The New Orleans Pelicans appear to be self-sabotaging right now.
Over the weekend, the Pelicans agreed to a new contract with veteran center DeAndre Jordan. The 37-year-old Jordan is reportedly getting a two-year, $7.9 million contract from New Orleans that is fully guaranteed.
In response to the news, New Orleans writer Shamit Dua said that the Pelicans committed a “careless blunder” with Jordan’s new deal. Dua notes that New Orleans will not be able to apply the 10-year veteran’s minimum subsidy to Jordan’s contract, meaning they will be on the hook for the full amount (along with the full hit on their cap sheet).
For context, the aforementioned subsidy allows NBA teams to get cap relief on one-year minimum salaries for veteran players with 10 years of experience or more. In Jordan’s case, the Pelicans would have gotten a cap hit of just $2.45 million on his contract for next season (with the NBA bumping up Jordan’s salary to the full $3.9 million amount). But because the subsidy only applies to one-year salaries, Jordan’s new two-year contract is ineligible for that cap relief.
Dua further notes that New Orleans is now just $8.2 million away from the luxury tax threshold for next season. As such, their ability to make moves both for this season and for next season will now be unnecessarily restricted a bit because of Jordan’s new contract.
Jordan, a former NBA All-Star, is a beloved locker room figure who won the NBA’s Teammate of the Year Award last season despite appearing in just 12 total games for the Pelicans. But with no good explanation as to why New Orleans did not just give Jordan a pair of successive one-year deals instead, this appears to be the latest misstep by the team’s Joe Dumars-led front office.
