JULY 9TH, 9:34am: The signing is official, the team announced.
JULY 4TH, 2:07pm: Dante Cunningham has reached a new deal with the Pelicans, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN. It will be a three-year contract worth a total of $9MM, with the third year as a player option, according to Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link).
Cunningham told John Reid of The Times Picayune earlier this week that several teams were interested in his services. He came to New Orleans in December on a veteran’s minimum contract and made nearly $832K last season. The Pelicans didn’t have Bird Rights on Cunningham, so they were limited in what they could offer. Reid wrote that the team was looking at Richard Jefferson and Quincy Acy as possible replacements.
The 28-year-old Cunningham appeared in 66 games for the Pelicans last season, averaging 5.2 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. He took over as the starting small forward in January, but lost that job to Quincy Pondexter after the All-Star break.