When Omri Casspi signed with the Warriors last summer for the minimum — turning down more money and potentially more minutes with the Nets — I was in the group that thought this would be great for both sides. The Warriors added another shooter on the wing to their roster, and Casspi had finally found a place where he would shine because the playing style (uptempo with a spaced floor) would fit his game.
Casspi was solid, but often battled injuries and didn’t really take off. He appeared in 53 games for the Warriors and averaged 5.7 points per game, shooting 45.5 percent from three. However, recently it looked more and more like he would get waived as the Warriors solidified their playoff roster, and Saturday night that happened.
Warriors waive Omri Casspi pic.twitter.com/7pm1lDMhra
— Warriors PR (@WarriorsPR) April 8, 2018
Why? Because with Stephen Curry out for the first round and Quinn Cook playing well on his 10-day contracts as a reserve point, the Warriors need to sign Cook and that meant creating a roster spot. Someone had to go, and it wasn’t going to be a big, as Marc Stein of ESPN noted.
The Warriors, I'm told, badly wanted to avoid this outcome but also felt that they need to keep all of their bigs (Zaza, West, JaVale, Looney and Damion Jones) for the postseason grind to come
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) April 8, 2018
Each of those big men — Zaza Pachulia, David West, JaVale McGee, Kevin Looney, and Damion Jones — bring a little something different to the table, and coach Steve Kerr said before Saturday’s loss to the Pelicans he may well use every one of them in different situations.
So if a big wasn’t going, Casspi was.
Casspi cannot be picked up by another team at this point for their playoff roster, that would have had to happen by March 1. He is a free agent this summer.