JULY 6: Jones’ new deal is now official, according to a press release from the Pelicans.
JUNE 30: Pelicans free agent combo forward Herbert Jones is set to re-sign with New Orleans, his Priority Sports agents Mark Bartelstein and Kieran Piller inform Adrian Wojnarowski and Andrew Lopez of ESPN (Twitter link).
New Orleans Jones turned down a cheaper team option for 2023/24 in order to ink the 6’8″ forward to a fresh new four-year, $54MM contract, which is the Early Bird maximum the team is able to offer. In making him a restricted free agent, the club probably had a pretty good idea that the third-year player would accept the agreement.
Christian Clark of NOLA.com reports (via Twitter) that the deal is fully guaranteed.
A rival team could have theoretically offered him a back-loaded Arenas provision offer sheet, which the Pelicans would have been able to match. This four-year, $54MM deal represented the most New Orleans they could offer the 24-year-old directly.
Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets that Jones will net $12MM in the first season of the new contract, adding that his new contract now pushes the Pelicans $4.5MM into the league’s luxury tax. Worth monitoring now is how the club will handle the non-guaranteed $5.4MM deal of veteran New Orleans shooting guard Garrett Temple for 2023/24, which would become fully guaranteed on July 7.
Jones immediately emerged as a versatile defensive option for a playoff-bound Pelicans club during his first season out of Alabama, and was named to the 2021/22 All-Rookie Second Team for his superlative efforts.
Last year, he averaged 9.8 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 2.5 APG, 1.6 SPG and 0.6 BPG across 66 games, all starts, for a 42-40 New Orleans club.
Happy for him. Future DPOY. One of a hand-full of people who I’ve seen block KD’s jumpshot straight up. He actually did it twice in a game against the Nets early last year.
This is going to end up as a steal for them, even though I’m still confused as to why they didnt take the extra year of control for a valuable asset like him. I guess the idea could be they were able to sign him long term for cheaper than it probably may have been going forward
Herb Jones getting 4 years $54 million is a great contract for a guy that can guard 4 positions with no problem.
Well good for the Pels. That’s what happens when you draft quality players. Even though I wanted my team to try and steal him.
Happy for him. Ingram, CJ McCollum, Jonas and Lewis for Henderson, Simons, Little, Walker and Nurkic. Helps both teams