As first reported by ESPN, the Houston Rockets are likely to pursue a disabled player exception for veteran guard Fred VanVleet, a team source confirmed to ClutchFans.
VanVleet tore the ACL in his right knee last month and could miss the entire 2025-26 season after undergoing surgery, though a timetable has yet to be specified.
“If a player is seriously injured, his team can apply for the disabled exception to replace him,” HoopsRumors says of the application process. “In order for the exception to be granted, an NBA-designated physician must determine that the player is ‘substantially more likely than not’ to be sidelined through at least June 15 of that league year.”
“If granted, the disabled player exception allows a club to sign a replacement player for 50% of the injured player’s salary or for the amount of the non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception, whichever is lesser.”
With VanVleet slated to make $25 million this season, the “lesser” figure would be half of that salary, or $12.5 million.
There is, however, one catch — at least in the short-term — for the Rockets. ESPN’s Bobby Marks, formerly a front office executive with the Brooklyn Nets, explains:
If the NBA determines VanVleet is out until mid-June, the league would grant the exception, which would normally allow Houston to sign or trade for a player on a one-year contract.
However, even if the exception is granted, Houston would not be allowed to sign a player (such as former Rockets guard Russell Westbrook, for example) into that exception at the moment, because it is just $1.25 million below the first apron. The moves Houston made this offseason hard capped the team at that level.
But even if the Rockets can’t use the disabled player exception at the moment, there is still value to obtaining one, which is why they are likely to file for it.
Later in ESPN’s story, Marks writes:
The eight players Houston signed this summer — VanVleet, Steven Adams, Dorian Finney-Smith, Aaron Holiday, Jae’Sean Tate, Jeff Green, Josh Okogie, and Clint Capela — cannot be traded until mid-December.
After that point, should the Rockets make a trade or multiple trades midway through the season to reduce their overall team payroll, that could give them more room to then use the disabled player exception.
That exception could potentially allow the Rockets to acquire a “salary dump” from a non-contending team without having to send back any contracts in the deal. From the other team’s perspective, those financial savings might be a perk to working a deal with the Rockets.
For now, of course, that’s not an option. But it is a tool that could be useful to general manager Rafael Stone later this season, depending on other moves.
Should the NBA grant the exception, it does not preclude a potential VanVleet return during the 2025-26 season or playoffs. It simply indicates that an independent physician, appointed by the league office, concluded (at this time) that his return is unlikely.
Based on the timeline of prior ACL and major knee injury precedents in the NBA, that would appear to be a reasonable conclusion. A recent study found 9.8 months to be the average return timeline, and that would stretch into July 2026 — i.e. beyond this season.
From the team’s perspective, there is simply no downside to pursuing the exception. Even though it cannot be used now, it potentially could be later. And it does not affect VanVleet’s ability to return late in the 2025-26 season, if his body cooperates. Both the Rockets and VanVleet remain hopeful of that scenario, even if it would be an outlier based on precedent.
If granted, the disabled player exception cannot be aggregated with other salaries to take back a larger contract. It works like any other NBA exception for trade, signing, or waiver claim purposes, but with the added criteria that it must be used for a player on a one-year contract.
