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Washington Wizards guard Roger Mason will have season-ending finger surgery on Monday, and will be released by the team. Via Marc Spears Of Yahoo! Sports:
After playing in pain, Wizards guard Roger Mason to have season ending finger surgery Monday, source tells Y! Sports. Wiz will waive Mason.
— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) April 15, 2012
Mason had played in 52 games this season for the Wizards, averaging 5.5 points and 38.3 percent shooting from behind the three point line in 13.4 minutes per game. In case you're curious why a team as woeful as Washington would simply release a player who has some value, Bullets Forever has the simple explanation:
You're probably wondering why the Wizards are waiving Mason instead of just keeping him around to be a veteran presence of sorts. The cold, harsh reality is that this is a numbers game. Thanks to recent signings of Cartier Martin and James Singleton, the Wizards have 15 guys on their roster, the maximum number allowed.
Martin and Singleton have played well of late, Mason is in the last year of his contract; add the two together and it's not hard to see why Mason is gone.
For more on the Washington Wizards, check out SB Nation's Wizards blog Bullets Forever. You can also head over to SB Nation's main NBA hub at SBNation.com/NBA. Also, check out SB Nation's YouTube channel here: