The Pelicans and forward Larry Nance Jr. have agreed on a two-year, $21.6MM extension, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.
Nance Jr. is entering the final year of a four-year, $44.8MM contract. He’ll make $9,672,727 this season.
There are no team or player options tied to the extension, Will Guillory of The Athletic tweets.
Nance Jr., 29, has bounced around the league a little bit but has always been coveted for his versatility. He launched his career with the Lakers and played 3 1/2 seasons with Cleveland. He began last season on Portland’s roster but was part of the blockbuster deal that brought CJ McCollum to New Orleans.
He appeared in a total of 46 regular season games last season. Overall, he’s appeared in 396 regular season contests, averaging 8.1 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 1.9 APG and 1.2 SPG in 24.1 MPG.
He projects as Zion Williamson‘s backup this season and now, apparently, for the next two seasons as well.
As Christian Clark of the New Orleans Times Picayune notes (Twitter link), the Pelicans will now have eight players — McCollum, Brandon Ingram, Williamson, Devonte’ Graham, Dyson Daniels, Trey Murphy, Jose Alvarado and Nance Jr. — under contract for the next three seasons.