As our 10-day contract tracker shows, there are currently six 10-day deals active around the NBA. Here are those contracts, along with their expiry dates:
- Malcolm Hill, Pelicans (runs through 2/5)
- James Johnson, Pacers (runs through 2/7)
- Matthew Hurt, Grizzlies (runs through 2/7)
- Tosan Evbuomwan, Grizzlies (runs through 2/8)
- Trey Jemison, Grizzlies (runs through 2/8)
- Taj Gibson, Knicks (runs through 2/8)
Of those six 10-day deals, three are “hardship” signings — the Grizzlies have a full 15-man roster, but have allowed to sign three additional players to 10-day contracts, increasing their standard roster count to 18, since they’ve been hit so hard by injuries.
Hardship exceptions can only be granted 10 days at a time, so Memphis’ situation will need to be reassessed once the contracts for Hurt, Evbuomwan, and Jemison expire. If any of the six Grizzlies players affected by longer-term injuries are nearing a return at that point, the team won’t qualify for three hardship exceptions again, but could still be granted one or two.
If Memphis isn’t granted three hardship exceptions and wants to retain all three players, the club would need to make room for them on the 15-day roster.
The Pelicans and Pacers currently have 13 players on standard full-season contracts, so once Hill’s and Johnson’s 10-day contracts expire, they’ll have up to two weeks to re-add a 14th man. Teams can’t carry fewer than 14 players on their standard roster for more than 14 days at a time.
This is Johnson’s second 10-day deal with Indiana, meaning he’d be ineligible to sign another one — the Pacers would need to give him a rest-of-season contract to bring him back after February 7.
The Cavaliers and Trail Blazers have already dipped to 13 players on standard contracts after 10-day deals for Pete Nance and Taze Moore recently expired. Cleveland is permitted to keep those two 15-man open roster spots until February 10, while Portland can do so until February 12.
It’s worth noting that, in addition to only being able to carry fewer than 14 players for up to two weeks at a time, NBA teams aren’t permitted to do so for more than 28 days in a season. The Cavaliers and Blazers each used up 14 of those 28 days prior to signing Nance and Moore, respectively, so if they take the full two weeks again, they’ll be prohibited from dropping below 14 players on standard contracts for the rest of 2023/24.
For more information on which NBA teams have open roster spots, be sure to check out our tracker.