A series of disabled player exceptions granted to teams earlier in the 2025/26 season will expire on Tuesday if they go unused. The annual deadline to use a disabled player exception is March 10.
We go into more detail on who qualifies for disabled player exceptions and how exactly they work in our glossary entry on the subject. But essentially, if a team has a player suffer a season-ending injury prior to January 15, the exception gives that 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.
Here are the teams whose DPEs will expire if they aren’t used on by the end of the day on Tuesday, per Eric Pincus of Sports Business Classroom:
- Chicago Bulls: $2,714,760 (Noa Essengue) (story)
- Dallas Mavericks: $2,626,680 (Dereck Lively II) (story)
- Houston Rockets: $12,500,000 (Fred VanVleet) (story)
- Indiana Pacers: $14,104,000 (Tyrese Haliburton) (story)
- Los Angeles Clippers: $2,677,000 (Bradley Beal) (story)
- Milwaukee Bucks: $1,651,887 (Taurean Prince) (story)
- Oklahoma City Thunder: $2,327,520 (Thomas Sorber) (story)
- Washington Wizards: $1,769,880 (Cam Whitmore) (story)
The Mavericks were granted a second disabled player exception worth $1,148,137 for Dante Exum‘s season-ending knee injury, but forfeited it when they dealt Exum to Washington at the trade deadline.
Since the trade deadline has passed and the only player currently on waivers has a major knee injury, there’s essentially just one way left for teams with disabled player exceptions to use them: signing a free agent. However, that seems unlikely, given that there are no free agents on the buyout market who would warrant a contract worth more than the veteran’s minimum.
In other words, these exceptions will, in all likelihood, expire on Tuesday without being used. Assuming that happens, no team will have used a disabled player exception this season.
Disabled player exceptions have never been used with much frequency, but the fact that mid-level and bi-annual exceptions can now be used to acquire players via trade or waiver claim has further reduced their importance. This is the second season the mid-level and bi-annual exceptions could be utilized in that manner.