NBA 10-day contracts are back and here’s what they pay

NBA teams will soon have another roster tool at their disposal.

While 10-day contracts tied to hardship exceptions can be signed at any point, Monday marks the first day this season teams may sign players to standard 10-day contracts, as detailed by Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors.

Those deals allow clubs to temporarily add a player to their 15-man roster without any obligation beyond the 10 days.

Under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, all 10-day contracts are worth the league minimum salary, which varies based on a player’s years of NBA service. A rookie minimum and a veteran minimum are not the same, and that difference carries over to short-term deals.

For the 2025-26 season, the NBA calendar spans 174 days. A player’s minimum salary is divided by that number to determine a daily rate, which is then multiplied by 10 to calculate the value of a 10-day contract.

Here’s how those figures break down, per Adams:

• 0 years: $73,153
• 1 year: $117,730
• 2 years: $131,970
• 3 years: $136,717
• 4 years: $141,463
• 5 years: $153,330
• 6 years: $165,197
• 7 years: $177,064
• 8 years: $188,932
• 9 years: $189,872
• 10+ years: $208,859

The league also includes a safeguard designed to prevent teams from favoring younger, cheaper players over veterans. When a team signs a player with three or more years of service to a 10-day minimum deal, the NBA reimburses the club for the difference above the two-year minimum.

In practical terms, that means teams pay $131,970 regardless of whether they sign a player with three years of experience or a 12-year veteran. The rest is covered by the league.

It’s a small mechanism, but one that quietly shapes how teams fill out rosters as the season moves along.