J.J. Redick has been an invaluable piece to the Philadelphia 76ers over the last two years. As the team has been built around a pair of big, young dudes who aren’t especially great shooters in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, Redick has given the team some much-needed floor spacing since heading to Philadelphia in 2017. It’s paid off in a big way for him, as Redick has averaged a career-high in scoring in each of the last two years.
Redick has signed one-year deals in each of the last two offseasons, and for the third summer in a row, he’s an unrestricted free agent. But things were complicated this time around, as Philly had to deal with the free agencies of Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris, too. Ultimately, Redick did not wait for the Sixers to figure things out with the other two, deciding instead to join Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans on a two-year deal.
Free agent guard JJ Redick has agreed to a two-year, $26.5M deal to join the New Orleans Pelicans, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2019
As mentioned earlier, Redick has aged gracefully and increased his scoring output to the best marks of his career since joining the Sixers. He averaged 17.1 points per game in 2017-18 and 18.1 points per game this past season. Unsurprisingly, the deadeye shooter has seen his scoring go up as he’s shot more threes in Philly than ever before in his career, including eight attempts from deep a night last year. He connected on those at a 39.7 percent clip.
In an age where the most valuable skill a player can have is the ability to stretch the floor, Redick is the kind of guy who can help any team, even if he leaves something to be desired elsewhere on the floor. Ultimately, the team that he’ll end up helping for the foreseeable future ended up being a Pelicans squad that desperately needed someone who could knock down threes and give Williamson and company room to operate.
