Pelicans, CJ McCollum Agree to Contract Extension
The Pelicans and guard CJ McCollum have agreed to a two-year contract extension worth $64 million, his agent Sam Goldfeder has announced according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The new contract keeps McCollum with New Orleans for the next four seasons. His deal is now worth a total of $133 million.
McCollum spent the first eight-plus years of his career with the Trail Blazers, after the team took him with the No. 10 pick of the 2013 NBA draft. In Portland, he and Damian Lillard formed one of the more explosive offensive backcourts in the Western Conference, leading the team to the playoffs every season from 2014–21.
In 2022, he helped spark a late-season surge by the Pelicans after being acquired ahead of the NBA trade deadline, averaging 24.3 points and 5.8 assists per game in 26 appearances for the team. New Orleans finished with a 36–46 record, good enough for the No. 9 seed in the conference. In the play-in round, they beat the Spurs and Clippers in consecutive games to earn a spot against the Suns in the first round of the playoffs.
In six playoff appearances, McCollum averaged 22.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.8 assists for New Orleans. The team fell in six games to Phoenix, but looks to build off of the progress it made under coach Willie Green in 2022–23, with McCollum and a healthy Zion Williamson leading the way.
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