With just four days left in the NBA’s regular season, there are still a few teams around the league with open 15-man roster spots, and there’s little downside to filling those openings before the regular season ends.
For playoff teams, adding one more player would create a little extra depth in the event of postseason injuries or garbage-time minutes. For non-playoff teams, it makes sense to try to convince a young player to accept a multiyear deal that includes little or no guaranteed money beyond this season, since it gives those teams another option for next year’s roster.
Even clubs over the luxury tax line or right up against it shouldn’t have a problem paying one more player a prorated minimum salary for the last day or two of the season — the prorated minimum for a veteran on a rest-of-season deal is just $11,997 per day, which is a drop in the bucket for NBA franchises.
With all that in mind, it’s safe to assume that some – if not all – of the teams with open roster spots should fill them by Sunday. Here are those teams:
- Boston Celtics
- Dallas Mavericks
- Golden State Warriors
- New Orleans Pelicans
- Toronto Raptors (2)
The Mavericks‘ plans for their open 15-man roster spot have already been reported. They intend to promote two-way player Brandon Williams to a standard contract and likely would’ve done it much sooner if they’d had enough room under their hard cap to do so.
The Pelicans technically have 16 players on standard contracts as of today, but two of those players – Elfrid Payton and Kylor Kelley – are on 10-day contracts that will expire this weekend. I’d expect New Orleans to look to sign Payton, Kelley or someone else to a multiyear contract that gives the club some roster flexibility beyond this season.
The Raptors opened up a pair of roster spots on Thursday by waiving Orlando Robinson and Cole Swider, both of whom were on rest-of-season contracts. Their reported plan is to fill those two spots in the coming days with players on multiyear deals — Robinson and/or Swider may even return, though Colin Castleton is reportedly also on Toronto’s radar, and a promotion of two-way player A.J. Lawson is a possibility too.
The other two teams here – the Celtics and Warriors – are either assured of a playoff spot (in Boston’s case) or are well positioned to make it (in Golden State’s case). But that doesn’t necessarily mean each of those teams will sign a win-now veteran as a 15th man. They already have enough depth on their respective rosters that they may prefer to add a younger prospect – perhaps a two-way player or someone from the G League – on a multiyear deal.
While there are only five teams with open spots on their 15-man rosters, that doesn’t necessarily mean those five clubs are the only candidates to make roster moves in the next few days.
Teams without an open roster spot could waive one of their current 15 players in order to make room for a new addition or a promoted two-way player. They’ll likely have to make that decision very soon though — 4:00 pm Central time on Thursday is the deadline to waive a player on an expiring contract in order to ensure he clears waivers before the final day of the regular season, as Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets.
The Cavaliers (Chuma Okeke), Kings (Terence Davis), and Knicks (P.J. Tucker) are among the teams who had been carrying an open 15-man roster spot but who have filled that opening this month.
Finally, it’s worth noting that there are a handful of clubs with two-way contract slots available, but the deadline for two-way signings passed in early March, so those roster spots will remain open.