The Sixers filed a petition with the NBA to exclude a player with disabilities after Ariel Hookportithe end of the season Achilles tearBleacher Report and The Stein Line’s Jake Fisher reports (Link to Twitter). Huckporty suffered an Achilles injury in his preseason debut and underwent surgery shortly thereafter.
A command may be provided disabling disabled player if one of its players suffers an injury that the NBA’s designated physician determines is likely to rule the player out until June 15 of this league year. An exception does no gives the team additional roster space, but it can create additional spending flexibility for a higher-cap club in the same way that a mid-level, biannual, or trade exception does.
If granted, the waiver will be worth one-half of the injured player’s salary or that season’s average waiver amount, whichever is less. With Hackporty on a one-year contract worth $3.4 million, the Sixers will receive a $1.7 million disabled player exception if the league grants their request.
The disabled player exception can be used to sign a free agent or to acquire a player through a trade or waiver claim. However, since it is essentially a tool to add a postseason injury replacement, it can only be used to sign a one-year free agent contract, and any player acquired via trade or waiver must be in the final year of the deal.
While Philadelphia’s DPE request will likely be approved, the exemption will have limited use due to its modest size. With the exception of a handful of rookies, no player currently under a standard NBA contract is making less than $1.7 million this season. Also, the prorated minimum salary for signing a free agent won’t drop below $1.7 million until Dec. 13, so it’s unlikely the Sixers will even consider using the exception before then.
However, it is possible that DPE may be needed later in the season. For example, at the trade deadline, the $1.7 million salary for the rest of the season would be well above the pro-rated veteran minimum, which could give the Sixers an advantage for a target in the buyout market.
It should also be noted that the team opposing a hard hat may not exceed this hard limit for any reason, including using a disabled player. The 76ers are currently running about $1.83M of their first apron hard cap, so if they take on additional salary and get even closer to the first apron, they may not be able to use the full $1.7M DPE later in the season.
January 15 is the last day for teams to apply to exempt a player with a disability for the 2026/27 season. Any exemptions granted to teams will expire on March 10 if they have not been used by then. A team also forfeits unused DPE until March 10 if it waives or trades a player whose injury caused the exclusion, or if that player unexpectedly returns early from injury.
Thunder (Jalen Williams and/or Cason Wallace) and Kings (Ben Simmons) are among other teams that may apply for disabled player exemptions in the near future.
