The Pacers have reduced their roster to 17 players, announcing today in a press release that they’ve waived forward Omari Johnson and guard Elijah Stewart. Both players were on non-guaranteed camp deals, so Indiana’s cap won’t be impacted by the moves.
Johnson, who will turn 29 in November, appeared in the first four games of his NBA career for the Grizzlies last season, averaging 5.5 PPG, 2.8 RPG, and 1.8 APG. The 6’9″ forward has been solid in the G League, recording 15.9 PPG and 6.6 RPG with a .450/.401/.703 shooting line in 143 career NBAGL contests. He was waived by Memphis in June and joined the Pacers in September, appearing in one preseason game for the club.
Stewart, a 6’5″ shooting guard out of USC, signed with the Pacers in July after going undrafted in June. He averaged 11.7 PPG on .453/.391/.844 shooting in his senior year. In each of his four seasons with the Trojans, Stewart attempted more shots from beyond the three-point arc than from inside it. He appeared in a pair of preseason contests for Indiana.
The Pacers now have 15 players on standard contracts and two on two-way deals, so no further moves are required to reach the regular season roster limit, though that doesn’t mean the team will be inactive in the coming days.
One of Indiana’s two-way players, C.J. Wilcox, recently suffered a torn Achilles and is expected to be cut at some point. It also remains to be seen if Ben Moore, who has a partial guarantee worth $45K, will make the 15-man roster to start the regular season.
Their roster count is at 16 with only 1 two-way contract. C.J. Wilcox was not listed on their training camp roster when it was released late last month.
They never announced his release and it has never shown up on the NBA’s transactions log, so I’m assuming he’s still technically under contract until/unless they fill that spot.
Interesting. Looks like you are right. He still appears on the Pacers roster on their official site.
I’m guessing that they just left him off that announcement of their training camp roster to avoid confusion, since obviously he wouldn’t be participating in camp or playing at all this year. Spurs did a similar thing with Ginobili, I believe.