As of Friday, seven of the NBA’s 30 teams are carrying at least 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts and are unlikely to have many additional offseason acquisitions in store. Another nine teams are carrying 14 players on fully guaranteed deals, while 10 others have 12 or 13 guaranteed contracts on their books.
As our roster counts page shows, that leaves four clubs carrying 11 or fewer players on fully guaranteed deals. That doesn’t necessarily mean all four of those teams will sign free agents to guaranteed contracts before the regular season begins, but it’s worth checking in on them to take a closer look at their roster situations.
[RELATED: 2025/26 Non-Guaranteed Contracts By Team]
Atlanta Hawks
Although the Hawks are only carrying 11 players on guaranteed contracts, it’s possible no more additions are coming before the regular season, since they have four more players on partially guaranteed or non-guaranteed deals, and all four could be in the team’s plans.
One of those four players, Vit Krejci, should be a lock for the regular season roster. Krejci has been a regular rotation piece over the past two seasons and $1.5MM of his $2.35MM salary is also guaranteed. N’Faly Dante is the other Hawk with a partial guarantee — only $85,300 of his $2.05MM salary is locked in, but the Hawks probably wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of signing him away from Houston with an offer sheet if they planned to waive him before the season begins.
Former Magic forward Caleb Houstan and 2023 second-round pick Mouhamed Gueye have non-guaranteed minimum salaries for 2025/26. Houstan made 40% of his three-point attempts last season, and the Hawks may not be ready to give up on Gueye, who had his rookie year shortened significantly by a back injury.
Waiving any one of those four players would clear a path for Atlanta to either add a new 15th man or to carry an open roster spot into the regular season.
Cleveland Cavaliers
In addition to their 11 players on guaranteed salaries, the Cavaliers have Dean Wade, a reliable reserve whose contract features a significant partial guarantee, and Craig Porter Jr., a minimum-salary reserve who has been productive in limited minutes and who could play a greater role this fall if Darius Garland misses the start of the season due to toe surgery, as expected.
That’s still just 13 players on standard deals, so Cleveland will need to find a 14th man. Even though they could use some additional depth due to Garland’s toe injury and Max Strus‘ foot surgery, it’s probably safe to assume the Cavs won’t carry a full 15-man roster into the season since they already have the league’s highest payroll and won’t want to further increase their luxury tax bill if they don’t need to.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Cavaliers sign a player to a partially guaranteed or non-guaranteed contract for their 14th spot. That would give the team some flexibility early in the season to make a change at that spot if they need to bring in extra depth at a specific position.
A player on a non-guaranteed deal without an early salary guarantee date won’t have his salary for 2025/26 locked in unless he remains under contract through January 7, so the Cavs could maintain some flexibility with the 14th spot until then. For now, a guard or wing to help fill in for Garland and Strus would make sense.
Golden State Warriors
The offseason practically hasn’t started for the Warriors, who belatedly finalized a pair of draft-night trade agreements on July 6 and haven’t made a single roster move since then. Jonathan Kuminga‘s restricted free agency standoff is the reason for the hold-up. Until they know the exact value of Kuminga’s cap hit – or the cap hits of the players they acquire in a sign-and-trade for Kuminga – the Warriors want to hold off on filling out the rest of their roster, since they may need to navigate a hard cap.
For now, Golden State is carrying just seven players on fully guaranteed contracts, four below the total for any other team. But Trayce Jackson-Davis and Gui Santos, who have non-guaranteed salaries, are probably sticking around, and Kuminga would get them to 10 players if he re-signs.
The Warriors are also believed to have deals lined up with several free agents, starting with Al Horford, who will likely receive most or all of the taxpayer mid-level exception. Horford and De’Anthony Melton (likely on a minimum-salary deal) have been the free agents long assumed to have handshake agreements with Golden State. Seth Curry, Gary Payton II, and Malcolm Brogdon are among the other rumored candidates to sign with the team (Curry seems to be the most likely), along with second-round picks Will Richard and possibly Alex Toohey.
It’s probably safe to assume that some combination of these players will fill out the Warriors’ roster once Kuminga’s free agency is finally resolved. Whether they carry 14 or 15 players could depend on how much Kuminga signs for — if the forward accepts his $8MM qualifying offer, Golden State would be in a way better position to carry a full roster than if he signs the team’s reported proposal that starts at $21.75MM.
New York Knicks
The Knicks have 11 players on guaranteed salaries, with Ariel Hukporti as their non-guaranteed 12th man. Technically, waiving Hukporti to replace him with another player is a possibility, but New York has so little cap flexibility below its second-apron hard cap that it’s not a practical route, since Hukporti’s $1,955,377 cap hit gives the club important extra breathing room that a $2,296,274 veteran’s minimum deal wouldn’t.
As their situation stands, the Knicks have enough room below the second apron to sign one veteran free agent to a minimum-salary contract and one draft-rights-held player to a rookie-minimum deal. A salary-shedding trade could change the equation for the club, but if that doesn’t happen, the Knicks have next to no maneuverability and won’t be able to add a 15th man until near the end of the season.
While swapping non-guaranteed players on and off the roster during the first part of the season is a viable option for a team like Atlanta, it’s not practical for New York, since those moves would burn much-needed room below the hard cap. That may be one reason why the Knicks are taking their time to decide who their 13th and 14th men will be. Once they sign those guys, they may end up committed to them for a while.
For the Knicks, the 14th will almost certainly be Diawara.
Knowing Kerr, GSW will likely get all of Melton, Payton, Brogdon and Seth Curry, so Kerr can play them all at once with Kuminga and then blame Kuminga when the lack of size gets cooked.