The New Orleans Pelicans have a unique situation with two of the current players on their roster: Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson.
Since the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement was enacted, we have seen less and less veteran extensions for teams retaining their stars. As it stands in the current CBA, teams are only allowed to keep players on contracts with lengths no longer than five years. This means that the most a team can extend a player on the last year of their contract is four years.
There are a few reasons why signing an extension isn’t a good option for guys with expiring contracts. First, a player can sign a contract in the offseason that is four years in length with another team or sign a five-year contract with the current team. Also, they can sign contracts up to their max dollar amounts as free agents whereas extensions are limited to a 7.5% raise from the current year’s contract amount. It makes almost no sense for veterans to sign an extension under these circumstances.
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Both Gordon and Anderson are on the last year of their current contracts, making them free agents next summer during the largest cap boom in NBA history. The salary cap is projected to jump nearly $2o million from $70.1 million this season all the way to $89 million in 2016-17. Teams that are cap strapped this season will suddenly have some wiggle room and teams who have large amounts currently will be swimming in room that they don’t even know what to do with.
The Pelicans will be in an interesting situation next summer in their own right. According to Basketball Insiders, New Orleans could have up to around $25 million in cap room if they decide not to bring back any players with options, non-guaranteed contracts, or their own free agents. Here is a look at their salary situation for next season.
All of the numbers that aren’t in black are figures subject to change, depending on some decisions. The red numbers are non-guaranteed numbers that the Pelicans will most certainly waive. I would also imagine that Alonzo Gee will choose to opt into the second year of his deal, barring an unforseen break out season for him. The team also has their first round pick next year to take into account for, but there is no way of knowing what that amount will be without knowing where they will be selecting.
The green numbers are cap holds for the Pelicans’ free agents, place holders that allow the Pelicans to hold their Bird Rights and sign them to contracts over the salary cap. The team can choose to keep those are renounce those cap holds, meaning they would only be allowed to sign those players using cap space or a minimum salary. For example, Kendrick Perkins, Jeff Adrien, and Corey Webster are good bets to get renounced. After not being able to come to terms this summer on a deal, I would also thinks it is safe to assume at this point that Norris Cole will leave as well.
That leaves us with Anderson and Gordon, two players who have monster cap holds. If the Pelicans waived all their non-guaranteed players and renounced all their holds except Anderson and Gordon (a safe bet to make), then they are still roughly $12 million over the cap. If the goal next offseason for the Pelicans is to sign another high level talent to pair with Anthony Davis, then it seems like a no brainer for them to renounce and cut ties with Anderson and Gordon.
Knowing the track record of this New Orleans front office, it isn’t that simple. This summer, they made it clear that they value continuity and did all they could to bring back the same roster, even if it meant overpaying some of their guys. Yes, this could just be a team with impatient ownership who can’t stand the thought of not being in the playoffs for a few years in order to draft more talented young players. But there is real value in roster familiarity, with both Indiana and Portland being prime examples of this over the last few years.
FanSided
Anderson and Gordon will not be exceptions to this line of thinking, especially since both are acquisitions of current GM Dell Demps. Gordon was acquired in the Chris Paul trade with the Los Angeles Clippers and was in the final year of his rookie scale contract. The following summer, Gordon signed a max offer sheet with the Phoenix Suns that was then matched by the Hornets, keeping the young star in New Orleans (fun fact: Alvin Gentry was the head coach in Phoenix at the time, and Gordon publicly raved that Gentry was a big reason for him signing the offer sheet with the Suns). Gordon’s contract, which happens to be his current deal, held a player option in the last year, which Gordon chose to accept before the season.
In that same summer, the Hornets were able to agree to a sign-and-trade with the then Orlando Magic free agent Ryan Anderson. Anderson’s history with the New Orleans franchise isn’t as deep as Gordon’s, but he has been with them for going on four years nonetheless.
Both players aren’t what you would consider pivotal building blocks or cornerstones for your franchise. They do, however, bring a certain skill that this Pelicans team desperately needs: shooting. Gordon is coming off one of the best shooting seasons of his career, pouring in 44.8% of his threes, coming in at third in the entire league last season. Anderson has widely been regarded as one of the best “stretch-fours” in the league throughout his career, shooting 37.9% for his career from deep. Anderson and Gordon were both third and fourth on the team in scoring, pouring in a combined 27.1 points per game, over a quarter of the team’s offense each game.
In addition to the continuity and production, it is going to be hard for the Pelicans to try to fill those two spots with players that will fit as nicely as those two will. If the goal is to add as many shooters as possible in a fast-paced offense centered around superstar Anthony Davis (as it should be), then there might not be many players in the entire league that will fit better than EG and Anderson.
Still Curtain
Anderson especially has been a great fit with Davis since they both arrived in New Orleans in 2012. In their three seasons together, the Davis/Anderson frontcourt duo has been an average of +1.4 when sharing the floor together, an impressive number considering that in two of those seasons, the Pelicans had a losing record and negative point differential. Last season, even through both players dealing with their own injuries, they were a +2.8 each time they shared the floor.
The same can be said with Gordon and Davis as a duo as well. Gordon and Davis were +3.3 when they were on the floor together in 2014-15, a number that was the same when Mike Conley and Marc Gasol shared the floor for the Memphis Grizzlies.
Anderson is a pick-and-pop machine. Not only is he a great shooter, but he sets screens well, using his wide base to spring guys open and make solid contact with defenders. In any sort of screening action, you have to make good contact with the defender you’re screening otherwise the play is easy to guard.
When the defense sense it coming, Anderson is smart enough to slip the screen, abandoning it entirely and running into the open space for a three.
Anderson also eases the rebounding burden for Davis. He is a smart rebounder and is especially good at crashing the offensive glass, something that Stan Van Gundy instilled in him when he was in Orlando. Before his injury issues came about the last two season, Anderson was good for a consistent six to seven rebounds a game, with three or four of those coming on the offensive end.
Anderson is going to have to be able to punish guards and wings in the post this season, especially if they are going to go semi small with him and Davis in the frontcourt. With teams switching to small ball and Anderson strictly playing the four, teams aren’t going to hesitate to just throw a guard on him if they feel like he is just going to be popping or spotting up on the perimeter all the time.
It isn’t his strong suit, but Anderson has shown a little flavor posting up a few steps off the block and hitting turn around J’s or fadeaways over smaller players.
As for Gordon, he may not ever end up being the two-way All-Star that he was projected to be when he was in Los Angeles, but he still should thrive in an up-tempo Gentry offense. Spotting up and hitting threes should be easy for Gordon, even if he doesn’t get close to the insane clip that he shot last season.
Where he can really improve and take this offense to the next level is if he can consistently create offense off the dribble, whether it is for himself or others. Catching the ball on a swing pass and keeping the action flowing would really boost not only his own stock, but the team’s offensive versatility on the whole.
Everything isn’t all roses, however, as both players have limitations defensively.
Anderson isn’t fast enough to guard small fours or switch on to wings players, nor is he athletic and long enough to protect the rim as a center.
Gordon is susceptible to mismatches on bigger wings due to his small size for a shooting guard. After all those injuries, he just isn’t the athlete and doesn’t have the quickness to stick with smaller point guards either.
They may fit beautifully offensively, but is it worth bringing back two guys who might continue to be liabilities for a team that finished 22nd in defensive efficiency last year?
The answer is going to be yes, but at the right price. That is why an extension for both these players is so intriguing. Given their recent injury histories, inconsistent production, and good connection with the GM and franchise, it makes sense for both of these guys to sign extensions.
Valley of the Suns
Anderson’s extension would be a steal; with maximum raises, his extension would be four years, $40.8 million starting at $9.1 million in 2016-17. The contract would take him through age 32, and given his injury history, having that type of security through the prime of your career would be a good option.
Gordon’s situation would probably be trickier as far as an extension goes. The Pelicans would try to get a decrease in salary for the first year of the extension, since it would greatly reduce their cap hold and create more flexibility. In the subsequent years after the first year in the extension, they can make it a flat rate, give him increases each year, or give him steady decreases each year. Either way they do it, they would be knocking out a huge chunk of Gordon’s cap hold for 2016.
Putting in their new extension numbers creates a big problem: the Pelicans still aren’t left with any cap space to sign anybody next summer.
This all comes back to how this franchise views themselves building long-term around Anthony Davis. If they are hell-bent on bringing in someone next season, then they need to move on from both Gordon and Anderson. Trading them now to get some sort of value and create cap flexibility next summer would be optimal, but I’m not sure there are any deals out there for role players on expiring contracts (although a trade centered around Ryan Anderson and Markieff Morris is VERY intriguing). That means letting them walk for nothing, something that a team such as the Pelicans, who are devoid of assets to acquire other players, could really suffer from.
With that being said, keeping these two guys might be the best option after all. The free agent class of 2016 isn’t nearly as good as the free agent class of 2017, a summer where the cap is expected to jump all the way up to $108 million. The Pelicans will be able to have sizable cap space that summer, even with Anderson and Gordon under contract. Anderson and Gordon are just entering their primes and Anthony Davis is still, well, Anthony Davis. Having an all-world superstar and solid role players historically has been good enough to compete in the playoffs.
Regardless of what direction Dell Demps goes, he needs to decide now on how they are going to build around their MVP candidate. Making a decision on what to do with Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon now is where it has to start.
Next: Ryan Anderson Finished Just Ahead of Eric Gordon in Pelicans Rank
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