Initially reported in late July by Keith Smith of Spotrac and Mike Scotto of HoopsHype the New Orleans Pelicans decided, following Summer League, to waive guard Lester Quinones. The decision to waive him ultimately opened up a two-way contract spot for Bryce McGowens, who, in my opinion, is a much better fit for this team.
It was unclear after Quinones was waived what his future in the NBA would look like. I thought he would benefit from going overseas, working on his game, and returning in one to two years. However, the Orlando Magic thought otherwise as they decided to sign Quinones to a training camp deal, allowing him to battle for either a two-way spot or a standard NBA deal.
Now I want to make it clear I'm not the type of person ever to try to take food out of someone's mouth or actively hate on someone. Instead, I am just sharing my opinion and observations from watching Quinones during his time with the Pelicans.
Trying to build around two sub 33% three-point shooters in Paolo and Franz is tricky and has made the Magic extremely desperate to add shooting by any means necessary. This is likely why Orlando is letting Quinones compete for a roster spot, as on paper, he appears to be someone who can come in and be a great shooting threat off the bench.
Quinones is a great player on paper but the eye test doesn't lie
Quinones has been better when the ball is in his hands and he's the one running the show, which is not something Orlando is looking for him to do. Even though it may sound easy to take the ball out of his hands and have him operate as an off-ball shooter, that's proven to be much easier said than done.
Looking at his G League stats from last season, he nearly averaged 22 points per game and shot 33% from three on incredibly high volume. However, when you compare that to his summer league stats, where he was operating off-ball, there's a glaring difference. During his time in Vegas this summer, Quinones averaged 8.6 points and shot an abysmal 34.9% from the field and 29.6% from three.
The reason his stats fell off so much is that Jeremiah Fears was New Orleans' primary ball handler, which forced Quinones to play off guard.
If Orlando plans to bring in Quinones to be a sixth man, he fits the prototype as someone who is a good shot creator and thrives with the ball in his hands. But I highly doubt that's their plan, as he isn't an NBA-level sixth man.
They likely want him to come in and be a high-volume shooter who soaks up 10-ish minutes a game. This was exactly what the Pelicans wanted from him, and if it didn't work, so why would it for Orlando?