4:54pm: Appling suffered a shoulder subluxation while in camp with the Lakers and remains injured, so he’ll receive $6K from the Lakers under the stipulations of his Exhibit 9 contract, Pincus reports (Twitter links). He’d have drawn paychecks based on his entire minimum salary as long as he was hurt if the Lakers had signed him to a conventional contract.
4:48pm: The move is official, the team announced.
4:35pm: The Lakers are cutting Keith Appling, reports Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). Pincus indicates that the team has already placed the point guard on waivers, though the team has yet to make an announcement. The 22-year-old’s contract is non-guaranteed, so it won’t cost the Lakers any dead money to part ways with him.
Appling went undrafted out of Michigan State this year and spent summer league with the Blazers before joining the purple-and-gold. He’s appeared in two preseason games for the Lakers but has totaled only two points and two assists in nearly 20 minutes. The 2010 McDonald’s All-American didn’t put up flashy numbers with the Spartans, either, but he was a mainstay of coach Tom Izzo‘s teams for four years.
The move would take the Lakers down to 17 players, 13 of whom have full guarantees. Ronnie Price appears a strong bet to make it to opening night on his non-guaranteed deal, leaving Jabari Brown, Wayne Ellington and Roscoe Smith to fight it out for the last spot, if the Lakers elect to carry the maximum 15 players to start the regular season.