Pelicans Waive Markieff Morris

FEBRUARY 8: Morris was officially released on Thursday night, RealGM’s NBA transactions log confirms. While the Pelicans didn’t formally announce the transaction, Morris had to be cut in order to accommodate the Nikola Mirotic trade, which saw New Orleans acquire two players for one.

FEBRUARY 7: The Pelicans plan to waive forward Markieff Morris, who’s currently dealing with a neck injury, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.

New Orleans acquired Morris and a 2023 second-round pick in a trade with Washington this week, sending away forward Wesley Johnson. Morris is dealing with Transient Cervical Neuropraxia and began experiencing discomfort in his neck and upper back last month. Morris is expected to seek a second opinion on his injury, per Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).

The Wizards originally put a six-week timetable on Morris at the start of his injury, which was diagnosed during the first week of January.

Morris, an eight-year veteran, mostly spent the past four seasons as Washington’s starting power forward and established himself as a valuable 3-and-D talent. He joins Enes Kanter, Zach Randolph, Marcin Gortat, Wayne Ellington and others as players who are now available in free agency.

Before getting injured, Morris was averaging 11.5 points and 5.1 rebounds on 44% shooting, starting in 15 of 34 contests on the season.

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