Alabama and 14 other states have polls open on Tuesday for voting, and the New Orleans Pelicans have been campaigning.

The slogan for their effort is: Not on Herb.

“I mean, Herb Jones, first-team All-Defense,” Pelicans forward Trey Murphy III said on Friday night after New Orleans defeated the Indiana Pacers 129-102. “I don’t even know really what else to say. He’s showing each and every night with the premier guys that he is deserving of being on the All-Defensive first team, so I don’t know what y’all need to see, honestly. Just bring up the film.

“Media votes, correct? Am I right about that — the media votes? So media, please vote Herb Jones first-team All-Defense, sponsored by Trey Murphy and the Pelicans.”

In New Orleans’ victory over Indiana, Pacers all-star guard Tyrese Haliburton finished with zero points and three assists. Haliburton is scoring at a clip of 20.8 points per game and his average of 11.3 assists per game is the best in the NBA this season.

“He is an excellent playmaker and player,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said about Haliburton. “He’s an All-Star caliber player. Herb Jones, his defense on Haliburton, in my opinion, that’s a first-team All-Defensive player on our team. He was everywhere, and he’s been doing that all season, the last three seasons.”

Jones said at practice on Sunday that he wasn’t concerned about winning election to the NBA All-Defensive team.

“I’m just going to leave that up to whoever,” Jones said. “I’m going to live with it and just try to do the best I can for my teammates. The awards – I don’t really get caught up in those.”

While defense has been Jones’ calling card since he joined New Orleans from Alabama in the second round of the 2021 NBA Draft, the former Hale County High School standout has the 11th-best shooting rate on 3-pointers in the league this season, connecting on 42.9 percent from behind the arc.

That has Jones’ scoring average at 11.4 points per game to go with 3.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.8 blocked shots.

“It’s still basketball,” Jones said about his enthusiasm for defense. “I’m going to go out and have fun – offense and defense. I think that’s what separates me. I just enjoy playing both sides of the ball and trying to affect the game without scoring. That kind of stuff excites me.”

New Orleans returns to the court for the first time since its victory over Indiana when the Pelicans play the Toronto Raptors at 6:30 p.m. CST Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

At 36-25, New Orleans occupies the fifth spot in the Western Conference standings, 6.5 games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder at the top of the table. But the Sacramento Kings, who are in the first spot in the play-in tournament standings, are only 1.5 games behind the Pelicans.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.