11:12am: The Bobcats have officially announced the move, via press release.
10:19am: Bobcats coach Steve Clifford has confirmed that the team will sign Douglas-Roberts and waive Southerland, Bonnell tweets.
8:33am: The Bobcats are set to add Chris Douglas-Roberts, and with a full 15-man roster, that means someone must go to accommodate the signing. Rookie small forward James Southerland will be the victim of the numbers crunch, as the Bobcats will waive him, according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter link).
Southerland signed with Charlotte after he went undrafted out of Syracuse this past June. He made the team out of camp on his non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary, but he’s barely seen any playing time in the regular season, appearing for just three minutes in a single game on November 29th. He hasn’t gone on a D-League assignment either, meaning he’s simply been stuck on the bench.
The Bobcats were likely looking for depth at small forward, where Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Jeff Taylor are both hurt, and apparently prefer a more experienced hand in Douglas-Roberts. Southerland is the most obvious choice to be cut, since power forward Jeff Adrien, the only other Charlotte player on a non-guaranteed contract, is part of the rotation. Jannero Pargo had been on a partially guaranteed deal that was essentially non-guaranteed, but it became fully guaranteed when the Bobcats failed to waive him yesterday.