The Chicago Bulls Thursday evening waived their backup point guard Cameron Payne, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Bulls make it official, waiving Cam Payne. https://t.co/OG3Zl3wC1I
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 4, 2019
After trading away Justin Holiday to the Memphis Grizzlies for two second-round picks, MarShon Brooks and Wayne Selden, the Bulls needed to waive someone on their roster to fit both Brooks and Selden on the 15-man.
Cameron Payne was initially acquired in the trade that sent Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Joffrey Lauvergne, Anthony Morrow and Payne.
When he was acquired by the Bulls originally, he was infamously known for his dance moves with Russell Westbrook during pregame warmups. That was probably his peak. Since then, he’s played extremely poorly for the Bulls and hasn’t proved himself to be anything but a bench warmer.
This season he’s averaged 5.7 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 2.7 assists while shooting 41.1 percent from the field and only 27.1 percent from beyond the arc. He ended this season for the Bulls with a -19.5 net rating in 536 minutes. That’s the worst net rating in the whole NBA.
He’s a terrible defender as well. Not only is he way too small and athletically inferior at the point guard spot, but he also fails to show any defensive fundamentals in the slightest. He gets lost off-ball all the time and gets caught in screens and just simple player movement. For his development to continue, he needs to put in more effort.
The Bulls are 10-28 on the season and sit 13th in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. They will face off next against the Indiana Pacers at home this upcoming Friday.
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