{"id":937528,"date":"2026-10-18T10:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T10:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/937528\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T10:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T10:40:11","slug":"checking-in-on-roster-situations-around-the-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/937528\/","title":{"rendered":"Checking In On Roster Situations Around The NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

As expected<\/a>, the majority of the NBA teams made their roster cuts on Saturday and didn\u2019t wait until Monday\u2019s deadline to set their regular season rosters.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t clear waivers until Wednesday, and the team would be on the hook for two days\u2019 worth of his salary.<\/p>\n

After Saturday\u2019s flurry of roster moves, here\u2019s where things stand around the NBA:<\/p>\n

Teams whose rosters are within the regular season limits<\/p>\n

Of the NBA\u2019s 30 teams, 25 have rosters that comply with the league\u2019s regular season roster limits<\/a>, which state that clubs can\u2019t carry more than 15 players on standard contracts or three on two-way contracts.<\/p>\n

The following 10 teams are right at the limit, carrying 15 players on standard contracts and three on two-ways:<\/p>\n

Atlanta Hawks
\nBrooklyn Nets
\nCharlotte Hornets
\nDetroit Pistons
\nGolden State Warriors
\nLos Angeles Clippers
\nNew Orleans Pelicans
\nPhoenix Suns
\nUtah Jazz
\nWashington Wizards<\/p>\n

Just because these rosters look ready for the regular season doesn\u2019t necessarily mean they\u2019re fully locked in. It wouldn\u2019t be be a surprise if multiple teams on this list make minor tweaks before Monday\u2019s regular season roster deadline. That could be as simple as swapping out one two-way player for another. It could also involve the standard roster.<\/p>\n

One team from this group that is definitely expected to be active by Monday is Phoenix. The Suns are still carrying big man Duop Reath<\/a> on an Exhibit 10 contract, but the expectation is that he\u2019ll have that contract converted to a two-way deal, which means the team will have to waive one of its current two-way players (CJ Huntley<\/a>, Pat Spencer<\/a>, or Koby Brea<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The following 13 teams are carrying 14 players on standard contracts and three on two-ways:<\/p>\n

Boston Celtics
\nChicago Bulls
\nCleveland Cavaliers
\nDenver Nuggets
\nIndiana Pacers
\nMiami Heat
\nNew York Knicks
\nOklahoma City Thunder
\nOrlando Magic
\nPhiladelphia 76ers
\nPortland Trail Blazers
\nSacramento Kings
\nSan Antonio Spurs<\/p>\n

A handful of these teams are right up against a hard cap and don\u2019t have the ability to add a 15th man to their standard rosters at this point. That\u2019s the situation for the Cavaliers, Pacers, and Sixers.<\/p>\n

Many others are operating in luxury tax territory or right near the tax line and will want to keep that 15th spot open for now in order to either keep their projected tax bill in check or maintain some financial flexibility. Aprons are also a consideration here. Adding a 15th man would push the Knicks over the second apron, for example.<\/p>\n

Not all of these teams face cap- or apron-related constraints though. The Bulls\u00a0are far clear of the tax, for instance, and could comfortably make a roster addition if they want to.<\/p>\n

Two more teams are within the regular season limits. Those teams are as follows:<\/p>\n

Minnesota Timberwolves: 14 players on standard contracts and two on two-way deals.
\nToronto Raptors: 14 players on standard contracts and two on two-way deals.<\/p>\n

Both the Timberwolves and Raptors recently waived players on two-way contracts, with Minnesota dropping Enrique Freeman<\/a> on Saturday after Toronto cut Chucky Hepburn<\/a> and Trey Jemison<\/a> earlier in the week (the Raptors have since filled one of those openings by converting<\/a> Nate Bittle<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if either team has its eye on a specific two-way target, but it\u2019s worth noting that players on Exhibit 10 contracts who were waived on Friday or Saturday could be claimed off waivers and immediately converted to two-way deals before Monday\u2019s roster deadline.<\/p>\n

The Wolves also have the ability to add a 15th man at any time if they so chose, whereas the Raptors can\u2019t do so due to their close proximity to a first-apron hard cap.<\/p>\n

Teams that still have moves to make before Monday\u2019s deadline<\/p>\n

That leaves five NBA teams that have yet to make the necessary moves to get within the regular season roster limits. Let\u2019s run through them one by one\u2026<\/p>\n

Dallas Mavericks: 16 players on standard contracts and two on two-way deals.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks are carrying 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts, with Dwight Powell<\/a> on a minimum-salary deal that\u2019s partially guaranteed for $1MM \u2014 that figure will increase to $1.5MM if he\u2019s not waived on or before Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Powell is the most logical odd man out from a cap perspective and isn\u2019t likely to have a huge role if he makes the team, but Dallas thinks very highly of his locker-room leadership and new head coach Dusty May has referred<\/a> to the veteran big man as \u201cvery valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Mavericks retain Powell, then Moussa Cisse<\/a>, Caleb Martin<\/a>, and Marcus Sasser<\/a> are among their potential trade or release candidates.<\/p>\n

Cisse isn\u2019t owed any guaranteed money beyond this season\u2019s $2.2MM salary, but he showed promise as a rookie last season. Sasser is also on an expiring contract (worth $5.2MM), but Dallas targeted him in an offseason trade to fortify the team\u2019s point guard depth. Martin might be the most expendable player on the roster, but waiving him would mean eating not just this season\u2019s $10MM cap hit but his $9.4MM player option for 2027\/28 as well. That\u2019s not ideal.<\/p>\n

As for Dallas\u2019 two-way opening, Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter<\/a> links<\/a>) has identified one of today\u2019s cuts \u2013 Seth Lundy<\/a> \u2013 as a candidate to return to fill that slot, though the Mavericks could\u2019ve simply converted his Exhibit 10 deal to a two-way today if they\u2019d wanted to.<\/p>\n

Stein also noted that waiving Cisse and re-signing him to a two-way contract isn\u2019t an option, since the Mavs owe him more than $91K in guaranteed money. As we outline in our glossary entry<\/a>, a team can\u2019t re-sign a player to a two-way contract if it already guaranteed him more than that season\u2019s \u201ctwo-way protection amount.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston Rockets: 16 players on standard contracts and two on two-way deals.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a safe bet that the Rockets will retain veteran forward Jae\u2019Sean Tate<\/a>, whose minimum-salary contract is partially guaranteed for $1MM, as their 13th man. I think Isaiah Crawford<\/a> is probably the favorite to be Houston\u2019s 14th man \u2014 even though his salary is non-guaranteed, he signed a four-year contract with the team this offseason.<\/p>\n

That leaves Oscar Tshiebwe<\/a> and Julian Phillips<\/a> on Exhibit 10 contracts. I expect one will be converted to fill the Rockets\u2019 two-way opening, but I\u2019m curious to see what happens with the other. Houston is just $14K below the luxury tax line and keeping either Tshiebwe or Phillips on the standard roster and converting his Exhibit 10 deal to a standard non-guaranteed contract would push the team\u2019s salary into the tax by about $2.4MM.<\/p>\n

Maybe going a little over the tax isn\u2019t a major concern for the Rockets, who could duck back below that line later in the season if they need to. But if they\u2019re wary of surpassing that threshold, the only way to avoid it at this point besides making a trade would be to convert one of Tshiebwe or Phillips to a two-way deal, waive him, and then convert the other player to a two-way.<\/p>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, if Houston ends up keeping just one of those two players, I view Tshiebwe as the better bet to stick around.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers: 16 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals.<\/p>\n

The Lakers are carrying 16 players on guaranteed salaries and will need to trade or waive one of them by late Monday afternoon. Dalton Knecht<\/a> is the most likely odd man out, and Los Angeles has reportedly scoured the trade market to try to find a taker for him, but the former first-round pick has negative trade value at this point. Even if the Lakers were to attach a second-round pick, it would be difficult to extract anything of value in return for Knecht.<\/p>\n

Jaden Hardy<\/a>, Jarred Vanderbilt<\/a>, and Bronny James<\/a> are among the other back-of-the-roster players who could be at risk if Knecht is moved in a trade that nets the Lakers a new player.<\/p>\n

Memphis Grizzlies: 17 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals.<\/p>\n

The Grizzlies have 16 players on guaranteed contracts, plus Jaylen Wells<\/a> on a non-guaranteed deal. Despite his contract situation, Wells isn\u2019t any danger of being waived. He\u2019s a year removed from being a Rookie of the Year finalist and is still viewed as part of Memphis\u2019 young core.<\/p>\n

That means the Grizzlies will have to trade or waive two players with guaranteed salaries. The top candidates to go are Kris Murray<\/a>, Micah Peavy<\/a>, and Walter Clayton<\/a>, each of whom was acquired earlier this year as part of a trade in which Memphis obtained a more valuable asset.<\/p>\n

Assuming the Grizzlies don\u2019t find a trade partner to work with, I\u2019d be a little surprised if Murray and Peavy aren\u2019t the two players cut.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee Bucks: 16 players on standard contracts and two on two-way deals.<\/p>\n

Another team said to be exploring the trade market, the Bucks have 16 players with guaranteed salaries and will have to eat one of those contracts if they can\u2019t make a deal.<\/p>\n

I view Caris LeVert<\/a> and Jericho Sims<\/a> as the two players more at risk in Milwaukee. Both are on expiring contracts, and while LeVert\u2019s $14.8MM cap hit would be more useful in an in-season trade than Sims\u2019 $2.8MM figure, Sims seems more likely to actually play a role for the Bucks \u2014 LeVert is coming off a down year and was ineffective in the preseason.<\/p>\n

The Bucks\u2019 third two-way slot, meanwhile, has been open since July. There\u2019s no reason not to fill it entering the season, so I\u2019d expect Milwaukee to take a close look at all the Exhibit 10 options on waivers this weekend and consider placing a claim by Monday.<\/p>\n

Hoops Rumors\u2019 roster resources<\/p>\n

We consistently maintain and update a number of lists and trackers that are designed to help you keep tabs on NBA rosters. They\u2019re all up to date following Saturday\u2019s cuts.<\/p>\n

Those resources, which can be found on the right-hand sidebar of our desktop site or on the \u201cFeatures\u201d page within our mobile menu, include the following:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As expected, the majority of the NBA teams made their roster cuts on Saturday and didn\u2019t wait until…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-937528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=937528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}