What Is It Like Signing NBA Hardship Deal? Three Pacers Players Know

DETROIT – Countless NBA players sign contracts with a new team during their career. A small number of them do so during an ongoing season, meaning they have to get up to speed with their new team quickly. Yet three players joined an even smaller subset of those in-season signees this year – they joined the Indiana Pacers on a hardship contract. They had to learn the ropes immediately and be ready to produce right away for a team dealing with several injuries.

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Cody Martin, and Garrison Mathews all signed a hardship contract with the blue and gold in November – twice, in Robinson-Earl’s case. By default, hardship contracts can only be 10 days in length. Teams only have access to a hardship exception if they have a full roster and four of their 15 players have missed three games in a row – and those four players have to be out for at least two more weeks. If that criteria is met, a team can be granted a hardship exemption by the NBA.

It’s nice for teams to have an extra resource, but in this instance they are only given the resource because they are damagingly injured. That’s the challenge hardship signees face. They aren’t just joining a team mid-season because they’re a good fit or because of longstanding interest. Instead, they are needed because they are available, healthy, and could potentially produce right away.

“It depends on your situation coming in, how hectic it can be. Obviously, coming in this quick, this late, it’s always like that,” Martin said of his mid-season signing. “But at the end of the day, they made it really easy for me, so I appreciate that.”

What have the Pacers gotten from their hardship players?

Robinson-Earl signed his first hardship deal with the Pacers on November 1. The team needed him that night – he played six minutes in a win over the Golden State Warriors. Martin signed his 10-day pact on November 5 and suited up hours later against the Brooklyn Nets. Mathews’ deal is ongoing but started on November 20, an off day for the blue and gold. He was in the rotation the next day and logged 10 minutes of action against the Cavaliers.

All three players are capable NBA talents who were in NBA rotations during the 2024-25 season. But asking all three hardship signees to contribute immediately after being signed is a demanding request. Yet it’s one the Pacers had to make. They’ve been hammered by injuries this season and needed their hardship additions to play on day one to build a regular rotation.

Johnny Furphy, Quenton Jackson, Obi Toppin, Bennedict Mathurin, T.J. McConnell, Taelon Peter, Aaron Nesmith, Andrew Nembhard, and Tyrese Haliburton have missed time this season with injuries for the Pacers. Star forward Pascal Siakam rested a game, too, and even Martin missed one outing due to illness. It’s been a season defined by absences so far for the blue and gold.

That’s why the Pacers’ hardship signees have been important. They’re playing, and playing a lot, for the banged-up group. “I think the biggest thing was just needing to acclimate as quickly as possible. Typically when you’re with the team you get all summer, you get a ton of practices, but this just happened really quick,” Robinson-Earl explained. “So definitely the speed of acclimation needed to kind of hurry up a lot more instead of taking your time with it. That was the biggest thing.”

Robinson-Earl was signed during the most dire circumstance for the Pacers. They were absent over a half-dozen players at the time. Truly, anybody with a pulse and some NBA experience would have helped the blue and gold.

The fifth-year forward has proven himself and is still on the Pacers roster nearly a month later, now on a standard deal. The Martin and Mathews signings were a bit different. The Pacers were still banged up when those two were brought in, but they had enough available talent that they could hunt for specific traits when it came to their hardship signings.

For Martin, it was his aggressive style and his toughness. The team needed some pop with so many players sidelined, and Martin could provide it. “They compete really hard and they’re physical,” Martin said of the Pacers. “I feel like I fit in well with that and obviously just adding on to what they already do.”

When Mathews joined, the Pacers needed three-point shooting. They still rank last in the league in shooting percentage from long range, and Mathews excels with his jumper – he’s made over 38% of his career threes on solid per-minute volume. “I think I fit well, being able to space the floor for guys like [Siakam] and [Mathurin] and [Nembhard],” Mathews explained. “Just being able to space the floor and run and knock down open shots and being able to do stuff like that, I think I can really help this team.”

Why the Pacers players on a hardship contracts had a challenge

There were obvious reasons for the Pacers to sign all three of their hardship players. Each one had experience and could bring specific benefits to the blue and gold. And yet, it’s still challenging for everyone involved. The Pacers have to work in a new piece who might not know their plays or have any chemistry with a teammate. The hardship signees have to do their best to be helpful the second they hit the court, and making sure they avoid being actively harmful is the best way for them to do that.

That’s not easy with little to no practice time. And hardship players are only on the team for 10 days by default, so there aren’t many opportunities to actually learn what is needed of them beyond on-court game action.

“The biggest thing for me is taking it one day at a time. I’m not looking down the line [thinking], ‘Oh, I’ve got 10 days, I’ve got X amount of games’,” Robinson-Earl explained. “I’m just putting one foot in front of the other and just making the most of each opportunity.”

That’s the balance the Pacers three hardship signees have tried to find. They are in a situation in which most players would struggle. They don’t know the plays, don’t know their teammates, and don’t even really know how much time they have to learn everything. 10 days is the length of their contract, but will they be given opportunities the entire time? Will they be retained if there are more injuries?

Despite all that, they hit the hardwood and are relied on. It’s a difficult challenge but one that each player welcomes. Robinson-Earl spent the 2024-25 season on a banged up New Orleans team and saw the other side of this reality up close – his Pelicans brought in countless hardship talents.

It helped him learn the mentality required to succeed when signed to a short-term contract on a heavily-injured team. Martin and Mathews have since learned the same thing.

“It’s different trying to learn the schemes and the offense quickly. It’s not easy. Everybody has their different stuff. So just trying to learn that,” Mathews said. Part of what made Mathews an appealing signing for Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle is that Mathews went through a training camp with a different team, the New York Knicks, so he was already in game shape. “At the end of the day we’re playing basketball. But, trying to be in the right spots and learning the plays. I’m going to need to pick that up quickly.”

Hardship players provide a hopeful outcome to a horrible reality for an NBA team. What the Pacers, and their three 10-day signees, learned this month is that the mental challenge is the hardest. If that can be overcome, even a short-term signing can help a team win – as Robinson-Earl has this season. “You definitely don’t go into a season thinking you’re going to have three starters, key role players [get hurt]. You don’t prepare for those situations,” Robinson-Earl explained. “But we have a great staff, we have a great group of people keeping the right mind frame, keep pushing, just keep staying together. Because it’s tough and if it was easy, everybody would do it. So I think that’s why we take a lot of pride in just being able to show up every single day [and] be the best versions of ourselves.”