re: Nance signs $21 million extension

BR, extending guys instead of making them play on expirings is a sign of good will. Just better vibes overall. If everyone on the damn team was on a 1-2 year deal, everyone would be uneasy and a little angsty. There is a lot of parity in the nba. Happiness and feeling like the organization has your best interests at heart can be the difference between wanting to dive for a loose ball or not, taking an active role in mentorship or not, and ultimately making the playoffs or not. The little things matter and they all add up. Part of the reason why the Bengals made the Super Bowl roughly 4 years ahead of schedule, was due to elite team/organizational chemistry. If this team stays healthy, I could see us being the NBA version of the 2021 Bengals. Amazing things can happen when everyone is in lockstep with one another, and the Nance extension is just one more piece to that puzzle/equation for the New Orleans Pelicans.

Nance is getting paid $5.5M a year to play and $5.5M a year to be a great mentor and teammate to guys like Zion, Ingram, and Murphy.

He’s also great depth for when we have our annual time of year with 8 people inactive with injuries.

He can also take some minutes from Zion and Jonas to keep them fresh for the playoffs. Also, remember the impact Nance made last year for us, and consider he was not even fully healthy, had zero basketball experience playing with any of our guys other than CJ, and he didn’t even know the plays. He had a lot working against him and he was still damn solid for us during key moments in the playoffs.