The Spurs are waiving veteran forward Al-Farouq Aminu, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
San Antonio had been carrying 16 players on guaranteed contracts, so cutting Aminu will ensure the team gets down to 15 for the start of the regular season. The Spurs will be on the hook for Aminu’s $10,183,800 salary, which will remain on their cap for the 2021-22 season.
Aminu, who signed a three-year, $29M+ deal with Orlando in 2019, battled injuries throughout the contract, appearing in just 35 games for the Magic before he was sent to Chicago in the Nikola Vucevic trade at the 2021 deadline. He played in six games for the Bulls down the stretch and then was flipped to the Spurs in the DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade this offseason.
A strong, versatile defender when healthy, Aminu was a starter in New Orleans and Portland earlier in his career but was only traded to the Spurs for salary-matching purposes and wasn’t considered a keeper for the club. There was a little uncertainty about whether he’d be a victim of the preseason roster crunch, since his $10M expiring deal could’ve been useful in a midseason trade, but it seems the Spurs decided it made more sense to release him than one of their younger players.
San Antonio also waived Luka Samanic last week in order to get down to 15 players on standard contracts for the regular season. The team does have an open two-way contract slot.
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