February 25: The Pelicans have now signed Williams to a 10-day contract. The club formally announced the addition in a press release on their official website.
February 24: The Pelicans will waive Omri Casspi and use his roster spot to sign Reggie Williams, Shams Charania of The Vertical reports (Twitter link). Casspi, acquired from Sacramento alongside DeMarcus Cousins, suffered a broken thumb in his team debut on Thursday.
Justin Verrier of ESPN initially reported Casspi would miss 4-to-6 weeks with the injury (Twitter link). According to Marc Stein of ESPN, the Pelicans felt Casspi’s absence would leave them short-handed on the wing in midst of a playoff hunt. The decision to cut Casspi wasn’t an easy one, as GM Dell Demps resisted the temptation to flip Casspi leading up to the deadline (Twitter links).
If Casspi doesn’t play another game in 2016/17, he’ll have finished the year averaging 6.1 points through a career-low 23 games. As Bobby Marks of The Vertical points out, the Pelicans are only responsible for $906K of Casspi’s salary, unless he’s claimed on waivers (Twitter link).
The 30-year-old Williams appeared in five games with the Pelicans in December, recording 25 points in that span. A veteran of five NBA teams, Williams averaged 18.2 points this season with the D-League’s Oklahoma City Blue. A lifetime 36.6% 3-point shooter, Williams will supplant Casspi as a long distance threat off New Orleans’ bench.
Dang I like Casspi!! Hopefully he lands with another team.
Too bad Casspi is a real quality player that would have helped spread the floor for Cousins and Davis, also wasnt a bad defender. Some team will be lucky to have him once he has healed.
Disrespectful. Shame.
Damn if anybody should of been waived on that team, should of been Pondexter. That guy is AWOL.
The NBA is kinda cruel at times. Guy gets traded, get’s hurt his first game with new team, then get’s waived. I agree with why are they holding on to Pondexter? He hasn’t played consistently in two year’s.
Casspi will still get paid though
Poor player, it’s amazing that he’s not back in the Euroleague by now.
What can the Pelicans do to make this team a contender? I like Jrue Holiday but he hasn’t played great. Without a first round pick they will need to add players through Free Agency… I think Otto Porter, Bradley Beal, or CJ McCollum would be nice additions, but I dont think they have any assets to acquire talented players. Maybe they could make a move for a risky player like Jabari Parker, Avery Bradley, or Kelly Oubre and just overpay them.