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According to the CBA, 10 Day Contracts cannot be signed with less than 10 days left in the season.

However, according to reports the Timberwolves signed Arinze Onuaku to a 10 Day Contract on 4/7/15. With the end of the season being 4/15/15, that is obviously only 9 days. This would violate the CBA.

The wrinkle, and I'm not sure if it matters or not, is that Onuaku was signed using a Hardship Exception. I am of the understanding that is only for Roster Size, and has nothing to do with contracts. The signing did take the Timberwolves to 16 total players on their roster.

My guess is that the Onuaku signing was really for the remainder of the season and not for a 10 Day Contract. I just wanted to make sure that I was reading/understanding the rules around 10 Day Contracts and Hardship Exceptions correctly.

**Edit - After further research, it appears it was a reminder of the season deal and not a 10 Day Contract.

"I am of the understanding that [Hardship Exception] is only for Roster Size, and has nothing to do with contracts."

Yep. It would have allowed the team to exceed 15. And besides that, there are the 2 usual parameters that would be specified: (1) what are the contractual terms (defined by the contract itself, in this case $___ for rest of season), and (2) how will we legally be adding this player to the roster per the cap rules.

In this case, the HE expanded the roster to 16. The contractual term was $___ (pro-rated minimum) for "rest of season" contract. The permission to add him to the roster was via min salary exception.

Onuaku signed for $43,226. That equals nine days of the minimum salary exception for a player with one year of service.

I always thought 10 days were amortized based on the number of games over those 10 days not just the # of days. If someone signs a 10 day over the ASB and there are no games (and no reason to sign anyone, just bear with me) do they get paid for 10 days or do just get the per diem, etc?

A 10-day contract is for ten days or the number of days from the date of signing that it takes to complete three games, which is longer. The salary is pro-rated for the number of days that end up being covered by the contract. E.g., if three games are completed over the next 12 days, then the contract is actually for 12 days and the salary is prorated for 12 days. So the number of games that occur over the 10 days only affects contract length and payment in that if it takes longer than 10 days to complete three games, then the 10-day contract is actually longer than 10 days.