The New Orleans Pelicans appear to be in damage control mode right now.
New Orleans felt like they had to outbid other teams in order to re-sign center DeAndre Jordan this offseason, veteran basketball writers Marc Stein and Jake Fischer reported to Substack on Tuesday. The report notes that the Pelicans believed Jordan had interest elsewhere on a one-year deal and thus signed him to a two-year deal so that they would not lose Jordan’s valued locker room presence.
Jordan, the former NBA All-Star, already spent last season in New Orleans. Then earlier this offseason, Jordan signed a two-year, $7.9 million deal to return to the Pelicans as a free agent.
But New Orleans appeared to make a notable blunder with Jordan’s new contract. Namely, they were eligible to get a subsidy from the NBA for Jordan through a one-year veteran’s minimum deal for players with 10 or more years of experience. But because the Pelicans inked Jordan to a two-year deal instead, they are now on the hook for Jordan’s full salary and Jordan’s full cap hit (read the full details here).
With the report breaking earlier this week about the Pelicans’ apparent blunder, now this latest report is explaining the team’s supposed reasoning. That timing is probably not a coincidence as New Orleans (with their Joe Dumars-led front office) looks to defend themselves from backlash over the Jordan contract.
Jordan is about to turn 38 years old, has not averaged double digits in points or rebounding since 2019-20, and has only appeared in 68 total games over the last two seasons (including a mere 12 for the Pelicans last season). While Jordan did win the NBA’s Teammate of the Year Award with New Orleans last year, it is hard to imagine that teams were tripping over themselves to sign him, regardless of the Pelicans’ stated reasoning here.
