He may not have been kicked out yes, but he was definitely told it would be more of the same for him. Coming off the bench and a role player at best. You can show someone the door w/out literally telling them to hit the road imo. From Bruce:
What I anticipated in my meetings with KD was that our roster in the backcourt, particularly with Denver Jones returning, it's going to be a little bit more of the same for KD. "In other words, coming off the bench (and) not quite being able to play as freely as he would've liked to play. There's only so many minutes, only so much opportunity."