Herb Jones stays with Pelicans on 4-year, $54M deal - ESPN

Herb Jones has agreed on a new four-year, $54 million deal to stay with the New Orleans Pelicans, his agents, Mark Bartelstein and Kieran Piller of Priority Sports, told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Andrew Lopez on Friday.

Jones declined his option to sign a long-term deal with New Orleans.

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Jones, 24, was a second-round draft pick of the Pelicans in 2021 and quickly found himself in the starting lineup because of his skills on the defensive end as a 6-foot-8 forward. Jones started 135 of a possible 144 games for New Orleans over his first two seasons.

He has averaged 9.7 points for his career to go along with 1.6 steals; Jones finished in the top 10 in the league in steals in both of his seasons. He just missed making an All-Defensive team his rookie season and also garnered votes this past season.

Jones shot 33.7% from 3-point range as a rookie and 33.5% last season but did see some improvement in his shot late after a rough start, going 44.4% on 2.3 attempts per game after the All-Star break.

Jones was set to make $1.8 million next season before the Pelicans declined his option.