Spurs Waive Rasual Butler

The Spurs are have waived Rasual Butler in a move that accomodates their deal with Kevin Martin, as league sources told Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports (Twitter link), shortly before the team officially announced Butler’s waiver, via press release. San Antonio was carrying 15 players, so it had to offload someone to sign Martin. Butler has a minimum-salary contract that bears a cap hit of $947,276, but it costs San Antonio $1,420,914 in additional projected tax penalties.

That’ll stick on San Antonio’s books if he clears waivers, though an outside chance exists that the Blazers would have interest in claiming him to reach the salary floor. It would be cheaper for Portland to grab Butler than it would be for them to claim Gary Neal, who’s also reportedly hitting waivers. However, neither Neal nor Butler is eligible to take part in the postseason for any new team they might join this season, since March 1st was the last day for players to hit waivers and retain playoff-eligibility.

Butler, 36, played 9.4 minutes per game in 46 appearances for the Spurs this season despite having signed only a non-guaranteed deal in the offseason. It’s the third year in a row that Butler made a regular season roster with a team he joined on a non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary. He scored a season-high 12 points in 26 minutes against the Suns on February 21st, though his average of 2.7 points per game ties a career low, and he shot just 30.6% from 3-point territory, well beneath his career 36.2% mark. The Spurs agonized over whether to drop Butler or Matt Bonner, as Charania writes in his full story.

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