Exhibit 9 contracts are non-guaranteed camp deals that don’t count against the cap during the preseason and offer teams some protection in the event of an injury. Exhibit 10s are similar, but also allow teams to convert the player to a two-way deal (if he’s eligible) or to give him a bonus worth up to $50K if he’s waived and then spends at least 60 days with the team’s G League affiliate.

As a general rule, a player who signs a training camp contract without an Exhibit 10 clause is usually just competing for a spot on his team’s 15-man regular season roster and won’t end up playing for the club’s G League affiliate if he doesn’t make the cut.

Langston Galloway (Pacers), Dennis Smith Jr. (Hornets), LiAngelo Ball (Hornets), Cody Zeller (Jazz), Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (Suns), and Wes Iwundu (Trail Blazers) are among the other recently signed free agents who signed Exhibit 9 – not Exhibit 10 – contracts.

Here are a few more contract details from around the NBA:

• The exact cap hits on CJ McCollum‘s new extension with the Pelicans are $33,333,333 for 2024/25 and $30,666,666 for ’25/26, Hoops Rumors has confirmed. The deal is fully guaranteed, with no options or bonuses.
• Veteran players who recently signed Exhibit 10 contracts include Justin Anderson (Pacers), Norvel Pelle (Pacers), Jalen Harris (Knicks), Kostas Antetokounmpo (Bulls), PJ Dozier (Timberwolves), Brodric Thomas (Celtics), Juwan Morgan (Clippers), Zylan Cheatham (Pelicans), Zavier Simpson (Magic), and Aleem Ford (Magic), Hoops Rumors has confirmed. Anderson and Pelle were subsequently waived by Indiana.
• RaiQuan Gray (Nets), Justin Bean (Grizzlies), Jacob Gilyard (Grizzlies), Jules Bernard (Pistons), Stanley Umude (Pistons), John Butler (Pelicans), Garrison Brooks (Knicks), and Nuni Omot (Knicks) are among the rookies who recently signed Exhibit 10 contracts with their respective teams, Hoops Rumors has confirmed. Brooks and Omot have since been waived by New York.

Anderson, 28, signed three 10-day contracts with the Pacers last season and spent time with the Cavaliers as well on a 10-day deal. He appeared in 13 games for Indiana, averaging 6.8 PPG in 20.7 minutes per night.

Pelle, 29, had a brief NBA appearance last season, getting into three games with the Jazz after inking a 10-day contract in January. He was waived by the Trail Blazers earlier this month.

The moves bring the Pacers’ roster back down to 18 players and create room for two more signings before the start of training camp on Tuesday.

Indiana previously had a full 20-man roster, so the team waived three players to make room for the new additions. Forward Bennie Boatwright and guards David Stockton and Gabe York have been cut and are on track to clear waivers on Sunday.

All three of the newly-added Pacers have NBA experience. Galloway, in particular, has appeared in over 450 regular season games, spending time with the Knicks, Pelicans, Kings, Pistons, Suns, Nets, and Bucks since entering the league in 2014. He has averaged 8.1 PPG on .397/.368/.816 shooting during that time, though he hasn’t played significant minutes since his last season in Detroit in 2019/20.

Anderson, meanwhile, has averaged 5.3 PPG and 2.6 RPG in 242 NBA games (13.6 MPG) for six teams, while Pelle has appeared in 40 total contests for five teams. Anderson last played for the Pacers on a pair of 10-day contracts near the end of the 2021/22 season; Pelle was released by Portland earlier this month.

Galloway’s contract is non-guaranteed, reports Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files (Twitter link). He may have an opportunity to compete with James Johnson for a spot on Indiana’s regular season roster. The team currently has 13 players on guaranteed salaries, plus Oshae Brissett on a non-guaranteed contract.

It seems safe to assume Anderson’s and Pelle’s deals are non-guaranteed too, though Agness suggests they’ll probably end up playing for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the Pacers’ G League affiliate. Boatwright, Stockton, and York are likely headed to Fort Wayne as well.

However, his scoring development remained stagnant as he averaged 6.9 PPG in 25 minutes per night while shooting 38.3% from the field and 26.3% from three-point range. Edwards believes Hayes needs to become more aggressive in getting to the basket, noting that he made 74% of his attempts at the rim last season, but that only accounted for 16% of his shots.

Edwards poses questions involving other Pistons players, asking whether Isaiah Stewart has become a legitimate three-point shooter, whether Saddiq Bey can balance his performance from his first two seasons and whether Saben Lee can find a way to stand out on a roster loaded with guards.

There’s more from the Central Division:

• Lonzo Ball tops a list of Bulls players with the most to prove compiled by Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. Ball may be held out through the start of the regular season because of pain in his surgically repaired left knee. The Bulls insist the knee is structurally sound, but his availability will play a massive role in where the team finishes in the Eastern Conference. Mayberry adds that the team also needs a bounce-back performance from center Nikola Vucevic, who’s heading into a contract year.
• Unlike most of their competitors in the East, the Bucks didn’t make major changes this offseason and can rely on continuity as they make a run at another NBA title, per Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype. Milwaukee still has the defensive foundation to contend for a championship, Gozlan adds, and Giannis Antetokounmpo remains one of the best players in the world. One financial concern that Gozlan points out is that the Bucks appear destined for the repeater tax next season, while Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez will both become unrestricted free agents in July if they don’t receive extensions.
• In a press release, the Cleveland Charge – The Cavaliers‘ G League affiliate – announced the trade of Norvel Pelle and the Charge’s second-round pick to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants (the Pacers‘ affiliate) in exchange for Nate Hinton.

Pelle, who signed an Exhibit 10 deal with Portland last month, inked a pair of 10-day hardship deals – one with the Celtics and one with the Jazz – during the 2021/22 season. In three contests for Utah, the 29-year-old big man scored six points and six rebounds in 19 total minutes.

A 6’10” center who went undrafted in 2013, Pelle played off and on for several seasons with the Sixers’ Delaware affiliate, during the team’s tenures as the 87ers and Blue Coats. He also played internationally for clubs in Taiwan, Beirut, and Italy.

After spending some time with the Cavaliers’ G League affiliate, Pelle eventually made his NBA debut in 2019 with the Sixers. He has since played for the Nets, Kings and Knicks, appearing in a total of 40 games at the NBA level.

With Pelle off their roster, the Trail Blazers currently have 17 players heading into training camp. It was reported earlier today that the club is signing 23-year-old center Olivier Sarr to a training camp deal — he’ll join guards Jared Rhoden and Isaiah Miller as the Portland players on Exhibit 10 contracts.

Muscala’s new deal covers two years and has matching $3.5MM cap hits in each of those two seasons for a total of $7MM. The first year is guaranteed, while the second year is a team option. All of those details also applied to the two-year, $7MM contract he signed in ’21.

The Thunder chose to decline Muscala’s $3.5MM team option for 2022/23 back in June, but will now pay him that exact salary next season, with another $3.5MM team option for ’23/24. Since Oklahoma City had Muscala’s Bird rights, the club didn’t have to dip into its mid-level exception to complete the signing.

Here are a few more details on recently signed contracts from around the NBA:

• James Harden‘s new two-year contract with the Sixers will pay him exactly $33MM in 2022/23 and includes a 2023/24 player option worth $35.64MM. The two-year, $68.64MM pact includes a 15% trade kicker.
• The training camp contracts that Norvel Pelle and Isaiah Miller signed with the Trail Blazers include Exhibit 10 language. That gives Portland the option of converting either contract into a two-way deal before the regular season begins.
• The new two-way contracts signed by Duane Washington (Suns) and Trent Forrest (Hawks) are each just for one season.

7:04pm: Norvel Pelle will sign a training camp contract with the Trail Blazers, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

The 29-year-old center had two brief NBA appearances last season when he signed 10-day contracts with the Celtics and Jazz under the hardship exception. He didn’t play during his time in Boston, but appeared in three games with Utah, averaging 2.0 points and 2.0 rebounds in 6.3 minutes per night.

After going undrafted in 2013, Pelle played in the G League and spent time overseas before getting an opportunity with the Sixers during the 2019/20 season. He also had short stays with the Nets, Kings and Knicks.

In case you missed it, free agent guard Isaiah Miller is also expected to complete a deal with Portland.

Here are more COVID-related updates from around the NBA:

• Grizzlies center Steven Adams is listed as questionable with a non-COVID illness for Thursday’s contest against Minnesota, Memphis’ PR department tweets, so he has cleared the protocols.
• The Nuggets received two pieces of good news, as Will Barton has exited the COVID-19 protocols and Markus Howard, who was supposed to be sidelined at least six weeks with a sprained knee, is listed as questionable for Thursday’s contest against Portland, per Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports (Twitter link). Howard has missed the past four weeks.
• The news out of Charlotte is a mixed bag, as Vernon Carey Jr. has cleared the protocols, but rookie big man Kai Jones has entered for the Hornets, per the team’s PR department (Twitter links).
• Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell have cleared the protocols for the Spurs and are available Wednesday night against Houston, Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News tweets.
• Bucks guard Grayson Allen said he was fortunate to have an asymptomatic case of COVID-19 and will be available Thursday against the Warriors, according to Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Twitter link). Allen also mentioned that the time away helped him recover from the flu.
• Rockets guard Armoni Brooks has cleared the health and safety protocols and is available Wednesday against the Spurs, tweets Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.

8:35am: The Jazz intend to sign center Norvel Pelle to a 10-day contract using the hardship exception, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). According to Wojnarowski, Pelle is expected to be available for Utah’s game vs. Toronto on Friday night.

Pelle recently finished up a 10-day deal with the Celtics, though he didn’t play at all for Boston during those 10 days. Previously, the big man played for a handful of international teams and bounced back and forth between the NBA and the G League over the last two seasons.

Pelle appeared in a total of 37 games from 2019-21 for the Sixers, Nets, Kings, and Knicks. A talented rim protector, The 28-year-old has averaged 2.2 blocks per game in 95 career G League contests and put up 8.9 PPG and 8.3 RPG in nine games (22.1 MPG) with the Cleveland Charge this season.

Utah enjoyed some great COVID-related luck for much of this season, having not placed a player in the health and safety protocols until earlier this week. Joe Ingles and Rudy Gobert are now both in the protocols for the Jazz, meaning the team is eligible to sign Pelle to a hardship deal, which won’t count against team salary for cap or tax purposes.

Pelle, who will earn $95,930 during his 10 days with the Jazz, has a chance to play a rotation role immediately, with Gobert out and backup center Hassan Whiteside listed as questionable as he goes through the concussion protocol.

DECEMBER 24: The Celtics have agreed to sign forward Al-Farouq Aminu and big man Norvel Pelle to 10-day contracts via hardship exceptions, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Boston currently has eight players in the health and safety protocols. The team has signed Justin Jackson, C.J. Miles, and Joe Johnson to 10-day deals, but remains eligible to sign a few more replacement players and will take advantage of that allowance to add Aminu and Pelle.

An 11-year veteran, Aminu has averaged 7.5 PPG and 6.0 RPG across 711 total regular season games for six teams. The 31-year-old, who has long been considered a strong defender, has battled health issues in recent years and has only played in 41 total games since signing a three-year, $29MM+ deal with the Magic during the 2019 offseason. He was traded from Orlando to Chicago in last season’s Nikola Vucevic blockbuster, then was rerouted to San Antonio in the DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade in August before being waived by the Spurs in October.

Pelle, meanwhile, has played for a handful of international teams and has bounced back and forth between the NBA and the G League over the last two seasons. The 28-year-old appeared in a total of 37 games from 2019-21 for the Sixers, Nets, Kings, and Knicks. A talented rim protector, Pelle has averaged 2.2 blocks per game in 95 career G League contests and put up 8.9 PPG and 8.3 RPG in his first nine games (22.1 MPG) with the Cleveland Charge this season.

Assuming they clear the COVID-19 testing process in time, Aminu and Pelle could join the Celtics for their Christmas Day game in Milwaukee on Saturday.

Pelle, 28, has appeared in a total of 37 NBA games for four teams since the start of the 2019/20 season. In ’20/21, he had stints with Brooklyn, Sacramento, and New York, finishing the season with the Knicks. His deal with New York included a non-guaranteed salary for ’21/22, but the club waived him in July just before free agency began.

A strong defender, Pelle has appeared in a total of 86 G League games across his professional career and has showed off his rim-protecting prowess at that level, averaging 2.3 blocks in just 18.3 minutes per contest. In a brief stint with the Charge in the G League bubble last season, he put up a double-double (10.0 PPG and 10.7 RPG) to go along with 3.0 BPG in three games (24.3 MPG).

While Pelle didn’t catch on with an NBA team this fall, he’ll be hoping that a strong performance in the G League once again earns him a shot from a club in need of frontcourt help.

The real intrigue this offseason involves a four-year, $106MM+ extension that Randle is eligible to receive. The Knicks have plenty of incentive to sign him at that figure, as Randle could potentially make a lot more next summer as an unrestricted free agent, particularly if he puts together another All-NBA season. New York will have his Bird rights if that happens and can exceed the salary cap to re-sign him.

Randle joined the Knicks two years ago on a three-year, $63MM contract that carried just a $4MM guarantee for 2021/22. His game blossomed in New York, especially under new coach Tom Thibodeau, as he averaged 24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 6.0 assists per night while leading the team to the No. 4 seed in the East.

There’s more from New York:

• The Knicks’ decision to trade the 19th pick in this year’s draft to the Hornets for a heavily protected future selection was done to free up another $2.4MM for free agency, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post, citing an NBA executive who has talked to team president Leon Rose. New York never planned to use both of its first-round picks Thursday night and was happy to get Quentin Grimes and Miles McBride after trading down.
• Even if the Knicks can’t lure top targets Chris Paul and Kyle Lowry in free agency, they will have plenty of options at point guard, Berman adds. With more than $50MM in cap space, New York can outbid rival teams for Spencer Dinwiddie, Cameron Payne, Dennis Schroder or Reggie Jackson. Restricted free agent Lonzo Ball remains a possibility, but the Knicks saw him as a better fit in February than they do now, sources tell Berman. Re-signing Derrick Rose, a favorite of Thibodeau, remains on the table, although the front office is debating whether to make a long-term offer to Rose, who will turn 33 in October. The Bulls may get into the bidding for the Chicago native.
• Saturday’s decision to waive backup center Norvel Pelle increases the chances that Taj Gibson will be back on the roster next season, Berman states in a separate story. A source told Berman the Knicks would consider re-signing Pelle at some point during the season if injuries leave them needing help in the middle.

Robinson will make $1.8MM in the final season of the four-year deal he signed after being drafted in the second round in 2018. He was the team’s starting center before getting injured, so it was an easy decision for New York to exercise the option.

The 23-year-old averaged 8.3 points and 8.1 rebounds in 31 games before undergoing season-ending foot surgery in late March. He also suffered a broken hand during the season that caused him to miss 15 games.

Robinson is eligible for a four-year, $51MM extension during the offseason, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. The Knicks also have the option of using cap space to renegotiate his salary for next season and having that be the beginning of an extension. If no extension is reached, Robinson will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Pelle, 28, had a $1.7MM option for 2021/22 that New York chose not to exercise. He signed a pair of 10-day deals with the Knicks in April, shortly after Robinson broke his foot, and earned a contract through the end of the season. Pelle appeared in nine games, averaging 1.2 points and 1.2 rebounds in 5.8 minutes per night.

Reggie Bullock and Alec Burks both had success playing different roles on the wing for the Knicks during their overachieving year, and there was midseason interest in bringing both back, but following a postseason that exposed the team’s lack of offensive creators and with options like Kelly Oubre, DeMar DeRozan, Will Barton, Duncan Robinson and others available, it’s unclear if the Knicks will want to spend significant money on Bullock and Burks.

We have more from around the Atlantic Division:

• The Knicks are closely watching the Damian Lillard situation, Begley reports. With Lillard reportedly considering his long-term future with the Blazers, and the Knicks employing Lillard’s mentor Johnnie Bryant as an assistant coach, the team is monitoring the All-Star guard in case a deal could be made. Begley writes that the team would also be content building patiently should a trade not materialize.
• Norvel Pelle is looking to stick with the Knicks, writes Marc Berman of the New York Post. The 6’10” center joined the team late, but provided a defensive spark off the bench, and was a willing and beloved team cheerleader, writes Berman. One NBA scout interviewed by Berman was impressed with the strides Pelle has made in recent years. “[He] looks like he’s reading angles better when switching on pick-and-rolls,” said the anonymous scout. “He’s avoiding foul trouble that way. We are talking about a guy who was [the] No. 1-ranked center in the country out of high school.”
• Jay King of The Athletic profiles Celtics coach Ime Udoka, and how he found his calling as a coach. Much of the inspiration came from Isiah Thomas when Udoka played for Thomas on the Knicks in the 2005/06 season. “You may not see what your calling is,” Thomas told Udoka. “Your calling is coaching.” It took a long time for Udoka to accept that coaching could be his destiny rather than being an NBA star in his own right.
• Former NBA point guard Damon Stoudamire is a target to join Ime Udoka on the Celtics coaching staff, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Stoudamire was the 2019/2020 WCC Coach of the Year for the Pacific Tigers.
• The Sixers’ draft-night trade of Mikal Bridges to the Suns had a lasting impact on both teams. The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov dives deep into how the trade went down. Vorkunov writes that the Sixers had no intention of trading Bridges when they took him, but Zhaire Smith was tied with Bridges on their board, and when the Suns offered a 2021 Heat unprotected pick, the Sixers felt they couldn’t say no. “If second-round picks are cigarettes in prison,” said one anonymous source interviewed by Vorkunov, “unprotected picks are conjugal visits.”

Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said during a radio appearance on Toucher and Rich on Thursday that Jaylen Brown, who is dealing with shoulder bursitis, is sore, but should be good to go “in the next few days” (Twitter link via Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston).

Meanwhile, Evan Fournier (health and safety protocols) is going through a ramping-up process and could return to game action as soon as this weekend, per Ainge. The Celtics’ president also said that Robert Williams (knee) is “not too far away.”

Nets star Kevin Durant, who has missed two games with a left thigh contusion, is listed as questionable on the club’s latest injury report and could be available to play on Friday vs. the Celtics, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. If not tonight, Durant looks like a good bet to be back on Sunday against Phoenix.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

• Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who suffered a partially torn ACL early in the 2020/21 season, continues to say that he has a realistic chance of returning during the postseason, as Diamond Leung of The Athletic tweets. While that seemed unlikely at one point, there’s an increasing feeling among league sources that Dinwiddie could return before Brooklyn’s season is over, Lewis writes for The New York Post.
• Danny Green‘s inclusion in a potential deal for Kyle Lowry at last month’s trade deadline didn’t make or break those talks, but the Sixers value Green as far more than just an expiring contract and were only willing to attach so many additional assets to him in their offer for Lowry, Zach Lowe of ESPN writes in a look at what Green brings to Philadelphia.
• Bobby Marks of ESPN has the details on Norvel Pelle‘s new three-year contract with the Knicks, tweeting that Pelle received $500K this season (about double his minimum). The second and third years are non-guaranteed, with a team option on that third year. That option would allow the Knicks to make Pelle a restricted free agent in the summer of 2022 if they so choose.
• In case you missed it, we rounded up a handful of Raptors-related notes on Thursday evening.