The key dates of the rest of the 2022-23 NBA regular season: Deadlines, contracts, play-in...

As the unofficial midway marker of the season, the NBA All-Star Game was less than entertaining with several stars absent due to injury, or playing it safe because of the fear of it. Indeed, even the ratings reflected that it wasn’t the NBA’s best night. On the other hand, we’ve now got the home stretch to look forward to and with that a few very important dates on which things could be shaken up.

The key dates that remain in the 2022/23 NBA season

February 28

As we saw with the Pacers and Myles Turner just last month, a team can renegotiate a player’s current-year salary in an effort to increase his salary as part of an extension. Interestingly, Turner was actually the only true renegotiation candidate in the NBA in 2022/23, however, we do know that the Spurs still possess a significant amount of cap room. Could we see them make a move before the deadline?

March 1

To be clear, a player doesn’t have to be signed by March 1st in order to retain playoff eligibility, he simply can’t be waived after that date. A player who is waived on March 1st and signs with another team on April 8th can in fact play in the post season with his new team, however, one who is waived on March 2nd and signs on March 5th can’t. On the other hand, it’s worth noting that where the restricted free agent deadline is concerned, not much attention is paid to it, due to the fact that by the time it arrives all RFAs have been cleared off the market. Miles Bridges presents an exception this year, as a result of his ongoing legal situation. While it’s highly unlikely that a team will try to acquire him, if they wanted to, they’d have to do so by March 1st.

March 10

Used to sign a player to a rest-of-season contract or to claim a player with an expiring contract off waivers, DPEs are typically used at the trade deadline as opposed to after it. Though the Pistons, Celtics and Raptors all have available DPEs, were likely to see them expire due to the fact that most of the high-profile players on the buyout market have already been acquired.

April 9

There is a fair share of the teams in the NBA right now that have at least one roster spot open. Needless to say, the large majority of them will be looking to fill that spot before April 9th arrives. Teams that are bound for the postseason, will undoubtedly be looking to increase not just their depth but experience as well, while the lottery teams will be looking toward a younger crop.

April 10

April 15

With the play-in tournament being staged across the four days that precede the start of the playoffs, it’s during this time that the top six teams from either conference recharge batteries, while planning for possible opponents before finally getting ready to go again.