The New Orleans Pelicans' manpower crisis worsened late Saturday, when the team announced that guard Lance Stephenson had suffered a groin injury that will require surgery.
Stephenson will be re-evaluated, but the current expectation is he will miss "weeks, not days," a league source told ESPN's Justin Verrier.
The 26-year-old suffered the injury in Friday's loss to the Phoenix Suns, which dropped the Pelicans to 0-6. Stephenson made the trip with the team to San Francisco ahead of Monday's matchup with the Golden State Warriors but was sent back after an MRI Saturday confirmed the need for surgery.
As a result, the Pelicans, who are already without Jrue Holiday (personal), Tyreke Evans (right knee) and Quincy Pondexter (left knee), can apply for an injury hardship waiver, which allows a team to temporarily add a 16th player to the roster when four players miss at least three games apiece.
New Orleans, however, is currently unlikely to do so given the uncertainty surrounding the returns of Holiday and Evans, a source told Verrier.
The Pelicans wouldn't be able to add a new player until after Thursday's game in Milwaukee and couldn't play one of the four players out until 10 days after that.
Holiday is out indefinitely as he tends to his wife, Lauren, who underwent surgery to remove a benign tumor from the right side of her brain weeks after giving birth to the couple's first child. Pelicans general manager Dell Demps said on Oct. 25 that Evans returned to on-court activity following right knee surgery in February, his third procedure in a span of nine months.
Stephenson, who signed a partially guaranteed contract for the veterans minimum in September, won a spot on the roster in training camp, forcing the Pelicans to waive Alonzo Gee's fully guaranteed $1.4 million contract.
He has averaged 9.7 points, 4.8 assists and 3.3 rebounds in 27.0 minutes per game in the Pelicans' winless start.
ESPN's Justin Verrier contributed to this report.