner rather than later. In fact, Detroit already has its eye on a pair of players – Alondes Williams and Cole Swider – for its openings. There are no cap savings generated by keeping a two-way slot open, so I’d bet on Charlotte and Orlando adding one more two-way player in the coming days.
The Pistons also have an open spot on their 15-man roster and it’s perhaps no coincidence that they’re also the only team in the NBA with cap room still available. Carrying a 15th man, even one on a non-guaranteed contract, would slowly eat into that cap room, which is a scenario they probably want to avoid in order to maximize their ability to accommodate salary-dump trades during the season.
The Knicks are facing one of the NBA’s most restrictive hard cap situations, with just $3.58MM in wiggle room below that second-apron threshold, which they can’t surpass at any point during the 2024/25 season. They can’t even carry two more minimum-salary veterans, so the expectation is that they’ll sign a veteran to a minimum deal and promote a two-way rookie to the standard roster — Ariel Hukporti is the top candidate, and would count against the cap for the rookie minimum ($1,157,153) instead of the veteran minimum ($2,087,519), allowing the Knicks to remain below the hard cap.
The Knicks are permitted to carry just 12 players on standard contracts for up to 14 days at a time and for up to 28 total days during the regular season. It looks like they’ll probably use those first 14 days during the season’s first two weeks, meaning they won’t have to add 13th and 14th men until the first week of November.
Teams that still have moves to make before Monday’s deadline
Only one NBA team has yet to make the necessary cuts to get within the regular season roster limits:
Minnesota Timberwolves: 16 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals.
As a result of the Karl-Anthony Towns trade, the Timberwolves are carrying 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts and one (PJ Dozier) on a partially guaranteed deal. Dozier is assured of receiving at least $1MM of his minimum-salary contract, which counts on Minnesota’s books for about $2.09MM.
It sounds as if the Wolves would like to keep Dozier, which will likely make veteran forward Keita Bates-Diop the odd man out. Bates-Diop was a throw-in the Towns trade and wasn’t at practice on Saturday.
If they waive Bates-Diop, Minnesota will be on the hook for his full $2,654,644 guaranteed salary, along with the accompanying tax penalties, so the front office may continue to explore the trade market to try to find a taker for him (or a separate deal) in order to avoid that scenario. The Wolves will have to get down to 15 players on standard contracts and finalize their regular season roster by 4:00 pm Central time on Monday.
Reported Exhibit 10 signings that never materialized
A couple weeks ago, we checked in on the reported Exhibit 10 deals that had yet to be finalized, noting that most of them would still become official before opening night.
As expected, that was indeed the case. Of the 11 players we highlighted, nine ultimately signed Exhibit 10 contracts as reported and were subsequently waived. A tenth player, Boo Buie, didn’t complete his anticipated deal with the Suns, but inked an Exhibit 10 contract with the Knicks instead.
That leaves just one reported Exhibit 10 agreement that wasn’t completed — former Missouri guard Sean East II never ended up signing with the Lakers.
East and the Lakers could still technically finalize that deal on Sunday or Monday, but that doesn’t seem likely, since the team would take on a cap charge by signing and waiving East this late in the offseason. With just $45K in breathing room below the second tax apron, the Lakers are unlikely to be so cavalier about making even a small addition to their team salary.
Hoops Rumors’ roster resources
We consistently maintain and update a number of lists and trackers that are designed to help you keep tabs on NBA rosters. They’re all up to date following Saturday’s cuts.
Those resources, which can be found on the right-hand sidebar of our desktop site or on the “Features” page within our mobile menu, include the following:
