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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Pelicans have waived forward Terrence Jones and signed shooting guard Hollis Thompson to a 10-day contract.
The moves, announced Thursday evening, give New Orleans more depth at shooting guard after the club traded away guards Tyreke Evans, Buddy Hield and Langston Galloway to Sacramento as part of a trade Sunday night that brought All-Star 6-foot-11 forward DeMarcus Cousins and 6-9 forward Omri Casspi to the Pelicans.
Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry says waiving 6-9 Jones, who was on a one-year contract, gives him a chance to find a team that would play him more.
"Obviously, you look at the bigs situation that we have now and there was not going to be a whole lot of minutes," Gentry said. "He wants to play. Obviously, he's going to be a guy who's in a contract year.
"We think that this is best for him because it gives him an opportunity to kind of look around and put himself in a position where he can decide where his next move should be," Gentry added.
The Pelicans began the day with 14 players, meaning they had room to add Thompson without immediately waiving Jones.
Jones played in 51 games in his first season with New Orleans, starting 12 times and averaging 11.5 points and 5.9 rebounds in 24.8 minutes per game.
The 6-foot-8 Thompson, who can also play at small forward, comes to New Orleans from the Austin Spurs of the NBA Development League. The former Georgetown player also has appeared in 256 NBA regular season games with Philadelphia, averaging 7.9 points in 24.3 minutes per game.
Gentry said he could also envision playing Casspi at shooting guard at times, as well as the 6-7 Solomon Hill, because the roster is relatively thin at that spot now.
"It's just kind of what we've got right now; well make it work," Gentry said.
Gen try added that Casspi "was not just a throw-in" in the Cousins deal.
"This is somebody we talked about in the middle of the season trying to acquire," Gentry said. "He's very good at cutting, finding open spots. He's a very capable 3-point shooter. He's got good size. So where excited about having him also."
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