When a player signs a two-way contract before the regular season begins, he’s eligible to be active for a maximum of 50 NBA games that season. In order to exceed 50 active games, that player must be promoted from his two-way contract to a spot on the standard roster.
While that 50-game limit applies to a player who is under contract for an entire season, the limit looks a little different for a player who signs a two-way deal after the season begins. That player is eligible to be active for a prorated portion of the maximum 50 games, depending on how many days are left in the regular season.
Let’s consider the case of Jahmai Mashack, who signed a two-way deal with the Grizzlies on Sunday. November 16 is the 27th day of the 174-day regular season, which means the contract will cover 148 days. In order to determine Mashack’s active game limit, we would divide 148 by 174, then multiple that result by 50. That comes to about 42.53, which is rounded to the nearest whole number. So Mashack could be active for up to 43 regular season games.
Rather than doing that math every time a player signs a two-way contract during the 2025/26 season, we’re providing this reference chart. It can be used for the rest of the season to determine how many active games a two-way player will have available, based on when exactly he signs.
| Dates | Game limit |
|---|---|
| Oct. 21-22 | 50 |
| Oct. 23-26 | 49 |
| Oct. 27-29 | 48 |
| Oct. 30 – Nov. 2 | 47 |
| Nov. 3-5 | 46 |
| Nov. 6-9 | 45 |
| Nov. 10-12 | 44 |
| Nov. 13-16 | 43 |
| Nov. 17-19 | 42 |
| Nov. 20-23 | 41 |
| Nov. 24-26 | 40 |
| Nov. 27-30 | 39 |
| Dec. 1-3 | 38 |
| Dec. 4-6 | 37 |
| Dec. 7-10 | 36 |
| Dec. 11-13 | 35 |
| Dec. 14-17 | 34 |
| Dec. 18-20 | 33 |
| Dec. 21-24 | 32 |
| Dec. 25-27 | 31 |
| Dec. 28-31 | 30 |
| Jan. 1-3 | 29 |
| Jan. 4-7 | 28 |
| Jan. 8-10 | 27 |
| Jan. 11-14 | 26 |
| Jan. 15-17 | 25 |
| Jan. 18-21 | 24 |
| Jan. 22-24 | 23 |
| Jan. 25-28 | 22 |
| Jan. 29-31 | 21 |
| Feb. 1-4 | 20 |
| Feb. 5-7 | 19 |
| Feb. 8-11 | 18 |
| Feb. 12-14 | 17 |
| Feb. 15-18 | 16 |
| Feb. 19-21 | 15 |
| Feb. 22-25 | 14 |
| Feb. 26-28 | 13 |
| Mar. 1-3 | 12 |
| Mar. 4-7 | 11 |
| Mar. 8-10 | 10 |
| Mar. 11-14 | 9 |
| Mar. 15-17 | 8 |
| Mar. 18-21 | 7 |
| Mar. 22-24 | 6 |
| Mar. 25-28 | 5 |
| Mar. 29-31 | 4 |
| Apr. 1-4 | 3 |
| Apr. 5-7 | 2 |
| Apr. 8-12 | 1 |
It’s worth noting that a player is always eligible to be active for at least one game, even though the closest whole number for a player who signs on the last day of the season (April 12) would technically be zero.
Finally, while each two-way player has his own individual active game limit, a team that is carrying fewer than 15 players on its standard roster doesn’t have the ability to take advantage of that full limit for each of its two-way players. A team in that situation is restricted to 90 total active games for its two-way players until it adds a 15th man.
You can learn more about active game limits and all the other rules related to two-way contracts in our glossary.
It would be cool to have some updates during the season on guys like Jenkins on Detroit who will almost certainly hit the threshold and may present the team with a choice to make.
We’ll definitely be doing that — don’t think any team will play its 50th game before early February, so those decisions are still a ways off.
Is there a “last day” players can sign two-ways, or does that avenue exist up until final game of season?