With the January 10th deadline for non-guaranteed contracts becoming guaranteed, the Los Angeles Lakers have waived forward Shawne Williams according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:
The Lakers have waived Shawne Williams, league source tells Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) January 7, 2014
Williams was brought in to be the typical stretch four that head coach Mike D’Antoni has been looking for. Although D’Antoni has been adamant about getting Williams minutes in order to run his system as intended, the veteran forward didn’t live up to expectations and was considered expendable on Tuesday.
In 32 games this season, Williams averaged 5.2 points and 4.5 rebounds per game while shooting 37 percent from the floor and 32 percent from beyond the arc. Although able to hit the occasional outside shot, Williams didn’t really bring much to the team during his short time in Los Angeles.
With Williams waived, the Lakers roster is now down to 14 meaning the team has opened up a roster spot.
Recently, the Lakers were linked to free agent forward Hedo Turkoglu. Since then, Turkoglu has also received interest from the Los Angeles Clippers which is the more appealing destination at this point in time.
It’ll be interesting to see which direction the Lakers go in moving forward. It wouldn’t be too much of a surprise to see the team roll the dice on Turkoglu or go after another player to help bolster the bench while the team deals with so many injuries in the backcourt.
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VIDEO: Ryan Kelly Also Worried About Getting Waived