There's only two reasons I can think of for why this would be done now versus the far easier route of him not playing and leaving after the season.
1. He did something that they are getting out in front of (this seems unlikely to me, but always a possibility in situations like this).
2. It is locker room/relationships/attitude related and it was done now to try and salvage the rest of the season. We have all seen that something has felt off about the team for the better part of a month, I don't tend to think the blame could ever be put on one individual, but this could be an action to try and remove some of the issue and reset the remaining group.