The New Orleans Pelicans have signed Bennedict Mathurin to a two-year, $16 million deal that includes a player option, Shams Charania reported Wednesday. ESPN's NBA insider adds that the Pelicans have been in aggressive pursuit of Mathurin for over a year now, viewing him as a key piece in their young core.
This may be yet another example of a young player New Orleans has that they now overvalue. That was already the case with a Pelicans front office essentially making their young core off limits despite winning just 26 games last season with said group.
Mathurin won't be the difference maker in that regard, but it was surprisingly cheap value.
Pelicans just stole Bennedict Mathurin
The University of Arizona product was the No. 6 overall pick by the Indiana Pacers in 2022. He has the upside of someone with top-ten draft pedigree, is still just 24 years old, and continues to improve, having eclipsed 17 points per game the past two seasons.
Mathurin is a bit one-dimensional as a score-first wing, an archetype that has declined in value across the league as valid questions are raised about how much that really impacts winning. Because of that, he may not be as significant a part of the Pelicans' young core as they envision.
He's also worth more than $8 million AAV!
While the Portland Trail Blazers were never directly mentioned with Mathurin, this would've been a great buy-low opportunity to add more scoring punch off the bench.
There are striking similarities between his game and Shaedon Sharpe's, who unfortunately recently suffered a torn meniscus and will now be reevaluated in six months, making a return likely after the All-Star Break.
Portland's Shaedon Sharpe extension suddenly looks worse
While Sharpe is the better player, is he really that much better to the point where Portland had to extend him for four years, $90 million?
That's $22.5 million AAV, $14.5 million more than what New Orleans just stole Mathurin for.
There was certainly some risk attached to GM Joe Cronin's decision to extend Sharpe before the season. That wasn't a figure Sharpe currently deserved, given his relatively low impact on winning. Still, it was a reasonable projection for the future, taking into account the more complete player he could become in the coming seasons as he plays out the remainder of that contract.
Since then, we've seen Sharpe fall out of Tiago Splitter's playoff rotation the first time he's in the postseason with the Blazers. Then, they make Sharpe an afterthought in the backcourt depth chart, pulling the trigger on a surprising Ja Morant deal to pair the polarizing Grizzlies star with Damian Lillard's return from a gap year following his Achilles tear.
Sharpe was already facing an uphill battle to prove he's truly part of this long-term backcourt, and this unfortunate injury has further compounded those concerns. Had Portland brought Mathurin into the picture, there would've been similar concerns as those surrounding Sharpe, but at a fraction of the price.
While Mathurin was a cheap Sharpe replacement, maybe the best way forward for Portland is to not replace him at all. We'll get a sense of how well that plan works when the season starts in his absence.
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