{"id":832621,"date":"2026-09-10T23:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T23:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/832621\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T23:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T23:30:19","slug":"bennedict-mathurin-signs-two-year-contract-with-pelicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/832621\/","title":{"rendered":"Bennedict Mathurin Signs Two-Year Contract With Pelicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little over two weeks after the agreement was first reported<\/a>, Bennedict Mathurin<\/a> has finalized his two-year, $16MM contract with the Pelicans, per NBA.com\u2019s official transaction log<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mathurin\u2019s two-year deal with New Orleans is said to feature a second-year player option.<\/p>\n

The Pelicans created the financial and roster flexibility necessary to complete their agreement with Mathurin when they traded<\/a> Jordan Hawkins<\/a>, Micah Peavy<\/a>, a second-round pick and a second-round swap to Memphis in exchange for AJ Johnson<\/a> and Taj Gibson<\/a>. New Orleans subsequently waived<\/a> Gibson, who was included in the deal for salary-matching purposes.<\/p>\n

Mathurin had been a restricted free agent, but his representatives reportedly approached the Clippers about withdrawing his $8.8MM qualifying offer, which made him unrestricted and freed him up to sign directly with New Orleans without having to complete an offer sheet or a sign-and-trade deal.<\/p>\n

July 13 was the deadline for a team to unilaterally rescind a restricted free agent\u2019s qualifying offer, but Los Angeles was still able to take that route with Mathurin\u2019s consent throughout the offseason.<\/p>\n

Mathurin, who drew interest from the Bulls, Bucks, and Mavericks earlier this summer, reportedly received longer-term offers that featured more overall money, but preferred a shorter-term deal that will allow him to reach unrestricted free agency as early as next offseason. The Pelicans had been pursuing Mathurin for over a year, per ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania, and the hope in New Orleans is that the 24-year-old will be a significant part of the team\u2019s young core moving forward.<\/p>\n

A native of Montreal, Quebec, Mathurin spent two college seasons at Arizona prior to being selected sixth overall in the 2022 draft. He played for the Pacers for three-and-a-half seasons before being traded to the Clips in February as part of the Ivica Zubac<\/a> blockbuster.<\/p>\n

Mathurin averaged 17.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in 28.0 minutes per game over the course of 26 outings (one start) for L.A. last season.<\/p>\n

Those numbers weren\u2019t much different from the ones the 6\u20195\u2033 swingman posted in 28 games for the Pacers to open the 2025\/26 campaign (17.8 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 2.3 APG), though his three-point shooting fell off significantly in Los Angeles, from 37.2% on 5.6 attempts per game to 20.7% on 3.2 tries per contest. He was a career 34.2% three-point shooter entering last season.<\/p>\n

Mathurin has shown the ability to be a dangerous scorer, though his jump shot can be hit and miss. He\u2019s at his best when he\u2019s getting to the free throw line, where he has made 83.8% of 5.1 attempts per game over the course of his four-year career. His play-making remains a work in progress, as he has compiled more career turnovers (502) than assists (500).<\/p>\n

After signing Mathurin, the Pelicans now have 14 players on guaranteed standard contracts, with Trendon Watford<\/a> on a partially guaranteed deal and Kobe Bufkin<\/a>, Caleb Houstan<\/a> and Christian Koloko<\/a> on non-guaranteed pacts for training camp. They also have guard Jaron Pierre Jr.<\/a> and forward Malik Dia<\/a> on two-way deals, with one roster spot (and one two-way slot) still open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A little over two weeks after the agreement was first reported, Bennedict Mathurin has finalized his two-year, $16MM…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,363,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":["post-832621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-basketball","tag-bennedict-mathurin","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-neworleans","tag-neworleanspelicans","tag-pelicans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117249351926205327","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}