The Pacers have waived A.J. Price, the team announced. The move is no surprise, since the team’s hardship provision for a 16th roster spot had expired, and with players on their way back from injury, the team apparently elected not to attempt to renew it. Price joined the team as its 16th player earlier this month, presumably on a non-guaranteed contract, though that detail was never confirmed. His release brings Indiana back to 15 players.
Price was a capable fill-in during his 10-game stint, averaging 10.5 points, 2.7 assists and 1.0 turnover in 19.3 minutes per contest. The 28-year-old opened the season on the Cavs roster, but Cleveland let him go within the first week of the regular season to sign Will Cherry instead. A Chinese team reportedly made an offer to Price, and he was just “days away” from signing it when the Pacers swooped in, writes Wheat Hotchkiss.com of Pacers.com. The Excel Sports Management client has acknowledged that he’s ready to play overseas, though he’d like to land another deal in the NBA and Pacers coach Frank Vogel has said that he’s deserving of an NBA roster spot somewhere.
The league gave the Pacers a pair of 10-day clearances to carry 16 players, since they met the criteria for such a provision, which required the team to have four players who were expected to miss time with injury after three had already sat out at least three games. Paul George is likely to miss the entire season, George Hill continues to be out indefinitely with a bruised left knee, but Vogel said today that David West will return to action tonight against the Magic, tweets Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. Roy Hibbert will miss the game with a sprained left ankle, Robbins also notes, but C.J. Watson will return, according to Autumn Allison of the Indianapolis Star (Twitter link). Still, the Pacers could have spared Price and selected another player to release to trim the roster to the conventional 15-man limit, as the Thunder did when they cut Sebastian Telfair rather 16th man Ish Smith when their hardship exception ran out.