It’s hard to identify free agents worth signing at this stage of the NBA summer. The majority of players deserving of NBA contracts with guarantees have already been selected and signed weeks ago. While there are a few players in limbo (Isaac Okoro sticks out as one who is playing chicken as a restricted free agent), teams with an open roster position often don’t have a lot of options.

That’s why the news on Friday is so fascinating. Matt Ryan, a forward, was waived by the New Orleans Pelicans before to the expiration of his contract, putting him on waivers and perhaps opening up a trade window.

Not to be confused with the MVP-winning NFL quarterback, the basketball player Matt Ryan was a college journeyman, eventually entering the NBA draft pool after spending his senior season at Chattanooga. He went undrafted in 2020, and has bounced around the G League while getting a cup of coffee with the Celtics, Timberwolves and Lakers.

He made his NBA debut at the beginning of the previous campaign when the Pelicans plucked him off of waivers and signed him to a two-way contract, starting him off as their three-point shooter. Ryan made 8.4 attempts per 36 minutes, or 80.5 percent of his total shots, at long range, shooting 45.1 percent. Because to his shot diet, he had an exceptional true shooting percentage of 63.8 percent, ranking seventh among non-bigs and in the Top 40 in the league. In a league where shooting is more important than ever, he is a pure shooting specialist.

Why had they, the Pelicans, waived him? They didn’t cut him to sign a player who was obviously superior to him for basketball-related reasons. There are currently 14 contracts that are guaranteed, and there has been no news on whether they plan to sign someone to replace him.

The Pelicans waived him for entirely financial reasons. No matter how competitive a club is, the Pelicans as a group are utterly unwilling to pay the luxury tax on any squad. An NBA franchise is ultimately a company, and the Pelicans’ owners want to maximise that firm’s profits at all costs by never going over that boundary. For the team, it serves as a de facto hard cap. Matt Ryan’s $2.2 million deal was guaranteed on the opening day of the season, but the Pelicans are a couple million over the luxury tax threshold. First and foremost, New Orleans wants to avoid the luxury tax; developing the greatest roster comes second. That implied Ryan had to leave.