4:32pm: The team has officially announced the move on its website.
4:16pm: The Pelicans have waived Omri Casspi, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link), a move that Stein reported the team was likely to make in the wake of its three-way trade to acquire him from the Rockets. The team has yet to make an official announcement.
Casspi’s minimum salary was to have become fully guaranteed if the Pelicans hadn’t waived him by the end of the day on August 5th. However, that guarantee date will still apply if a team claims him off waivers. It seems he’d be a decent candidate for a waiver claim, since he was a part of Houston’s rotation this past season and would come cheaply. The 26-year-old averaged 6.9 points in 18.1 minutes with 34.7% three-point shooting for the Rockets, reversing a steady decline in production that had taken place since his rookie year.
Casspi told Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee that agent Dan Fegan has spoken with several teams about a deal should he hit free agency, as we noted earlier. The Kings are among those clubs, Casspi said, expressing a desire to return to Sacramento, where he played his first two seasons in the league.