Blazers Waive James Southerland

The Blazers have placed James Southerland on waivers, the team announced (on Twitter). Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who was the first to report the the move, tweets that the swingman will ink a new deal overseas now that he’s officially been waived. Wojnarowski doesn’t specify where Southerland intends to sign, but he writes that the new pact will cover the length of the NBA season.

Southerland agreed to join Portland for camp on a non-guaranteed deal in August after the Pelicans opted not to bring him back for the 2014/15 season. The 24-year-old out of Syracuse saw limited action in his first NBA campaign last year, playing in a total of just 30 minutes across four games between time for the then-Bobcats and Pelicans. He didn’t appear in any of the Blazers’ first three preseason games.

It seemed like a long shot that Southerland would stick around long enough to make the opening night roster, given that Portland is already carrying the league maximum of 15 guaranteed contracts, as our list of roster counts shows. Darius Morris and Diante Garrett now stand as the only players left on the Blazers without guaranteed deals, and they seem to like strong candidates to be cut before the season as well.

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