National Basketball Association

NBA Rumors: Pelicans waiving Lance Stephenson to sign Archie Goodwin

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The New Orleans Pelicans are reportedly cutting ties with guard Lance Stephenson in favor of signing former Phoenix Suns guard Archie Goodwin.

The New Orleans Pelicans are a disaster right out of the gate in the 2016-17 NBA season. New Orleans was one of three winless teams entering play on Sunday, Nov. 6. The Pelicans have a star player in power forward Anthony Davis, but the rest of the roster is anything but competitive.

According to Shams Charania of The Vertical, the Pelicans plan to sign Goodwin to a two-year deal and waive Lance Stephenson to create a roster spot for him.

Stephenson has bounced around the NBA since first coming to prominence with Frank Vogel’s Indiana Pacers. Since leaving Indianapolis, Stephenson’s NBA career has nose-dived a long way from being able to blow wind into LeBron James’ ears in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Stephenson played decently in six games with the 2016-17 Pelicans, averaging 9.7 points, 4.3 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game, shooting 47.3 percent from the field. Those kind of stat lines will allow him to land elsewhere in the NBA rather soon.

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This upcoming roster move might have to do with the Pelicans valuing Goodwin’s youth more than anything. It was strange to see him cut by the Phoenix Suns, a team full of mostly youngsters. Goodwin feels blessed to land in the Big Easy for this underwhelming Western Conference basketball team:

A huge thanks to the @PelicansNBA organization. Forever grateful. Chapter 4 officially begins.

— Archie Goodwin (@A1Laflare10) November 7, 2016

New Orleans has to do something to build a competitive team around Davis in the coming months. Expect a ton of roster moves this season in the Crescent City. Not all will hit, but new assistant general manager Danny Ferry will aid general manager Dell Demps to make sense of this quagmire of a basketball roster.

It makes sense for the Pelicans to execute this roster move when they did. They haven’t played since Friday night against Phoenix. They’ve had a couple of days to assess before a certain loss Monday at Oracle Arena to the behemoth Golden State Warriors.