Here's the press release:
The Los Angeles Clippers today waived point guard Sam Cassell.
In 38 games played this season, Cassell averaged 12.8 points, 4.7 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 25.7 minutes per game. In his 15th NBA season, Cassell had missed the last four games with a sprained right wrist while missing 12 games earlier in the season with a strained left calf.
"After weighing all of the options and after conversations with Sam we believe this is the best solution for this team," stated Vice President of Basketball Operations Elgin Baylor. "We know and appreciate the many contributions Sam made during the last three years, and we wish him nothing but the best."
Cassell notched his most productive season with the Clippers during the 2005-06 campaign when he tallied 17.2 points and 6.3 assists while helping lead the Clippers to within one game of the 2006 Western Conference Finals. During the Clippers' 2006 Playoff run, Cassell averaged 18.0 points, 5.8 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 33.7 minutes in 12 games played.
For all the hand-wringing by myself and others, this got done pretty quickly. The trade deadline was last Thursday. The last possible day for a buyout for Sam's purposes of getting on a playoff team is Saturday. So they got it done on day 7 of 9. The posturing in days 4, 5 and 6 is just par for the course. It's what players and agents and owners do.
Of course there's nothing in the press release about what he got. Marc Spears of the Boston Globe says on his blog that Sam got 'some' of his money:
Spears also says that the Clippers will sign Flip Murray. At least he can score some. But he's not really a point guard.
I'm glad it's over.
As I've said before, the mistake was not trading him. There was really no possibility of a good outcome beyond that. All the options were bad, some arguably less bad than others. I believe this is the least bad option.
Update [2008-2-28 19:52:36 by ClipperSteve]: Jonathon Abrams writes on the LA Times web site that the Clippers and Cassell split the difference on the approximately $1.7M he was owed. Huh, there's a novel idea. No wonder it took so long to reach a settlement.