Indiana Pacers to waive guard Rodney Stuckey

As an injury-riddled season winds down, Rodney Stuckey is set to be waived by the Indiana Pacers.

The Indiana Pacers fell to the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference with a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves Tuesday night, and injuries have thinned their bench. One of those injured reserves is guard Rodney Stuckey, who is expected to miss 4-6 weeks with a strained patella tendon in his left knee.

Due to a unique clause in his contact, the Pacers can waive Stuckey before the playoffs and completely avoid his $7 million player option for next season. With his recent injury timeline pointing to being out for any likely playoff run, it seems like a no-brainer for the Pacers to release Stuckey and then be able add a healthy player to their bench.

On Wednesday, the move will reportedly be made to waive Stuckey.

As Shams Charania of The Vertical pointed out, the Pacers had a April 10 deadline to release Stuckey before his 2017-18 option took hold. Stuckey has averaged just 7.2 points, 2.2 assists and 2.2 rebounds per game over 39 games this season, as he has dealt with multiple injuries. So even if he was completely healthy right now, Stuckey was probably in danger of being waived sometime in the next 12 days or so.

Stuckey once averaged at least 11.5 points per game in seven straight seasons, mostly with the Detroit Pistons, but he has also now played less than 60 games in back-to-back seasons and less than 75 games in four straight seasons. Approaching 31 years old (April 21), Stuckey may struggle to find a landing spot in free agency this summer.

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Charania further reported Stuckey is expected to recover from his strained patella tendon within a few weeks. The door would seem to be open for a return to the Pacers at that point, but that’s as likely as Indiana winning a first-round playoff series.