The Pelicans entered the 2016/17 season with playoff aspirations, but quickly fell out of the race and couldn’t climb back in, even after their deadline acquisition of DeMarcus Cousins. The frontcourt pairing of Cousins and Anthony Davis is a very intriguing one, particularly with a full offseason ahead for the two star bigs to get comfortable with one another. Still, the duo will need some help and New Orleans doesn’t have a ton of cap flexibility to continue adding complementary pieces.
Here’s where things currently stand for the Pelicans financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2017:
Guaranteed Salary
- Anthony Davis ($23,775,506)
- DeMarcus Cousins ($18,063,850)
- Solomon Hill ($12,236,535)
- Omer Asik ($10,595,505)
- E’Twaun Moore ($8,445,024)
- Alexis Ajinca ($4,961,798)
- Quincy Pondexter ($3,853,931)
- Tim Frazier ($2,000,000)
- Cheick Diallo ($1,312,611)
- Total: $85,244,760
Player Options
- None
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Jordan Crawford ($1,709,538)1
- Axel Toupane ($1,471,382)
- Quinn Cook ($1,312,611)2
- Total: $4,493,531
Restricted Free Agents
- None
Cap Holds
- Jrue Holiday ($16,929,777)
- Dante Cunningham ($5,658,675) — Player option declined
- Donatas Motiejunas ($1,471,382)
- Total: $24,059,834
Trade Exceptions
- Buddy Hield TPE ($3,517,200) — Expires 2/20/18
Projected Salary Cap: $101,000,000
Maximum Cap Room: $13,308,395
- Adding three cap charges for empty roster spots to New Orleans’ nine guaranteed contracts results in a total team salary of $87,691,605. The cap space created in that scenario is minimal, so the Pelicans are more likely to retain one or two of their players on non-guaranteed contracts and to keep Holiday’s cap hold on the books as they attempt to re-sign him. That would mean staying over the cap.
Footnotes:
- Crawford’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after August 1.
- Cook’s salary becomes partially guaranteed ($25,000) after July 5. Guarantee increases to $100,000 after July 25.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and The Vertical was used in the creation of this post.
Got to get help in the back court that can stay healthy. (Sorry Jrue)
Trade Cousins to Boston for Crowder Brown and First pick
Come on man let’s be reasonable. We already know what the market is for Cousins and it’s certainly not that
Need to try to find a taker for Asik and probably Moore and use those huge cap numbers to find some shooters around the big guys
Don’t bring back Jrue. He might be headed to Dallas anyway. Move some contracts if you can. (Asik, Ajinca, Moore, Pondexter) If you can move two of those to open up 10mil or more. You’re not going to get a lot with 13mil in cap space.