The 10 Biggest contracts in New Orleans Pelicans history
By Mat Issa
10. Chris Kaman – 24.1% of the league salary cap (2011-12)
When the then-Hornets traded Chris Paul, one of the assets they got in return was Chris Kaman. And by extension, they also inherited his 5-year, 53.8-million dollar deal. In his lone season with the Hornets, he played 47 games and averaged 13.1 PPG, 7.7 RPG, and 1.6 BPG in 29.2 minutes of action per contest.
But more importantly for the sake of this exercise, he made roughly 14 million during the 2011-12 season, which made up about 24.1% of the league’s salary cap maximum that year (58.04 million).
9. Eric Gordon – 24.4% of the league salary cap (2013-14)
One of the other players that was acquired in the Paul deal was Eric Gordon. But unlike Kaman, the Hornets/Pelicans actually signed to another deal after adding him to the roster. That occurred in the summer of 2012 when they matched the Phoenix Suns’ 4-year, 58-million dollar offer sheet.
He commanded a large part of the salary cap for multiple years during his tenure with New Orleans, but the season where he posted his highest percentage was 2013-14. That year, he made about 14.3 million dollars, which made up 24.4% of the league salary cap maximum at the time (58.679 million).