{"id":844887,"date":"2026-08-05T22:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T22:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/844887\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T22:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T22:24:09","slug":"hoops-rumors-glossary-exhibit-9-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/844887\/","title":{"rendered":"Hoops Rumors Glossary: Exhibit 9 Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

When NBA teams are in the process of filling out their training camp rosters, the Exhibit 10<\/a> is the type of contract mentioned most frequently on Hoops Rumors. An Exhibit 10 contract can be converted into a two-way deal or puts a player in line to earn a bonus if he\u2019s waived and then joins his team\u2019s G League affiliate.<\/p>\n

While we spend more time talking about Exhibit 10 deals, most of those non-guaranteed training camp contracts also include an Exhibit 9 clause in addition to \u2013 or in place of \u2013 Exhibit 10 language.<\/p>\n

An Exhibit 9 clause protects an NBA team in the event that a player suffers a significant injury in training camp.<\/p>\n

If a player on a standard non-guaranteed contract without an Exhibit 9 clause suffered such an injury, his club would be required to pay him his salary until he\u2019s healthy enough to play or until the end of that season, whichever comes first. For example, a player on a non-guaranteed rookie minimum<\/a> deal who sustained a season-ending ACL tear would be owed his full $1,357,763 salary.<\/p>\n

If the injured player\u2019s contract includes Exhibit 9 language, however, his team could waive him and only be on the hook for a one-time payment of $15K. That amount increased from $6K when the NBA and NBPA completed its latest Collective Bargaining Agreement.<\/p>\n

An Exhibit 9 deal, which is non-guaranteed and doesn\u2019t count against the salary cap until the start of the regular season, can only be a one-year, minimum-salary contract. A team can carry up to six players on Exhibit 9 deals, but can\u2019t sign a player to such a contract unless it has at least 14 players already under contract (not including two-way deals).<\/p>\n

In most cases, if a team plans to have a player on a non-guaranteed contract participate in training camp and\/or the preseason, his contract will include an Exhibit 9 clause in order to limit the club\u2019s liability.<\/p>\n

If a player signs a contract that includes Exhibit 10 language but not an Exhibit 9 clause, it\u2019s usually a signal that he\u2019s just being added for G League rights\/bonus purposes and won\u2019t actually be participating in training camp with his team. Conversely, an Exhibit 9 contract that doesn\u2019t include Exhibit 10 language suggests the player will probably be taking part in camp but may not be a candidate to join his team\u2019s G League affiliate if he\u2019s waived.<\/p>\n

So far this offseason, eight players have signed<\/a> Exhibit 10 contracts, and all eight of those deals include an Exhibit 9 clause as well. Meanwhile, four players \u2013 including three Pelicans (Christian Koloko<\/a>, Kobe Bufkin<\/a>, and Caleb Houstan<\/a>) \u2013 have signed Exhibit 9 contracts that do not feature Exhibit 10 language.<\/p>\n

An Exhibit 9 contract that also includes Exhibit 10 language can be converted into a two-way deal. In that scenario, the Exhibit 9 clause would become null and void, so the team would no longer have injury protection.<\/p>\n

In the event that a player with Exhibit 9 language in his contract makes his team\u2019s regular season roster, his deal would be converted to a standard non-guaranteed contract. The Exhibit 9 protection wouldn\u2019t carry over into the regular season.<\/p>\n

Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary<\/a> entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA\u2019s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon\u2019s Salary Cap FAQ<\/a> was used in the creation of this post.<\/p>\n

Earlier versions of this article were published in 2014, 2023, and 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When NBA teams are in the process of filling out their training camp rosters, the Exhibit 10 is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-844887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}