National Basketball Association

New Orleans Pelicans Cut Forward Chris Copeland

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

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The New Orleans Pelicans brought their roster down to 19 players today, deciding to cut small forward Chris Copeland from the team.

The New Orleans Pelicans are now down to 19 players on the roster.

New Orleans announced they are cutting small forward Chris Copeland from the team today.

Copeland, who played just three minutes in the preseason game against the Dallas Mavericks, did not make enough of an impression to earn a spot on the depth chart.

Chris Copeland averaged 2.1 points, 0.5 assists and 0.4 rebounds in 6.5 minutes per game as a Milwaukee Buck last year. He made the biggest impact in the NBA as an Indiana Pacer two years ago, starting 12 games in that season.

Chris is known for his scoring ability from behind the arc, shooting 36.5% from behind the arc in his career. However, the Pelicans felt they had enough strong shooters on the current roster. This meant they did not need Copeland’s services.

Chris had quite the challenge ahead of him when he was signed to the team. He was in a position battle against Quincy Pondexter, Dante Cunningham, Solomon Hill and Alonzo Gee. All of those players, other than Hill, have experience with the Pelicans from last season. To learn a new system and beat out players with experience on that team is a massive challenge.

It also did not help Copeland’s case that Lance Stephenson showed his ability to play the small forward slot in the first preseason game. Chris is a one-dimensional player in his shooting. That makes it hard to spent a roster spot on him.

For Copeland, this season will likely come down to him staying tough while working on his game, until a team has an injury or is in need of his services. He’s still an effective shooter and capable defender that can help depth in the NBA. His luck did not run well with how deep New Orleans got their roster in the offseason.

The New Orleans Pelicans will make plenty of tough decisions with cuts this preseason. The first cut eventually came down to Chris Copeland’s one-dimensional game not being enough for New Orleans’ new focus on players who can play both sides of the ball. Copeland will likely find his way back into the NBA this season. It will likely not be with the Pelicans, however. The best of luck to Chris.