The disabled player exceptions that teams have been granted throughout the 2022/23 season will expire if they’re not used on Friday, since March 10 is the deadline to use or lose those exceptions.
As our breakdown shows, the Celtics, Pistons, Raptors, and Thunder each received a disabled player exception due to season-ending injuries suffered by Danilo Gallinari, Cade Cunningham, Otto Porter, and Chet Holmgren, respectively.
Of those four teams, only one has used its disabled player exception — the Thunder absorbed Maurice Harkless‘ expiring contract into their Holmgren DPE back in September. Boston, Detroit, and Toronto have yet to use their exceptions and appear unlikely to do so.
We go into more detail on how exactly disabled player exceptions work in our glossary entry on the subject. But essentially, a DPE gives a team the opportunity to add an injury replacement by either signing a player to a one-year contract, trading for a player in the final year of his contract, or placing a waiver claim on a player in the final year of his contract.
Teams are no longer permitted to make trades this season, and there are currently no players on waivers. Theoretically, a disabled player exception could be used today to sign a free agent, but a player on the open market at this time of year typically commands no more than the minimum salary, and there has been no indication that the Celtics, Pistons, or Raptors have their eye on anyone.