Key reserve guard Norris Cole re-signs with Pelicans

Norris Cole didn’t find any tempting offers coming his way this year so it looks like he will settle for a qualifying offer for now.

The New Orleans Pelicans re-signed restricted free-agent point guard Norris Cole to a one-year contract Wednesday.

General manager Dell Demps and coach Alvin Gentry have also repeatedly harped on the benefits of roster continuity, and backed those words up by retaining four unrestricted free agents (Omer Asik, Alexis Ajinica, Dante Cunningham and Luke Babbitt) this offseason.

The 26-year-old Cole came to the Pelicans in a trade deadline deal with the Miami Heat last season. With Holiday expected to be fully healthy this season, he and Cole will share time at the one position.

Cole isn’t the biggest star on New Orleans’ roster, but he’s a key cog in the squad’s perimeter rotation.

While his shooting efficiency leaves something to be desired, per Basketball-Reference.com, Cole is a savvy distributor who averaged 3.4 assists to just 1.3 turnovers last season. “He did a wonderful job for us in the playoffs”.

The Philadelphia 76ers are one of the teams with significant cap space that also expressed an interest in Cole earlier this summer. “Obviously we would like to have him back on our team”.

Cole signing his qualifying offer doesn’t directly mean that the Cavaliers can expect to see the same thing from their own player, but the Rich Paul scare tactics have been wild and you shouldn’t put it past him to sign another client to a qualifying offer to entice another team to give in to his demands. “He brought a lot to the table for us”.

In the event that Cole would have been given a higher offer, the Pelicans could still match the offer and retain him.