Stanley Johnson’s time with the New Orleans Pelicans appears to be coming to an end.
The team is declining Johnson’s $4.5 million qualifying offer, making the 23-year-old small forward an unrestricted free agent, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
The news comes at the same time ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported the Pelicans are also declining 22-year-old power forward Cheick Diallo’s $1.9 million qualifying offer, also making him an unrestricted free agent.
The two moves allow the Pelicans to have more than $28 million in open cap space when the free agency period begins.
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The Pelicans received Johnson, Milwaukee’s Jason Smith and four second round picks in the deal, while Detroit received Thon Maker from Milwaukee and Milwaukee received Nikola Mirotic from New Orleans.
Charania said Johnson’s reputation as a strong defender will garner him interest from several teams upon entering free agency. He averaged 14 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game in his 18 appearances with the Pelicans.
With a 15-player roster limit and more than $30 million in cap space, the Pelicans are running short on remaining roster spots heading into free agency, with 13 spots already filled by players with either fully guaranteed or non-guaranteed contracts, first-round draft picks or players who will eventual arrive as part of the team’s deal with the Lakers to send Davis to Los Angeles.
Before Wednesday, Julius Randle, Elfrid Payton, Darius Miller and Ian Clark were other unrestricted free agents who were on last year’s Pelicans roster.
In the months that followed Anthony Davis’ January trade demand, the Pelicans-Lakers trade deadline drama, Dell Demps’ firing and the constant…
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