Star forward Brandon Ingram played an important role in the New Orleans Pelicans’ surprise run to the NBA Playoffs a season ago.
Despite having a somewhat down regular-season performance, the former top-two pick turned it up in the playoffs. With New Orleans surprisingly taking the Phoenix Suns to six games in the first round, Ingram averaged 27.0 points, 6.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists while shooting 41% from three-point range.
Ingram was able to do all of this with fellow star forward Zion Williamson having missed the entire season to injury.
This all acts as a backdrop with rumors surrounding New Orleans potentially making a push for disgruntled Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant. In short, it’s not happening. Why? New Orleans has no intention of offering up Brandon Ingram in an hypothetical trade.
“If Durant gets moved, the New Orleans Pelicans could be players in the sweepstakes, but that would likely require them to surrender Brandon Ingram. League sources say the Pelicans are unwilling to do so.”
Report from Christian Clark of Nola.com
Pelicans front office head David Griffin wants to see what Ingram and Williamson can do together after signing the latter to a rookie-level max contract extension earlier in the summer. The two star forwards have seen very little time together on the court due to Williamson’s injury issues.
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New Orleans Pelicans are right to keep Brandon Ingram
Not only was Ingram one of the central components to head to New Orleans in the Anthony Davis blockbuster, he’s still only 24-years old and has already morphed into a star. What we’ve seen from the forward in three seasons with the Pelicans tells us this story.
Brandon Ingram stats (2019-22): 23.4 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 4.8 APG, 46% shooting, 37% 3-point
Why would you move off that type of production and other assets for a soon-to-be 34-year-old malcontent who has a recent history of injury issues and has played a total of 80 games since the end of the 2018-19 season?
Teaming Ingram up with Williamson and C.J. McCollum gives New Orleans a dynamic three that could very well make a jump in the Western Conference standings next season.
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Brandon Ingram isn’t the only asset New Orleans would have to give up
We already know what Brooklyn’s asking price is in a Durant trade. That includes two All-Star caliber players and multiple future first-round picks. While this might seem to be a pipe dream given the circumstances, the Pels are not acquiring Durant without giving up more assets.
Griffin and Co. have made it a priority to build up future draft capital. It’s one of the reasons why they were able to acquire McCollum from the Portland Trail Blazers back in February. Said deal included the Pelicans sending mutliple future picks to the Pacific Northwest.
The Pelicans’ team-building philosophy is simple. Combine budding talent with proven players to compete over both the short and long-term. Giving all of that up in one fell swoop makes absolutely no sense. That’s especially true with their being no guarantees KD will be happy in New Orleans given what we’ve seen from him in recent years.
Keep Brandon Ingram. See if he can join Williamson and McCollum in creating a dynamic three. In turn, make the Pelicans become relevant on the broader NBA stage for the first time since AD was doing his thing in Nola. That has to be the goal here. And it’s the best course of action.