An NBA player who has a non-guaranteed salary for a given season will, by default, receive his full guarantee if he remains under contract through January 7 of that league year. Because the league-wide salary guarantee date is January 10, a player must clear waivers before that date if a team wants to avoid being on the hook for his full salary.
However, a number of players who have non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed contracts for 2025/26 have earlier trigger dates. Those players will receive either their full guarantee or a partial guarantee on certain dates before January 7, assuming they’re not waived.
These dates are fairly malleable — if a player and team reach an agreement, a salary guarantee deadline can be pushed back.
For example, if a player’s contract calls for him to receive his full guarantee on June 27, his team could ask him to move that date to the first or second week of July to get a better sense of what will happen in free agency before making a final decision. The player doesn’t have to agree, but it might be in his best interest to push back his guarantee date rather than simply being waived.
Those agreements between a player and team aren’t always reported right away, so our list of early salary guarantee dates is a tentative one. When a player’s salary guarantee date passes, our assumption is that he received his guarantee, but it’s possible he and his team negotiated a new guarantee date that simply hasn’t been made public yet. We’ll update the info below as necessary in the coming months.
Here are the early salary guarantee dates for 2025/26:
(Note: More players, particularly those with team options, are expected to be added to this list as the offseason progresses.)
- (Kings): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,546,675) becomes partially guaranteed ($250,000).
- Moussa Diabate (Hornets): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,270,735) becomes partially guaranteed ($250,000).
- Pelle Larsson (Heat): Partial guarantee ($977,689) increases to full guarantee ($1,955,377).
- Brandon Williams (Mavericks): Partial guarantee ($200,000) increases to $850,000.
- Jeenathan Williams (Rockets): Non-guaranteed salary ($2,270,735) becomes fully guaranteed.
