As Charania notes, the settlement will reunite Payton and Pelicans head coach Willie Inexperienced, who have been teammates on the Magic throughout the 2014-15 season, Inexperienced’s final as a participant — and Payton’s first.
The tenth general decide within the 2014 draft, Payton has 500 common season appearances underneath his belt throughout eight NBA seasons with the Magic, Suns, Pelicans and Knicks. Nevertheless, he hasn’t been on a daily season roster since suiting up for Phoenix throughout the 2021-22 season. The 30-year-old performed in Puerto Rico in 2023 after which spent final season with the Indiana Mad Ants, the Pacers’ G League affiliate.
A Louisiana native who performed school ball for the Ragin’ Cajuns in Lafayette, Payton has by no means been an incredible shooter, with profession averages of 44.7% from the ground and 28.7% from past the arc. Nevertheless, he’s a gifted ball-handler and play-maker who averaged 10.1 factors, 5.7 assists, and 4.0 rebounds in 26.8 minutes per recreation over the course of his NBA profession.
Payton was briefly in camp with the Pelicans this season and joined their G League affiliate, the Birmingham Squadron, to begin the season.
Whereas it seems that New Orleans may qualify for a hardship exception on account of accidents to Dejounte Murray (hand), Herbert Jones (shoulder), Zion Williamson (hamstring), CJ McCollum (thigh), Jose Alvarado (hamstring), and Jordan Hawkins (again), Charania studies that the workforce is waiving Jaylen Nowell to be able to create a spot on the 15-man roster for Payton.
That implies that the Pelicans both anticipate a few of their injured gamers to return inside the subsequent couple weeks or wish to keep away from pushing their payroll into luxurious tax territory.
Nowell averaged 8.4 factors, 2.5 rebounds, and a pair of.3 assists in 21.0 minutes per recreation throughout eight outings with the Pelicans, posting a taking pictures line of simply .356/.296/.636. He had been on a non-guaranteed contract, so the Pelicans will tackle a modest cap hit for the time he spent on the roster. If he’s formally waived on Wednesday, Nowell’s cap cost will work out to $278,782.
The main points of Payton’s deal have but to be reported, however it’s going to possible be a non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract like Nowell’s.
