Just two weeks after joining the New Orleans Pelicans, Gal Mekel finds himself on the waiver wire once more following his release from the NBA franchise on Friday.
The 26-year-old Israeli guard played just four games for New Orleans, averaging 1.5 points and 3.3 assists over 10.9 minutes of action. He spent over a month as a free agent following his release by the Dallas Mavericks at the start of the season, eventually signing a two-year non-guaranteed contract with the Pelicans, who activated a clause in his contract which allowed them to release him without compensation before January 10.
cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });
console.log("catid body is "+catID);if(catID==120){document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none";var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = 'https://player.anyclip.com/anyclip-widget/lre-widget/prod/v1/src/lre.js'; script.setAttribute('pubname','jpostcom'); script.setAttribute('widgetname','0011r00001lcD1i_12258'); document.getElementsByClassName('divAnyClip')[0].appendChild(script);}else if(catID!=69 && catID!=2){ document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none"; var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = 'https://static.vidazoo.com/basev/vwpt.js'; script.setAttribute('data-widget-id','60fd6becf6393400049e6535'); document.getElementsByClassName('divVidazoo')[0].appendChild(script); }Despite Mekel's release, New Orleans head coach Monty Williams was full of praise for the Israeli and insisted that the decision was made for financial reasons.
"We thought he did a good job, (but) there are some particulars financially that I am not going to discuss," he explained. "We like (Mekel) a lot. That doesn't mean we won't bring him back. But at this point we felt like we were going to go in a different direction. He was a positive for our team."