NBA Rosters Nearly Full

During the offseason, NBA teams can carry as many as 20 players on their rosters, but by opening night each will need to get down to a maximum of 15.

Teams are obligated to have at least 13 players on their roster, meaning the season will start with 390 to 450 players under contract.

Presently, 475 players are signed with teams – 413 have fully-guaranteed contracts, 62 are non/partially-guaranteed.

Of course, a guaranteed contract doesn’t automatically translate into a roster spot.  Players can be bought out, or paid in full but still cut.

The deadline for a team to waive and stretch a player for the 2016-17 season is August 31.  For example, should the Los Angeles Lakers choose to cut and stretch Nick Young before September, they would pay his remaining $11.1 million over the next five seasons at $2.2 million a year.

The Lakers have yet to sign Brandon Ingram and Tarik Black, holding onto a bit of potential cap space should a trade opportunity arise.

The Oklahoma City Thunder will also, eventually, sign Donatas Sabonis.  The Golden State Warriors are reportedly inking JaVale McGee and Elliot Williams.

The Houston Rockets have reportedly agreed to sign four players (Gary Payton II, Kyle Wiltjer, Isaiah Taylor and Bobby Brown), but still have to come to terms with restricted free agent Donatas Motiejunas.

Sooner or later, LeBron James will presumably re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers – along with J.R. Smith, provided a deal can be reached.

Roster space is quickly becoming a premium for any hopeful free agents trying to find a deal.

As detailed by Basketball Insiders’ Jesse Blancarte, some of the top remaining free agents include Ty Lawson, Josh Smith, Lance Stephenson, Mario Chalmers and Jason Thompson – in addition to J.R. Smith and Motiejunas.

Others include Jason Terry, Kevin Martin, Kirk Hinrich, Norris Cole, Jeff Ayres, Ryan Kelly, Robert Sacre, Andre Miller, Toney Douglas, Steve Blake, Chris Kaman, Kendrick Perkins and Beno Udrih.

Meanwhile, some teams will need to either find trade partners to trim their rosters down to 15, or they’ll be forced to cut guaranteed salary.

The Boston Celtics have 16 guaranteed players.  The Atlanta Hawks are full at 15, but also have half of Mike Muscala’s $1.0 million salary guaranteed.

Teams with fewer than 15 players include the Milwaukee Bucks, Orlando Magic and Lakers.  The Cavaliers and Thunder aren’t officially at 15, but should be shortly.

Some players are signed with just a small guarantee, which is usually motivation to join their respective team’s NBA Development League franchise (once cut by the parent franchise) as an affiliate player.

The following lists each team’s roster count, as of August 11: