Free agent swingman D.J. Stephens has reached an agreement on a training camp deal with the New Orleans Pelicans, leagues sources told RealGM.

A freak athlete who recorded a 46-inch vertical as an NBA draft prospect in 2013, Stephens signed a 10-day contract with the Milwaukee Bucks last season. In three NBA games, Stephens scored seven points and grabbed five rebounds.

Stephens played four seasons at the University of Memphis.

Tyreke Evans is expected to miss 3-5 weeks with a strained right hamstring, the New Orleans Pelicans announced on Saturday.

"Tyreke injured his hamstring playing pickup basketball out of town last week,” Dell Demps said in a statement. “He is back in New Orleans rehabbing with our medical staff. Hopefully, he will be cleared to play before the season-opener.”

Evans appeared in 72 games for the Pelicans last season and averaged 14.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists in 28.2 minutes per game.

Free agent guard Dionte Christmas has reached an agreement with the New Orleans Pelicans on a one-year contract, a league source told RealGM.

Christmas has played five professional seasons since going unselected in the 2009 draft, and he hadn’t spent a regular season in the NBA until playing a full year with the Phoenix Suns.

Christmas averaged 2.3 points and 1.2 rebounds in 31 games for the Suns a season ago, using his participation on Phoenix’s summer league roster to gain a guaranteed deal.

Christmas played four years at Temple University.

The New Orleans Pelicans have reached agreements to sign free agent forwards Vernon Macklin and Kevin Jones to non-guaranteed deals for training camp, league sources told RealGM.

Macklin rejected several overseas deals to attend the Pelicans’ camp. He averaged two points and almost two rebounds in 23 games with the Detroit Pistons in 2011-12. Macklin was a second round pick of the Pistons in 2011.

Jones has spent parts of the past two seasons in the NBA Development League with Canton, receiving a multi-year deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2012 before being released the next offseason.

Jones had significant interest on a potential deal with the Indiana Pacers before the season-ending injury to Paul George, sources said.

Both Macklin and Jones played in the NBA Summer League in July with the Orlando Magic and Pacers, respectively.

With Austin Rivers showing improvement in his second NBA season, the New Orleans Pelicans still consider him a valuable asset, according to sources.

It apparently turned out to be a deciding factor on why they didn't trade him, despite listening to offers.

At one point it looked like Rivers would need to be included in the Pelicans' deal for Omer Asik due to salary cap restraints.

''You have to admit that he has really improved his game," Pelicans coach Monty Williams said at the end of last season. "He's improved his shot. He finishes at the basket better than he did last year. His free-throw percentage came up. It's not where we want it, but it came up."

''I was constantly working the entire summer,'' Rivers said. ''I gained 10 pounds and I've got stronger in my upper body. This is my year.

''But I think at the end of the day, I think we all now understand we can only control what we can control. At the end of the day, we let all of the guys in the front office do their jobs. We just stick to what we do. We play.''