Training camp in the NBA is a pressure cooker for those young players who're trying to gain extra minutes in the upcoming season. But for the guys sitting on the fringes of an NBA roster in mid-October? It's pure desperation to get that last spot in the rotation.
At the end of the day, securing that 14th or 15th roster spot, or landing one of those golden two-way lifelines, isn't always about who has the most raw lottery pedigree or who was the higher draft pick three years ago. Sometimes, basketball is just about finding the absolute right ecosystem at the exact right moment. It's about a starter's ankle tweaking in a meaningless preseason game, opening up a positional vacuum.
With the 2026–27 regular season tipping off tomorrow night, front offices across the league spent the last hours agonizing over final cuts . And honestly, some of these front-office decisions were downright wild.
We saw the defending champion New York Knicks make a high-wire financial and strategic choice between a former No. 2 overall pick and a proven, ring-winning veteran. We saw the Boston Celtics take a flyer on a former lottery guard whose career was teetering on the edge. And up in Philly, the 76ers resurrected one of the most unique, fan-favorite human beings to ever step on an NBA hardwood.
Some of these guys earned standard contracts; others survived on two-way deals that give them one last runway to prove they belong in the league. But all five of them were hanging on by a thread, and all five now have a fresh lease on their NBA lives.
Let's dive into the tape, break down the context, and look at the five players who survived the final roster crunch.
If you told Tony Bradley on September 30 when he inked an Exhibit 9 contract with the New York Knicks that he'd be starting the season in Salt Lake City, he probably would have looked at you like you were crazy.
Bradley spent the fall grinding through New York's high-stakes training camp, trying to stake a claim to the final vacant spot on a championship-caliber bench. And to his absolute credit, he made a compelling case on the floor.
Ultimately, New York's brutal financial cap forced Leon Rose's hand. The Knicks had a massive logjam of veterans fighting for survival (Bruce Brown, James Wiseman, Drew Eubanks, Ochai Agbaji), and Bradley was waived on October 15 .
For a 28-year-old journeyman who has already put miles bouncing around the league, getting cut 72 hours before Opening Night is brutal. But basketball moves fast, as ESPN's Shams Charania dropped the news on Saturday: the Utah Jazz claimed Bradley off waivers, bringing him right back to the franchise that originally picked him 28th overall in the 2017 draft.
So, why did Will Hardy and the Jazz front office pull the trigger? Simple: insurance and interior stability. Utah enters the 2026–27 season dealing with some really concerning frontcourt situations : Jusuf Nurkic has been sidelined with persistent foot soreness that's limited his mobility in camp, and Kyle Filipowski has been dealing with nagging back tightness that kept him out of back-to-back preseason sessions.
Is Bradley going to alter the trajectory of Utah's season? No, of course not. His contract remains non-guaranteed, meaning he's still playing on a week-to-week audition. But going from the waiver wire back to where his career started in less than three days is a massive personal win.
Every rebuild in the NBA needs an anchor, not just on the floor, but in the locker room. And somehow, through three different front-office cycles, multiple head coaching changes, and a complete teardown of the roster, Anthony Gill remains the ultimate constant for the Washington Wizards .
The Wizards brought Gill into camp on an Exhibit 9 deal this September. Despite spending the last six consecutive seasons in D.C., his roster spot was anything but safe. Washington overhauled its core over the summer , bringing in new star pieces and young talent that squeezed the veteran margin thin. Entering the final week of camp, Gill was locked in a cutdown battle with younger prospects like Trevor Keels, Chris Livingston, and Alondes Williams.
Then came October 17, which, in a stroke of poetic timing, happened to be Gill's 34th birthday. Marc Stein broke the news that Washington had officially awarded Gill their 15th and final standard roster spot. Surviving another cutdown day while turning 34 in a league obsessed with youth? That's a pretty sweet birthday present.
During the 2025–26 season, Gill quietly put together a remarkably efficient year in a backup role: 5.8 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 17.3 minutes per game while shooting a staggering 62.8% from the field.
Look at the environment Washington is building around Trae Young, Anthony Davis, and incoming No. 1 overall pick AJ Dybantsa . That's a star-studded group that requires massive offensive usage. You cannot fill out the rest of that roster with young guys who are constantly searching for their own shot. You need hyper-dependable, low-maintenance veterans who accept their roles without complaint.
It is wild to think about how quickly the narrative can shift for a lottery pick in today's NBA. Just two short years ago, Devin Carter was selected 13th overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 2024 draft after a dominant Big East Player of the Year campaign at Providence (where he put up an absurd 19.7 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game).
But his transition to the pros hit immediate speed bumps. Injuries stalled his rookie development, and he never quite found a rhythm in Sacramento's congested backcourt rotation. During the 2025–26 season, he showed real flashes, like a fiery 24-point performance against Indiana, but his overall efficiency lagged (41.4% FG, 26.3% 3PT).
Sacramento eventually shipped him to Atlanta over the summer, and the Hawks surprisingly waived him before he even logged a single preseason minute. Just like that, a 24-year-old former lottery pick was sitting on the open market, facing a pivotal crossroads.
Carter didn't waste any time showing Boston what made him special in the first place. In his preseason opener on October 8 against Cleveland , he came off the bench and put together a huge stat line: 17 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals in 22 minutes on 5-of-9 shooting. He was picking up full-court, diving on the deck, and creating instant transition offense off his defense.
On October 17, Michael Scotto reported that Boston officially converted Carter's deal into a two-way contract, slotting him in alongside Dillon Mitchell and Amari Williams. This is an absolute home run, low-risk move for Boston's roster building, and if Carter can get healthy and get his perimeter shot back to respectable levels, Boston might have just salvaged a legitimate lottery-level talent off the scrap market for next to nothing.
Let's be honest: who had Tacko Fall making an NBA Opening Night roster for 2026-27? The 7-foot-6 fan favorite hadn't played in a single NBA game since December 2021. After spending several years dominating overseas leagues and working on his body, Fall earned an Exhibit 10 training camp invite from the Philadelphia 76ers .
However, his comeback attempt hit an immediate wall when he suffered a left hip strain during early practices, knocking him out for the entire preseason. Normally, if you're an edge-of-the-roster veteran who can't play a single minute of exhibition action due to injury, your pink slip is guaranteed before the week is out.
Then, disaster struck the 76ers' frontcourt rotation : Ariel Hukporti suffered a devastating, season-ending Achilles tear in the preseason opener, Adem Bona was sidelined with a lingering foot issue, and Dominick Barlow was held out with lower back stiffness.
Suddenly, Philadelphia was desperately searching for interior size and rim protection behind Joel Embiid. Over the weekend, the 76ers converted Fall's contract into a two-way deal, snagging their final open developmental slot alongside Caleb Love and Rayan Rupert.
We all know the book on Tacko. At 7-foot-6 with an 8-foot-4 wingspan, he is a physical anomaly simply by standing near the rim. But in the modern NBA, where heavy pick-and-roll hunting, five-out spacing, and perimeter switches dictate games, players of Fall's dimensions usually struggle to stay on the floor.
So, can Nick Nurse actually play him? Look at what Fall did last season playing for the Ningbo Rockets in China: 11.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game while shooting an outrageous 80.1% from the field. While the CBA isn't the NBA, it proved that when Fall is healthy, he remains an elite rim protector.
Nurse doesn't need Fall to play any important minutes, but in 6-to-8-minute bursts against traditional, physical backup centers, Fall gives Philly a massive vertical wall at the rim. It's one of the coolest comeback stories of the season, and it gives the Sixers an emergency break-glass option when injuries pile up.
If there is one player on this list whose roster battle felt like a total drama, it's James Wiseman . The former No. 2 overall pick entered Knicks camp on an Exhibit 9 deal, competing in a brutal roster battle against veterans and proven contributors. Eventually, the battle for New York's 14th and final standard roster spot came down to two men: Wiseman and Bruce Brown.
Think about that choice for a second. Bruce Brown was a foundational piece of Denver's 2023 championship team. He played all 82 games last season, bringing versatility, secondary playmaking, and tough perimeter defense. Keeping Brown was the safe, consensus decision for a team with title aspirations.
However, New York's front office was hard-capped by the second apron. They couldn't keep both without making a trade , hence the Pacome Dadiet and Tyler Kolek rumors . And after watching Wiseman's preseason tape, where he averaged 8.0 points and 4.3 rebounds in four games, highlighted by a dominant 18-point, 10-rebound performance against Toronto, New York chose Wiseman .
Wiseman's career path since being drafted second overall in 2020 has been a long road of injuries, system mismatches, and cruel timing, most notably a torn Achilles in October 2024 during his very first game with the Indiana Pacers. He managed just four appearances in 2025–26, leaving many to wonder if his NBA window had permanently closed.
So, why did the Knicks bet on him over a proven veteran like Bruce Brown? Vertical gravity and interior depth. Following Mitchell Robinson's exit in free agency, New York needed an athletic, rim-running big who offers a completely different look from Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond.
Wiseman gives Jalen Brunson a true dynamic rim-runner. When KAT is stretching the floor out to 26 feet, Wiseman can dive into the dunker spot, recover missed shots, and finish above the rim.
The biggest hurdle for Wiseman has always been defensive consistency, and with this Knicks defense, you either execute your drop-coverage assignments, protect the rim, and clean the defensive glass, or you don't play. But the raw tools have always been there. By choosing him over a champion like Bruce Brown, the Knicks signaled that they believe Wiseman's upside is worth polishing. Now, it's up to him to prove them right.
