The Pelicans are signing wing Javonte Green, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 6-foot-4 power forward closed last season with the Bulls.
According to Charania, the deal is for one year. William Guillory of The Athletic adds that the deal is a guaranteed minimum deal (Twitter link). Since Green has five years of NBA service, his deal will count for $2,425,403.
Green went undrafted in 2015, but caught on with the Celtics ahead of the 2019-20 season. He spent one-and-a-half years with Boston before being traded to the Bulls.
The Radford product was a key part of the 2021-22 Bulls, averaging 7.2 points and 4.2 rebounds in 65 games (45 starts). He wasn’t re-signed by the team after his contract expired in 2023, but he eventually caught back on with the organization last season when he signed a pair of deals with the Bulls to close out the year. In his nine games last season, he averaged 12.2 points and 7.4 rebounds. In 195 career games, he holds averages of 5.4 points and 3.1 boards while shooting a .541/.345/.754 line.
With Green being signed, the Pelicans are at a full 15-man roster of standard contract players. All three of their two-way spots are also occupied. With Jonas Valanciunas out of the fold, New Orleans added several bigs to their bench in Yves Missi, Karlo Matkovic and Daniel Theis. While Green doesn’t have the same size as those players, he provides another strong rebounding presence (6.8 rebounds per 36).
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