Luke Ridnour is under contract with the Magic through next season, but the 34-year-old says he isn’t sure he’ll play after the conclusion of this season, according to Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times (Twitter link). He’s due a non-guaranteed salary of $2.75MM in 2015/16 on the two-year, $5.5MM deal he signed with Orlando this past summer, and he’s played a career-low 13.6 minutes per game in 38 appearances this year.
There was a “sense” shortly before the trade deadline that the Magic were making the 12th-year veteran available for a trade, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, and the news wasn’t surprising considering his marginal role. The combo guard saw 16.2 minutes per contest in November, but his playing time has gone down as the team has given more burn to rookie point guard Elfrid Payton.
The Magic would be able to simply release Ridnour without obligation should he retire this summer, since his salary is non-guaranteed. The Jim Tanner client was the 14th overall pick in the 2003 draft, and, according to Basketball-Reference data, he’s racked up more than $45MM in NBA salary over the course of his career, including this season’s pay. His career high in points per game was in 2011/12, when he put up 12.1 PPG for the Timberwolves, while his best year in assists per contest was 2005/06, a season in which he averaged 7.0 APG for the SuperSonics, his original NBA team.