Not on a roster by March 1st you cannot be on the playoff roster. True?

[WayOutWest]

Durring the Laker game tonight the announcers stated that if you are not on a roster by March 1st you cannot participate in the playoffs?  They were speaking about Brent Barry in particular.  So did that mean that Barry and Stackhouse could not participate in the playoffs if they waited the 30 games to return to their team?  That does not seem right since it was pretty widely known that they would wait the 30 days and return to their teams and not one mention of the March 1st deadline from anywhere.

[atom2030]

that's true.

I remember a few seasons back some team (Bulls?) pissing a player off badly because they cut him on March 3rd or so, making him unavailable to sign with someone for the playoffs. But i'm sure the Spurs are well aware of that.

And I'm sure the rest of the league thinks it's damn right ...

[WayOutWest]

that's true.

I remember a few seasons back some team (Bulls?) pissing a player off badly because they cut him on March 3rd or so, making him unavailable to sign with someone for the playoffs. But i'm sure the Spurs are well aware of that.

And I'm sure the rest of the league thinks it's damn right ...

So Barry cannot particapte in the playoffs with the Spurs?  That sounds right since I heard so much about the Spurs keeping Barry out of the hands of a competitor.  I am surprised this didn't come up with Stackhouse, had he waited 30 days to go back to Dallas he would not have been able to play for them in the playoffs.

[Lurker]

No the rule is:

If no team claims a waived player, he is said to have "cleared waivers."  The player may sign with a new team of his choice, and the player's prior team continues to pay the guaranteed portion of the terminated contract (see question number 90 for more information).  The player's salary with his new team is a matter of negotiation.  Few players are actually claimed while on waivers, since the team claiming a waived player inherits his entire contract.  It is far more common for teams to wait for the player to clear waivers, and then sign him to a much smaller (even minimum salary) contract.

If a player is waived after March 1, he is ineligible to be included in the playoff roster of any team that signs him for the remainder of that season.

If a team trades a player and the player is waived by the receiving team, the player's original team cannot re-sign that player for 30 days (during the season) or 20 days (during the offseason) following the date of the trade.

So it is not signing after March 1 but whether the player was waived before March 1.