The New Orleans Pelicans have reached the point where Saddiq Bey can’t just sit in the background anymore.
Bey, 27, is coming off a career season and is eligible for a four-year, $93 million extension. He’s also on one of the league’s most team-friendly contracts, set to make just under $7 million annually for one more year. Yet the conversation around him has barely existed this offseason, even as everything else around the Pelicans has stayed quiet under Joe Dumars, who has made no moves beyond a head coach change.
That silence is starting to matter. October 23 is the final day Bey can sign an extension, and New Orleans has to decide what kind of path it wants to take.
The roster already features two high-level wings in Trey Murphy III and Herb Jones, which creates a real question: if Bey isn’t viewed as extension-worthy, then he becomes a trade chip. If he is, then the Pelicans need to lock him in.
The bigger issue is the center spot. New Orleans has a center problem, and if the front office doesn’t see Bey as part of the long-term core, keeping him around without a plan would be a wasted opportunity.
Dumars has been making the case that this group already has good players and just needs more time together and more reps to become great. Whether that’s the right read or not, it’s the direction he seems to be pushing.
If that’s the route, then the Pelicans need to make the hard call on Bey now.
What makes the decision tricky is that Bey just delivered the kind of season that raises eyebrows across the league. He averaged 17.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting 36.7 percent from three in 72 games. That production came after an ACL tear in 2023-24 that cost him all of 2024-25, which makes the bounce-back even more impressive.
At the same time, there’s a real question about whether this level is sustainable. Bey’s career suggests this season could be the outlier, and that’s the concern if New Orleans is weighing a long-term extension. If the front office doesn’t believe he can keep producing at that level in 2026-27 and beyond, then the logic for holding onto him starts to fade fast.
Right now, Bey has value. Teams looking for depth could see him as a starter or as a score-first sixth man off the bench.
For the Pelicans, that could mean getting back a starting-caliber center and future assets, which would help both immediately and down the line. If they don’t plan to extend him, that kind of return would be more useful than letting him drift toward the 2027 offseason and possibly walk for nothing.
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