The way Herb's season is going...can I assume the Pelicans were fortunate to go ahead...

I think it's pretty telling that he was our most mentioned name by other fanbases in trade targets. Herb Jones can play valuable minutes for any team in the league. He is absolutely on a bargain of a deal, particularly considering he just continues to get better.

In what world should Herb Jones have a better free throw % than Jordan Hawkins, Trey Murphy, CJ McCollum, and Brandon Ingram? It's just a testament to his work ethic.

The work he does defensively just from an effort standpoint masks a lot of defensive issues this team has. And honestly that's sad. If everyone gave the same effort as Herb on the defensive end this team would be a favorite in the west with our length. There really isn't an excuse for them not to either. Herb plays as many minutes as anyone and busts his arse on defense on every possession

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understand what you're trying to get across but people can't just do that.

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Yea they can, if they’ve put in the conditioning work. They’re running about 2.5 miles per night on average. It’s not a lot to ask to try on defense. It’s just become accepted in todays NBA that scorers don’t defend.

I think he can easily be a 15ppg scorer in his prime if his shot stays consistent from year to year. We've seen some off the dribble jumpers from him as well and it looks fluid and natural. He's turning into a legit phoenix version of Mikel Bridges. He has the mamba work ethic. Never bet against him.

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is probably the best we'll ever see him on offense.

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It all just depends on what we do with Ingram. We keep him or trade him for another high volume shooter then yes he'll always be close to this.

If Herb is put in an offense where his 3pa goes up to 5 or 6 instead of 3.6, he can become a top 3 and d wing in the league, just because of his sustainability. I don't think he'll ever get the handle or the finishing to the level of his 3pt shooting/defense, but being a catch and shoot wing with Zion is always going to make you stand out. Right now he's the best contract in the league outside of Wemby and Chet imo.

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y Solo
It was a great deal for the Pels the moment he signed

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And it was a great deal for him, too...no matter what happened next, he and his family have generational wealth

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Purpose of thread was to hopefully get an informed opinion on what Herb coulda probably been offered as a RFA, given the year he is having. Just curious as to what Herb "left on the table" or if you prefer....what the Pels "saved". Like you infer, I think we all know Herb has been signed to a great contract, from the Pels perspective.

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He already was a restricted free agent, and he signed for the max the Pels could give him. There’s no real difference in amount whether he signed the contract this year or next.

Now another team could have offered him an offer sheet for more, and we could have matched it…but nobody really tries to sign another team’s RFAs because it ties up their cap space for 2 days during the matching period.

Basically we did Herb a solid by declining his team option that paid him NBA Pennies (less than 2 million) so he could lock in his life changing contract a year early. And he repaid us by taking our offer and not trying to extract every penny from another team so we had to match at 20 million or so.

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We need more Herbs

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We need no Herb.

Herb came from Bama we dont need his kind here. Cut him.

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But...it still happens when a team REALLY wants a certain player. Mavs offered RFA Thybulle of Trail Blazers 3 yr/$33M with player option on 3rd yr and Thybulle also would get trade approval for any future trade involving him. WAAAY higher than anybody expected, including me. They obviously wanted the guy...who I NOW consider a "very poor man's" Herb Jones. Blazers immediately matched the Mavs offer...and signed Thybulle

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Yea, it happens sometimes. Usually with cheaper guys than Herb and Austin Reaves. Paul Reed also signed one for like 3 for 24. But I think teams are loathe to offer them unless they think a player seriously is considering leaving AND it doesn’t tie up ALL their cap space. Plus I’m pretty sure with an offer sheet you have to have that much cap space and can’t do it if you’re operating over the cap. So that limits potential teams right there. Austin Reaves didn’t get an offer either because of those reasons, plus it was pretty clear he wanted to stay in LA.

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I was thinking if Herb had played out this year at $1.8M

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It was a team option and I don’t think they would have declined it unless they knew Herb wanted to extend

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Herb seemed happy with his new contract and the "security" it gave him...but if he knew the kind of year he was gonna have...he might have played out the year at $1.8M and become a RFA.

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I think if Herb was truly betting on himself in the most calculated way possible he would have accepted the qualifying offer for $5 million once the Pels declined his team option and hit unrestricted free agency next year. But that would have required misleading the
Pels and would have ended his career here. Doesn’t seem like the way Herb operates, or really anyone should operate.

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Bottom line...GREAT contract for Pels and Herb has his "security" albeit...at a fairly high cost to him

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The situation played out like a lot of baseball contract extensions- buy out a year + of arbitration or rookie years at a discounted rate so you can set your family up for life. Fairly common for baseball players to sign deals for $15 million a year when they’d get $25 million on the open market

If you think about it, Herb can probably do anything he wants to with $50 million guaranteed. His original $5 million was great but that’s not “my extended family will never have to worry about money again” type of money. $50M probably is.

Some people are more risk averse than others and value the security. I can’t say I blame him.

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Main reason for my thread was that somebody "up this way" had asked me what Herb woulda gotten paid had he gone the RFA route.

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When you are good enough to start and young enough to both follow the money and have teams overpay you expecting you to grow more, that's when you get teams with cap space throwing more than MLE money at you. I could easily see Herb getting an offer like Lonzo got, maybe a little more considering the cap inflation since then. Something in the $20-$25 million per year range.

But Herb plays for a franchise with an injury curse on it. He was smart to lock up the guaranteed money.