As Charania notes, the agreement will reunite Payton and Pelicans head coach Willie Green, who were teammates on the Magic during the 2014-15 season, Green’s last as a player — and Payton’s first.
The 10th overall pick in the 2014 draft, Payton has 500 regular season appearances under his belt across eight NBA seasons with the Magic, Suns, Pelicans and Knicks. However, he hasn’t been on a regular season roster since suiting up for Phoenix during the 2021-22 season. The 30-year-old played in Puerto Rico in 2023 and then spent last season with the Indiana Mad Ants, the Pacers’ G League affiliate.
A Louisiana native who played college ball for the Ragin’ Cajuns in Lafayette, Payton has never been a great shooter, with career averages of 44.7% from the floor and 28.7% from beyond the arc. However, he’s a talented ball-handler and play-maker who averaged 10.1 points, 5.7 assists, and 4.0 rebounds in 26.8 minutes per game over the course of his NBA career.
Payton was briefly in camp with the Pelicans this season and joined their G League affiliate, the Birmingham Squadron, to start the season.
While it appears that New Orleans could qualify for a hardship exception as a result of injuries to Dejounte Murray (hand), Herbert Jones (shoulder), Zion Williamson (hamstring), CJ McCollum (thigh), Jose Alvarado (hamstring), and Jordan Hawkins (back), Charania reports that the team is waiving Jaylen Nowell in order to create a spot on the 15-man roster for Payton.
That suggests that the Pelicans either expect some of their injured players to return within the next couple weeks or want to avoid pushing their payroll into luxury tax territory.
Nowell averaged 8.4 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 2.3 assists in 21.0 minutes per game during eight outings with the Pelicans, posting a shooting line of just .356/.296/.636. He had been on a non-guaranteed contract, so the Pelicans will take on a modest cap hit for the time he spent on the roster. If he’s officially waived on Wednesday, Nowell’s cap charge will work out to $278,782.
The details of Payton’s deal have yet to be reported, but it will likely be a non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract like Nowell’s.
