Saddiq Bey Cashes In: Pelicans Hand Comeback Wing 3-Year, $55.5M Deal
Bey turned a career-high 17.7 points per game into a nine-figure raise. Here's what the extension means for his 2026-27 fantasy stock.
Career year plus job security make him a reliable mid-round wing.
- 3-year, $55.5M extension, includes trade kicker
- Was set to earn just $6.4M this season
- Career-high 17.7 PPG, 5.6 REB, 2.5 AST in 72 games
- 30.3 fantasy pts/game in 2025-26, our rank #91
- Pelicans finished 26-56, missed playoffs
Saddiq Bey just turned a bounce-back season into a serious payday. The New Orleans forward has agreed to a three-year, $55.5 million extension with a trade kicker attached, per reporting from Shams Charania — a massive bump from the $6.4 million he was owed on the final year of his old deal.
That's the reward for a comeback most people didn't see coming. Bey tore his left ACL late in the 2023-24 season, got shipped from Atlanta to Washington while rehabbing, then landed in New Orleans last summer without ever suiting up for the Wizards. All he did in year one with the Pelicans was post a career-high 17.7 points per game on his best shooting efficiency yet, adding 5.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists across 72 games.
Numbers That Backed the Contract
For fantasy purposes, that translated to 30.3 fantasy points per game last season (2025-26, actual), good for our rank of #91 overall and #45 at the position. Not elite, but rock-solid — the kind of every-night dependability that matters in deeper formats. The 72 games played is the real tell here: after the knee injury, Bey answered every durability question the market had.
The team around him is still a work in progress. New Orleans went 26-56 and missed the playoffs, but the front office clearly views the 27-year-old as a building block. They also brought in Bennedict Mathurin on a two-year, $16 million deal and hired Jamahl Mosley as head coach, signaling a reset rather than a teardown.
The Fantasy Fallout
Mathurin's arrival is the wrinkle worth tracking. He averaged 17.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 54 games last season (2025-26, actual) for 28.5 fantasy points per game — numbers that almost mirror Bey's. Two ball-dominant wings in the same rotation can eat into each other's usage, and Mathurin's last five games ran 5.1 fantasy points below his season average, so the pecking order isn't settled.
The bottom line: Bey is a HOLD heading into 2026-27. The extension locks in his role and his floor, and 72 games of steady mid-round production is exactly what you want anchoring your bench or filling a wing slot. Just don't overpay in drafts expecting a leap — the Mathurin signing caps his ceiling, and until we see how Mosley splits the minutes, treat both wings as the same tier of reliable-not-spectacular assets.
