The Pelicans have waived Lester Quinones, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. The move is official, according to NBA.com’s log of transactions.
Quinones had been on a two-way contract with New Orleans. The team now has one two-way vacancy, with Trey Alexander and Hunter Dickinson holding the other two spots.
After going undrafted out of Memphis in 2022, Quinones spent most his first two seasons as a member of the Warriors organization. Last fall, he signed a two-way deal with Philadelphia, which released him in December.
The 24-year-old shooting guard caught on with the Pelicans in early March, appearing in nine games down the stretch of the 2024/25 season. In those nine contests, he averaged 8.6 points, 2.6 assists and 1.7 rebounds in 18.4 minutes. His shooting line was .386/.317/.833.
While Quinones has yet to carve out a major NBA role to this point in his career, he has put up some big counting stats in the G League. In 41 combined games (36.0 MPG) with the Birmingham Squadron and Delaware Blue Coats last season, he averaged 21.6 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 4.9 APG and 1.4 SPG, though he struggled a bit with efficiency (.431/.331/.713 shooting splits) and turnovers (3.7 per contest).
Quinones was signed by New Orleans’ previous front office regime, so the new executives in charge may not have been as high on him. Assuming he goes unclaimed, the 6’4″ guard will become a free agent on Saturday.