{"id":92720,"date":"2024-08-27T06:20:05","date_gmt":"2024-08-27T10:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=92720"},"modified":"2024-08-31T02:19:21","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T06:19:21","slug":"matt-ryan-no-not-that-one-signs-with-west-contender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/27\/matt-ryan-no-not-that-one-signs-with-west-contender\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Ryan (No, Not That One) Signs With West Contender"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just days <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/23\/new-orleans-pelicans-waive-sharpshooting-wing-matt-ryan\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">after being waived<\/a> by the New Orleans Pelicans, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/ryanma01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Ryan<\/a> has re-signed with the Western Conference contender, per The Athletic\u2019s Shams Charania.<\/p>\n<h2>Matt Ryan (No, Not That One) Re-Signs With Pelicans<\/h2>\n<p>Though the full details of the contract haven\u2019t been revealed, it will be a restructured one-year deal.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Pelicans are re-signing wing shooter Matt Ryan to a restructured one-year deal, sources said. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7Gn4sUTk44\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/7Gn4sUTk44<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1828193214488363067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A three-year NBA veteran, Ryan originally signed a two-way contract with the Pelicans last October. His hybrid contract was then converted to a standard deal in April, allowing him to participate in the playoffs. New Orleans clinched their postseason berth after losing against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Play-In opener but defeating the Sacramento Kings in the following game.<\/p>\n<h3>Was Matt Ryan Overlooked?<\/h3>\n<p>Interestingly, Ryan played just three total minutes in the 2024 NBA Playoffs. This may be partly due to the Pelicans being swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round. However, with Ryan playing a bit role in the 2023-24 regular season, it was essentially more of the same.<\/p>\n<p>That isn\u2019t to say that Pelicans head coach Willie Green made the right decision. New Orleans shot just 26.7 percent from 3 against the Thunder. Coming off of a season in which he made a career-high 45.1 percent of his 3-pointers, Ryan probably could\u2019ve helped in that regard.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe Green is an Atlanta Falcons fan, and Ryan\u2019s namesake inspired the wrong images. Nonetheless, with the Pelicans struggling to generate consistent offense due to the Thunder\u2019s on-ball defense, an off-ball threat such as Ryan should\u2019ve been utilized. With two losses by single-digit margins, including one by a single possession, the coaching staff\u2019s inability to maximize their personnel is even more evident.<\/p>\n<h3>Do Better Days Lie Ahead?<\/h3>\n<p>Ryan may find himself on the court more regularly in 2024-25. His minutes are clearly far from being guaranteed. Nonetheless, there\u2019s an opportunity that wasn\u2019t present in the rotation last season. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/marshna01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Naji Marshall<\/a>, who played 19.0 minutes per game in 2023-24, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/01\/mavericks-sign-27-million-impact-player\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">signed with the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> this offseason. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nancela02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Larry Nance Jr.<\/a>, who played 19.9 minutes per game in 2023-24, was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/28\/pelicans-hawks-execute-highly-anticipated-offseason-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">traded to the Atlanta Hawks<\/a> this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the Pelicans\u2019 bench is likely to feature <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/alvarjo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jose Alvarado<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hawkijo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Hawkins<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/murphtr02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trey Murphy III<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/missiyv01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yves Missi<\/a>. In the postseason, a shortened rotation could still lead to Ryan being the odd man out. Nonetheless, New Orleans has an opening for a forward, and Ryan may have enough talent to beat out both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/robinje02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jeremiah Robinson-Earl<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greenja02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Javonte Green<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just days after being waived by the New Orleans Pelicans, Matt Ryan has re-signed with the Western Conference contender, per The Athletic\u2019s Shams Charania. Matt Ryan (No, Not That One) Re-Signs With Pelicans Though the full details of the contract haven\u2019t been revealed, it will be a restructured one-year deal. Pelicans are re-signing wing shooter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":92727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,33,3],"tags":[39825,297,596],"class_list":["post-92720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-pelicans","category-news","tag-matt-ryan","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-nba-playoffs"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}